Board of Directors

Sarah is the Co-CEO and Creative Leader for Beardwood&Co, an independent, woman and queer-owned branding agency based in New York City, illumining possibilities to amplify brand growth. With a focus on big, creative ideas made to thrive in the real world, Sarah and team partner with clients to achieve brilliant outcomes, without the egos or silos often found in the agency world. She has led creative for global brands including Westin, Pottery Barn, Danone, Hello Products, and the nation’s largest affordable housing non-profit, Enterprise Community Partners.

In addition to leading Beardwood&Co, Sarah serves as the President of AIGA NY, where she has served on the volunteer board for 3+ years supporting the mission of “Championing the Future of Design for All” through organizing and hosting community-based events. She is a Mom, loves to run, and trek in the woods as much as the streets of NYC for inspiration.

Ramy (he/him) is a Creative Director and founder of Madeo Studio, a strategic creative partner to nonprofits & socially-focused brands. Ramy leads a multidisciplinary team of strategists, designers, project managers, and engineers. He advises and works closely with clients on branding, websites, campaigns, and strategic communications. Some of these clients include the Equal Justice Initiative, the Innocence Project, STOP Tobacco, Define American, Echoing Green, MIT, Long Wharf Theatre, and Robin Hood Foundation. Madeo’s work has been recognized by the Webby Awards; winning and honored for Best Nonprofit Website on multiple occasions, and by the Shorty Awards among others.

Ramy is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts, Sandbox, IxDA, AIGA, and previously the Communications Committee of the Seeds of Peace Board of Directors. He has been a judge himself on the Anthem Awards, the new gold standard for celebrating work and organizations making an impact. Ramy is a graduate of Bard College. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son and is originally from Cairo, Egypt.

Katie is the founder of Hondo Creative, a dynamic creative studio that partners with clients and agencies to develop strategy-led design for environments, advertising, and branding. Her work has spanned rebrands for international companies; immersive experiences for award winning entertainment properties; and political campaigns for progressive candidates.

Previous to going out on her own, she cut her teeth at agencies like Pentagram and Huge. She holds a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from Rochester Institute of Technology and a M.F.A. in Design Criticism from The School of Visual Arts. She is also the co-author of Typography Referenced from Rockport Publishers and has taught design at RIT.

When not designing, you can usually find her photographing, illustrating, or down an internet rabbit hole of useless knowledge.

David Werzinger serves as the Chief Financial Officer at Smart Design, a leading global design and innovation consultancy. With over 25 years of experience in the industry and an MBA from the Zicklin School of Business at City University of New York, David manages the firm’s finance, accounting, tax, and planning practices. He balances the company’s long-term financial goals with market demands, ensuring projects remain on budget and on schedule. His efforts not only secure profitability but also foster close collaboration with design teams to align project constraints with organizational objectives. Additionally, David has innovated HR tools, notably enhancing a progressive health insurance program that benefits both employees and the company.

Before joining Smart Design, David was the Finance Director at Siegel + Gale and held various positions in management consulting and brokerage and banking. He has extensive experience in financial reporting, cash management, and the development of financial procedures. David is also skilled in managing complex financial transactions, including debt restructuring and company sales. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from The State University of New York at Geneseo.

Archie spent much of his childhood memorizing commercial jingles and replicating the wit of cartoonist Gary Larson. Since then, he has been inspired by visual artists like Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Ed Ruscha, and Kara Walker as well as graphic storytellers Aaron Douglas, George Lois, Saul Bass, Barbara Kruger, and Emory Douglas – all brilliant minds who mastered the art of weaving meaning into a single, magnificent visual. Still a fan of stories told simply, Archie leads Spotify Advertising’s Creative Studio as its Global Director.

The first ten years of Archie’s career began as a silent madman at advertising agencies such as Publicis, Y&R, BBDO, and Arnold NYC — crafting ads and driving business results for iconic brands. Prior to Spotify, Archie spent 12 years in media – building two of the most inventive branded content studios in the industry, One X Studios at Urban One, LLC and the Content Innovation Agency at NBCUniversal.

As an award-winning, multidisciplinary creative with degrees in graphic design, advertising and brand strategy from Howard University, The Portfolio Center and School of Visual Arts (respectively), Archie continues to look for fresh, unexpected ways to illuminate truth and beauty. Outside of directing art + sound, absorbing pop culture and perfecting his sports analogies, he enjoys spending time with his family at their Brooklyn home.

