Anne H. Berry is a writer, designer and assistant professor in the Department of Art and Design at Cleveland State University. Her research focuses on race and representation and ethnic and racial disparities within the field of graphic design. She was featured in Communication Arts and interviewed for Maurice Cherry’s award-winning podcast Revision Path, and is a 2018 Design Incubation Fellow. Her essay “The Black Designer’s Identity” was also published in the inaugural issue of Recognize, an anthology featuring commentary from Indigenous people and people of color as part of “the next generation of emerging design voices,” via Inside Design by InVision. She is an unabashed political junkie.

annehberry.com

As a designer, storyteller and researcher, Sarah Edmands Martin specializes in dark narratives and contemporary fable. An assistant professor of graphic design at Indiana University, her work experiments with eclectic media, allowing diverse processes in printmaking, animation and early photographic methods to inform her design practice. She continues to balance an active studio practice with both research and pedagogy. Her international portfolio of clients include Citibank, AMC’s The Walking Dead, the University of Notre Dame, Whirlpool, Herman Miller and Cook Medical, to name a few.
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sarahedmandsmartin.com

Kelly Walters is a multimedia designer, researcher and curator who is inspired by graphic design and the power it has to affect people on both a local and global scale. She is the founder of Bright Polka Dot (an independent design practice) focusing on print, digital, pattern and textile design. Walters has worked as a designer for Alexander Isley Inc. Designers, the RISD Museum, SFMOMA, Atavist, SOMArts Cultural Center and Blue State Digital.

She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a dual degree in Communication Design and Communication Sciences and received her MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.

brightpolkadot.com

Marie Bourgeois is a graphic designer working in the film and television industry in Atlanta. She has created props and set graphics on shows such as HBO's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Pitch Perfect 3, AMC's The Walking Dead and the CW's Dynasty. Previously, she was a visiting lecturer and facilities coordinator with the Visual Communication Design Program at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Bourgeois has also worked as an art director for Notre Dame's in-house marketing and communications agency and was an assistant art director with Peter Mayer Advertising in New Orleans. She received a MFA from the University of Notre Dame in 2012 and received her BA in graphic design from Loyola University New Orleans in 2006.

marie-bourgeois.com

Brian Edlefson is a designer and educator, leading global graphic design for the KitchenAid brand and creating client and self-authored work through his design practice: Thesis. Edlefson’s work has been recognized in many national and international creative competitions (iF Design Awards, New York Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, Creativity, Graphis, HOW, Print) and was chosen for inclusion in the National Design Archive at the Library of Congress. He has been a featured speaker at HOW International Design Conferences (2001, 2007), AIGA Iowa and Nebraska chapters and the Beyond the Cubicle Conference for RGD Ontario.

designbythesis.com

Sarah Rutherford is an associate professor of graphic design at Cleveland State University and the President Emeritus of AIGA Cleveland. Her research explores design pedagogy, learning retention and collaborative work strategies. She holds a MFA from the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University.

A passionate advocate for voter engagement, Rutherford serves on the national committee for the AIGA Design for Democracy initiative. She was the writer for the July 2016 Get Out the Vote poster exhibition at the Galleries at CSU, a project named as a Midwest regional winner in the 2017 Print Regional Design Annual. She was also a project leader for the AIGA Cleveland Get Out the Vote Design + Community video series.

Andre Murnieks is a senior lecturer, faculty researcher and expat teaching interaction design at Massey University and living in the upside down — New Zealand. The opportunity surreptitiously and coincidently presented itself in November 2016. He is a proponent of motion design as a methodology for discovery, presentation and visual communication, and is a co-founder of the MODE Summit series. He has published on the topic, authoring a chapter in The Theory and Practice of Motion Design. Murnieks has a BS in industrial design and a MFA in design from The Ohio State University.

andremurnieks.com

Jessica Barness is an associate professor at the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University. She has an MFA in design with a minor in writing studies from the University of Minnesota and an MA and BA in studio art from the University of Northern Iowa. Her research resides at the intersection of design, humanistic inquiry and interactive technologies, investigated through a critical, practice-based approach. Her work has been presented and exhibited, nationally and internationally, at venues hosted by organizations such as the Design History Society, AIGA, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, the University and College Designers Association, Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory and FILE Electronic Language Festival.

jessicabarness.com

Jordan Kauffman is a designer, educator and researcher passionate about the intersection of social innovation design, entrepreneurship and project evaluation. He received his BA in art with an emphasis in graphic design from Goshen College and his MFA in visual communication design from Kent State University. From there, he taught as a visiting assistant teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame before becoming a partner at LightBox.

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