Day of Design Speakers Archive
2023 Speakers
James Sommerville is a seasoned professional in the creative space, having been co-founder of a design agency, ATTIK, VP of Global Design at Coca-Cola and today the founder of the online creative community KnownUnknown.Through his community, he has helped companies such as Ford, Google, HP and General Mills to go through successful brand refreshes while connecting them to some of the highest creative talent in the world. Determined to build a creative entity that is poised to serve in a modern world of marketing, Sommerville believes that the next few years of Web 3.0 will be just like 1997 when the world adjusted to the blossoming of the internet and once again we have the freedom to push artistic boundaries.
If you are interested in learning more about James and his mission to reinvent the creative agency, you can follow his Instagram. You can learn more about his online community KnownUnknown by following their Instagram and Discord.
Uninspired by his potential future in engineering, he changed his career path by pursuing a Master of Industrial Design from Auburn University. After graduating, Andrew worked for Delve, a design and innovation consultancy, developing timely products for brands like Purell, TIKI, and Abbott Laboratories. Currently he is a Senior Industrial Designer for the Hybrid Collaboration group at Steelcase, working with partners like Microsoft and Logitech to help define new products and experiences to better face the challenges of a more distributed world of work. He believes in the power of saying “yes” to new opportunities and challenges, which has led him to partnerships with companies like Autodesk, Domestika, and Herman Miller.
Jonathan Tate is principal of OJT (Office of Jonathan Tate), an architecture and urban design practice in New Orleans. The office engages in numerous design- related activities, including applied research, opportunistic planning, strategic development, and conventional architectural practice. Their work has received numerous awards, including National AIA Housing Awards and the National AIA Honor Award in Architecture. The office has been recognized as a 2017 Emerging Voices by the Architectural League of New York, a Next Progressive by Architect Magazine and a 2018 finalist for the international Architecture Review Emerging Architect Award. Tate is the recipient of the 2020 Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Tate is a graduate of Auburn University, where he was a participant at the Rural Studio, and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has taught at Tulane University, the Cooper Union and was most recently the Favrot Visiting Professor at Tulane University.
2022 Speakers
Zach Hobbs is the Co-Lead of IDEO’s Cambridge office where he amplifies the iconic design company’s creative culture to bring the studio into the world. He’s inspired by the challenge of using creativity to foster belonging and connection, bringing a maker’s ethos and hands-on experimentation to his work. Zach’s first foray into design was when he started creating xeroxed fliers for his college punk band, which would mark the beginning of more than two decades of designing posters, album covers and merchandise for both major label releases and independent bands at the vanguard of the DIY underground. At IDEO, Zach has led the rebrand of the humanitarian organization Alight, created an entirely new fan experience for a professional soccer team, ignited a new culture of creativity and learning at a global pharmaceutical company, and shaped the visual brand and values of Dubai’s innovation hub, Area 2071. Zach has also participated in a number of group and solo exhibitions around the United States and Europe, including at the Elmhurst Art Museum, South Dakota State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Maryland Art Gallery, and BBDB Studio in Italy.
Heather Bybee first joined Ammunition in 2013 and has been working in packaging design since the beginning of her industrial design career. Her packaging experience has spanned from helping startup brands launch their first consumer product to advising corporations on how smart packaging design can solve business and consumer challenges. With experience working with in-house teams and design agencies, Heather has created packaging experiences for brands including Beats by Dre, Lyft, Microsoft, OtterBox, Polaroid, and Square. She holds a Master of Arts in Design Strategy and Innovation from Brunel University in London, England and a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Auburn University.
Tucker Viemeister is an industrial designer famous for OXO Good Grips, the first Universal Design products. His experience ranges from voting machines (Microsoft) to exhibitions (Shanghai Planetarium), and he is a contributor to the HyperloopTT project. He founded Smart Design, opened frogdesign’s NY office, and is Lab Chief at the LAB at RockwellGroup. Viemeister is faculty at The New School’s Parsons School of Design and is the Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund Chair at Pratt Institute. He is Vice President of the Architectural League of New York and a Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian. He holds 32 US utility patents and is named after a car.
Drew Merkle joined Zaha Hadid Architects in 2012, following the completion of his Master of Architecture in London. He has worked on a variety of competitions and commissioned works in that time, and has since played a pivotal role in the design, development, and delivery of the Bee’ah Headquarters project in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Drew was involved since competition stage, and has been project architect throughout the advanced stages, responsible for client liaison and on-site supervision. In addition to Bee’ah HQ, during his tenure at ZHA, Drew has been involved in a number of large-scale developments and masterplan projects in the MENA region, Europe, and China.