Troy Vasilakis is a designer, a lover of typography and conversations — despite stuttering — and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

A ’20 pandemic graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology, he’s currently a designer at WØRKS in New York City. Previously he’s worked in the luxury fashion industry at Tibi, helped develop and design a webspace for FIT’s Graphic Design program, worked with the incredibly talented and mindful team at ThoughtMatter, spoken to younger students as part of a panel at FIT, and designed TEDx events for his previous universities. Troy’s work has been awarded by the Type Directors Club and Graphis, recognized by Cargo and AIGA NY, and received FIT’s Graphic Design Departmental Medal in honor of his achievements, leadership, and overall contributions to the community/major at FIT.

In his free time, you’ll find him endlessly researching, tinkering with a new gadget, or sitting in the middle of a park.

Jessica Moon is an Associate Program Director focused on shaping curriculum and learning paths in continuing education for UI/UX design. Previously, Jessica was a practicing designer with nearly 15 years of experience, spanning across industries from print through digital, working in multi-disciplinary studios, agencies and product companies. Early on in her career, Jessica also took on managing and mentorship roles and helped build teams. She is a life-long student who aims to share her collective experiences and learnings as well as build and be a part of various communities that thrive on the practice of people first.

Raven Mo is an identity designer at Saturday, specializing in brand systems and typography research. With a passion for exploring the intricate social relations and infrastructures woven by type, Raven’s design practice places emphasis on multi-script and vernacular type advocacy projects. Previously, Raven worked at VSA Partners, MATTE Projects, and Elevate Brands. Raven holds an MFA in Design at School of Visual Arts, and a BFA in Visual Communication Design at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Born and raised in Mexico, Aldo Juraidini Zorrilla is a Brooklyn-based product designer at Studio Rodrigo. At Rodrigo, his primary focus is working with early-stage startups, tech companies, and mission driven organizations to help bring products to life—through concept, strategy, and visual design. Over the last four and a half years, Aldo has worked with a wide range of clients in industries like fintech, healthcare, media, and the nonprofit sector.

A proud immigrant, Aldo moved to New York City in 2008 to study graphic design and like so many before him, the magnetism, vibrance, and inclusivity of the design community has made the city feel like home ever since.

Ana is a New York City-based designer + creative director. She has worked with companies like Afropunk, Droga5, Chase, Apple, Hennessy, the Africa Center, and the Poetry Foundation to champion, uplift, and amplify marginalized voices and stories.

Ana holds a Masters in Branding from the School of Visual Arts and is a graduate of Virginia State University, where she earned her BFA in Design, minor in Photography. To her, visual problem solving is such a welcomed challenge. Combining strategy, branding, and rising, she creates solutions that are thoughtful, inclusive, and inspiring. Since college, she has designed at Cassandra, a strategy agency studying young consumers, Afropunk, the music festival, Droga5, the advertising agency, and Apple. Outside of full time work, she’s passionate about building brands for minority and women-owned businesses, groups that are often overlooked and underrepresented.

Creative endeavors aside, Ana enjoys hosting friends, making cocktails, trying new restaurants, going to art museums, exploring the city, buying more books than she has time to read, and naps with her goldendoodle.

Cameron is an advocate for collaborative communities and is obsessed with branding. As the son of a creative director and dad to three NYC art students, design runs in the family. After graduating with a BFA in Graphic Design, he directed photoshoots and helped design Martha Stewart Living magazine, earning multiple awards from the Society of Publication Designers. Currently as VP of Creative at CASE, Cameron pushes the creative team, hosts weekly inspiration share-outs, and co-creates with global megabrands and small start-ups to produce strategy-driven, award-winning, visually rich design solutions. Clients include: e.l.f. Beauty, Havaianas, Disney, Pepsi, Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Bloomingdale’s, W Hotels, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sheraton, Estée Lauder Companies, and Shiseido. You can usually find him getting inspired by a long run in Central Park.

Carolyn is a Canadian graphic designer based in New York. Currently, she holds the Graphic Design Lead position at The Frick Collection, where her work focuses on developing the visual identity system and institution-wide graphic design program. Previously, she worked as a freelance graphic designer in Berlin, Germany, as well as for studios Pure+Applied, Pentagram Design, and Office of Luke Bulman. Carolyn graduated from Parsons School of Design (BFA, Communication Design) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (MSc, Culture & Society). She is passionate about maps and interested in issues of spatiality and identity design.

Ella is an animator/director with a love for storytelling, creative problem solving and design systems thinking. She’s a New Zealander who spent the first chapter of her career working with agencies, studios, production companies and media across Auckland, Sydney, Los Angeles and now New York City. Her work has been recognized by D&AD, Cannes Lions, The One Club, Motionographer, AGDA, AI-AP, Best Awards and TAAFI. She holds a Bachelor of Design majoring in Communication Design from Auckland University of Technology, where she spent a year studying abroad at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.

Heather-Mariah is an award-winning creative director whose work blends and bends disciplines from design to photography to poetry. She’s also a partner at Overeasy, a strategic design office founded in 2024. Prior to Overeasy, Heather-Mariah dedicated her twenties to building her eponymous practice, Studio HMVD (2018-2024), a boutique branding and photography agency. Her client work has spanned the gamut from indie darlings (Boy Smells, Disco, Berczy) to behemoths (M·A·C Cosmetics, Johnson & Johnson), and has been recognized by AIGA, The Brand Identity, Type Director’s Club, Communication Arts and more.

Heather-Mariah holds a BA in Design from Western Washington University, and has completed continuing education at SVA and Type @ Cooper. Outside of work, she studies and collects vintage designer clothing and catalogs vernacular typography.

Justin is an art director, designer, and typographer from New York City. He specializes in crafting memorable brand identity systems and campaign creative with a range of clients and agency partners. He holds a dual concentration BFA with Honors in Advertising and Design from the School of Visual Arts. Cultivated in the bustling culture and collectivist spirit of New York City, Justin’s approach to design is rooted in a profound appreciation for the arts and a careful attention to detail. Passionate about building purposeful brands and making people smile, Justin strives to craft insight-backed and provocative work, bringing fresh perspectives and strong, rationale-driven design to every project. His work helps corporations, startups, and individuals define impactful brand experiences.

Justin’s work has been internationally exhibited, covered, and awarded by various organizations like the One Club for Creativity, the Type Directors Club, Print Magazine, Time Out, Graphis, NBC, D&AD, and Communication Arts, among others. Recent clients include Hennessy, the NBA, Facebook, General Electric, Ray-Ban, Meta Reality Labs, and Google Android. Justin also serves on the AIGA Worldstudio Scholarship jury.

Naeiri is an independent brand consultant who helps industry leaders create and manage the brands of the future. She has spent the last decade as a brand strategist at world-leading advertising and branding agencies, including Anomaly, Rethink, and Interbrand. Naeiri has worked with a wide range of clients from cultural powerhouses like The Ritz-Carlton and Beats by Dre to industry-specific titans like Thomson Reuters and Prudential. At Interbrand, Naeiri led Breakthrough Brands, a leading report on North America’s top 30 emerging brands, and served on its global luxury think tank.

A first-generation immigrant who has lived in Toronto, Los Angeles, and now New York, Naeiri brings an international outlook to her strategic work. Naeiri was trained in design thinking and methodologies at OCAD University in Toronto.

Nika is a graphic designer, writer, and educator based in New York. She is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Parsons School of Design, and the director of the AAS program. Her research explores how design and identity overlap and highlights underreported voices in internet and design history. She has written stories ranging from the digitization of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet during the Yugoslav Wars to the impact AI has had on spirituality for publications including The New York Times, Eye on Design, and WIRED. She also runs Labud, a design studio specializing in strategy, branding, and web design for clients across fashion, art, and tech.

Paulina is a Latinx strategist and cultural pulse-finder currently at Champions Design. Prior to joining Champions, she forecasted trends at Nordstrom, and launched licensed brands at a global skateboarding retailer. Paulina has her Masters in Branding from the School of Visual Arts—the first and longest lasting program of its kind—and holds an undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of Washington where she rowed crew for the Division I NCAA team.

You can find Paulina at the pool.

Very few people have defined graphic design across culture as Anthony Harrison. Born in London, raised in New York, with stints in Germany and Netherlands he is one of the foremost graphic designers and art directors of his generation.

Bones, as he is known, was one of a handful of black designers who defined the 90s design aesthetic through his work at seminal record labels including Arista Records and its subsidiaries Bad Boy, LaFace, and Rowdy. Working on now iconic campaigns for Whitney Houston, the Notorious BiG, Annie Lennox, Goodie Mob, Patti Smith and others. After leaving music he jumped head first into what later became known as global street wear, working as an art director and designer for for brands such as Mecca USA and Akademiks / PRPS before spending the best part of the last decade working for both of the biggest sports brands on the planet, Nike and adidas in coveted design leadership roles. He is now focusing his attention on purpose led design work and teaching. Passing his knowledge on to the new generation of designers whilst working with the next generation of brands who will come to define the future of design.