Drew received his Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University in 2008, and his Master of Architecture from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, United Kingdom in 2012. He has worked with the Architectural Association as both a Unit Tutor and Director of a summer research Unit as part of the AA Visiting School. Additionally Drew has lectured and given workshops extensively across the USA, Caribbean, and Europe. He has been an invited critic at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College of London; the Architectural Association in London; as well as Auburn.
Lesley Braxton is breaking the mold of what an architect is. As a Principal at Trahan Architects, she and her team are pioneering design that profoundly enriches the human experience. She rejects the notion of a hard line separating inside and out. Instead, her attention is given to creating spaces with degrees of outsidedness that focused on the fundamental relationship between the natural environment and the common good. Her work is a process of continual listening, research, and observation to serve as a humanitarian first, architect second.
Lesley graduated from Auburn University in 2004 with degrees in Architecture and Interior Architecture.
2021 Speakers
To his delight, Jason Orme fell into graphic design at Auburn University as he was looking for an outlet to channel creativity into a career pursuit. For a couple years out of school, Jason worked for a non-profit in Auburn and Hong Kong, coordinating design and communications. In 2010, he started grad school at SCAD in Atlanta where he also began working in the field of brand identity. It was there he came to realize his energy was weighted toward getting assignments and framing up the approach more than turning in a project. So, he chose to move to the brand strategy side of the work, helping clients figure out who they wanted to be when they grew up. With a bent toward personal relationship, he enjoys leading clients to successful outcomes and working with Jonathan to design more of what they want to see in the world.
Jonathan Lawrence has always been a graphic designer, but didn’t always know that’s what it was called. From an early age, he spent free time drawing logos for make-believe sports teams. Looking back, his fascinations with packaging and letterforms on products all makes so much sense—check out his found type photo collection at typehunting.com. He ended up formalizing and furthering his design skills at Flagler College, graduating in 2008 and working in-house for a large consumer packaging brand. Career opportunities led him northward to Atlanta in 2012, and then on to New York City in 2016, before officially launching Proper with Jason in 2018. Jonathan is interested in design that is solid, thoughtful, and can stand the test of time.
James Krause has been a practicing industrial designer since he graduated from Auburn in 2006. He’s designed a wide range of products over the course of his career including surgical tools, home appliances, mobile computers, and even a barber chair. He is currently the Senior Director of Industrial Design at quip in New York City where he’s helping innovate in the world of oral care. Prior to quip, He was a creative director at Smart Design where he was able to hone his skills in human-centered design. He believes that good design starts with a deep empathy for the end user, and loves designing innovative products that solve real problems for real people.
Chelsea McLemore has been designing products and experiences for the world’s biggest companies for over a decade. Her experience has spanned industrial design, service design and digital product for companies like P&G, Walmart, Samsung, Verizon, Mailchimp, Wizarding World and Marvel Entertainment. A love of designing experiences for fans took her to Disney Streaming where she is currently the Product Design Manager of Disney+ Content Discovery and Identity.
Amanda Loper, AIA, LEED AP, established and leads DBA_BHM, the David Baker Architects’ southeastern office in Birmingham, Alabama. Her projects with DBA include affordable housing, market-rate housing, commercial buildings, and policy studies. Amanda focuses on the big-picture potential of sites as well as overseeing details that create unique built environments. She writes and presents on aspects of urban design and works to bring social awareness to issues of housing and density.
Jamie Phillips is a Principal at CMG Landscape Architecture. Jamie has participated in many of the firm’s largest and most complex open space projects including Crissy Field Next, Bay Meadows and Treasure Island over the past 15 years. She co-led CMG’s participation in the Resilient by Design: Bay Area Challenge, a community design and planning process for the protection and restoration of San Leandro Bay. Her projects have been honored with American Society of Landscape Architecture Awards such as Hunters Point Hillpoint Park and Marin Country Day School. Jamie lectures frequently on sea level rise, public space, and ecology, and recently co-lectured Ecological Factors in Urban Landscape Design at UC Berkeley. Her design appreciation stems from her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture at Auburn Rural Studio and Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. As a result, Jamie believes design has a social and environmental responsibility and she enjoys projects with a defined and engaged community, where her work contributes to many rather than a few. In addition to her design work, Jamie is a leader in the cultural environment of the office and has a strong desire to grow the collective knowledge and experience within the firm.