Brad is an NYC-based creative director currently leading a team at Twigeo, a global paid marketing agency. He blends design and strategy in his work with brands like The New York Times, Duolingo, theSkimm, Uniswap, SoundCloud, and Peloton.

Brad holds a BFA in screenwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to design, he worked in film and TV as a researcher, PA, and as James Lipton’s assistant on Inside the Actors Studio. Outside of work, he has taken design, photography, and AI classes at SVA and IDEO. He has also had his writing and photography published, most recently in Daybreak Magazine. He gets his podcasts in during long runs around the city.

David holds the role of Design Lead at the Ford Foundation where he leads creative across all platforms and drives the visual identity and output of the Foundation. Previously, he worked as the Senior Visual Design Manager at the public policy organization, Dēmos, and served as an instructor for Social Movement Technologies where he taught organizers and movement builders the fundamentals of designing for social justice advocacy. David also serves as Art Director of his own design studio, dpicting studio, where he produces art and illustration in support of social good. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Arts Administration and hopes to help create a more equitable working path for designers in the non-profit field.

Eason is a designer, speaker, educator, and social innovator. Having triumphed over cancer, he is now the face of comebacks, inspiring others to realize their full potential despite adversity and life interruptions.

People often compare Eason’s career struggles with Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, Robert Downey Jr.’s comeback to acting, and Lance Armstrong’s cycling victories. Just kidding!

Early in his career, Eason led global creative teams at Uber, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi, earning worldwide recognition including the Cannes Young Lion Award in 2012.

In late 2016, a cancer diagnosis drastically changed Eason’s life. Despite overcoming cancer, he was labeled ‘unhireable’ at 35 due to a resume gap. Undeterred, Eason founded Not Entirely Dead (NED), a social enterprise designed to help cancer survivors and caregivers navigate professional comebacks.

Eason’s approach to design and social innovation has earned recognition from every major creative award, including D&AD and AIGA. Fast Company named NED the 2023 World Changing Idea and Most Innovative Design. While creating NED, Eason earned a Master of Design degree from the University of Washington and served as the 2022 Commencement Speaker.

Today, Eason teaches design, mentors young creatives, and speaks globally. Not Entirely Dead is reshaping the narrative around work and health, building the world’s first comeback community for cancer survivors.

Beyond design, Eason is a self-trained marathon runner, having logged over 7,500 km after beating cancer, fueled by his love for classical music and 80s rock.

Elsa is a designer, creative director and founder of Palette. From her start as Graphic Designer at Condé Nast in Milan to her latest role as Design Director at Refinery29 in New York, she approaches her professional practice with an editorial lens and an eye for beauty.

Over her 13-year career, Elsa has translated her aesthetic sensibility into a multidisciplinary offering for a diverse roster of industries — advertising, publishing, media, and editorial — and brands including Wired, Penguin Random House, Oatly, Resy & American Express and Hubspot.

She is a passionate champion of women in the creative industry, building and leading teams with care at their core. She mentors young designers and lives in New York with her husband and son.

Kapono is a Founding Partner and Head of Design at Combo. Prior to Combo, Kapono spent over a decade working at some of the industry’s most notable design studios such as BIG at Ogilvy, The Brand Union, AR New York and Mother Design. Under Kapono’s leadership, Combo has successfully created, refined, and transformed some of today’s most innovative brands, including Away Luggage, Saie Beauty, GAP, Instagram, Nike and H&M, amongst others – work defined by Combo’s diverse team and collaborative approach to creative challenges.

Growing up between South Korea and Hawaii, Kapono followed in the footsteps of his father, a designer in Seoul who went on to have a hand in some of South Korea’s most iconic brands throughout the 1980s.

An active member of the community, Kapono is a contributor to For Freedoms, a non-partisan art collective, as well as an integral part in the success of Scope of Work, a talent development agency for underrepresented young people in the creative industry.

Meryl (she/her) is a multidisciplinary designer and art director working in print, digital, and brand systems. Her decade of experience has been primarily focused on in-house teams and nonprofits. She is currently the Associate Design Director at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where — as part of the Philanthropic Communications team — she provides creative direction, design, and project management for a wide variety of capital campaigns, donor materials, and fundraising events. She previously designed for a range of private sector companies and nonprofit organizations, including Brooklyn Public Library, Housing Works, and General Assembly.

Meryl has volunteered with political campaigns at the state and national level through local organizers and Tech for Campaigns; studied civic leadership as part of Coro NY’s Leadership New York program; and holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the Savannah College of Art & Design.