Thought at Work 2021 Conference

Kumiko Toft

Senior UI/UX Design Manager

Apple

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kumiko-toft-630007a/

Cait Charniga

Senior Product Designer

Spotify

https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlincharniga/

Cait is a RIT ’14 New Media Design alum and a Senior Product Designer at Spotify, currently based in Brooklyn NY.

Cait leads product design for the yearly Spotify Wrapped mobile experience, and also recently worked on the Spotify “Only You” campaign. 

In addition to their identity as a designer, they are also a community organizer, jazz fan, sometimes tattoo artist, and caregiver to a very sleepy rescue dog named Lulu.

June Digan

Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Freelance

June is a graduate of Fine Arts and Design major in advertising arts at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. 

June's work focuses on moods, emotions, and storytelling using delicate characters, whimsical landscapes, and lettering. She specializes in digital and traditional mediums such as watercolors, gouache, and acrylic. 

Her work has been featured in various exhibitions, design blogs, and print publications.Today, she works as an independent graphic designer and illustrator. She has served as a member of the Jury for ADC Young Guns 18 and the New York Festival's Bowery Awards 2020. 

June's clients include Hewlett-Packard, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Chewy, Toblerone Asia, Facebook PH, and Embassy of the Philippines Berlin, amongst many others.

Grace Ling

Product and UX Designer, Illustrator, Engineer, Blogger

Electronic Arts

https://www.linkedin.com/in/graceling/

Grace is a designer, community builder, artist, runner, speaker, and content creator. 

By day, she is a Designer at Electronic Arts focusing on player experience and marketing products. By night, she is the Founder & Design Lead of the Design Buddies community (27K+ members, largest global design community). 

Outside of design and community building, Grace creates content for social media and her blog to help students, designers, and community builders with a total following of 40K+. 

She has also done 80+ speaking engagements on topics relating to design, career growth, networking, and personal branding at conferences, companies, hackathons, classes, and more.

Jon Grossman

Senior Industrial Designer

Verily Life Sciences

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grossmandesign/

Jon is a senior industrial designer at Verily Life Sciences, Alphabet's "other bet" focused on healthcare and technology. 

At Verily, he leads teams to build medical devices that are safe, easy to use, and beautiful, while productizing emerging technologies. 

Prior to Verily, Jon was an industrial designer at frog in San Francisco, where he worked with a range of startups and fortune 500 companies to develop innovative and breakthrough products.

Jung Soo Park

Senior Industrial Designer

frog

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jungsoopark/

Jung is a senior industrial designer at frog New York. Frog is a world class global design consultancy.His design work ranges widely from furniture, consumer electronics, home goods, to large scale interior and environment designs for commercial and hospitality experiences. 

As an active participant of the New York design scene, Jung has showcased various products to the design community throughout the years at NYCxDESIGN events. 

Graduated from Pratt Institute in 2012 with a Bachelor of Industrial Design, Jung is currently working at frog after attending 1 year of MFA program at School of Visual Arts in Products of Design.

Fiona Tran

Mid Level Graphic Designer

Discord

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionakimtran/

Fiona is a self taught Graphic Designer from the Bay Area, currently working at Discord and previously at Playstation.

Her main focus has always been around event and brand design stemming from my experience coordinating events at her alma mater, UCSD. She is constantly striving to bring my passion for social justice and representation into my design practice.

Outside of work, I mentor folks who are looking to jump start or switch into a creative career path. It's really important to me that we continue to break down the gate keeping that happens in the design industry in order for others to understand the real life impact of design.

Miguel Cardona

Designer Advocate, Education

Figma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguelcardona/

Miguel is a Designer Advocate for Education at Figma Design where is known affectionately as Professor Figma. He holds a MFA in Industrial Design and a BFA in New Media Design, both from RIT.

Miguel is an interaction designer but also specializes in web development, illustration, photography and motion design. Previous to Figma, he taught New Media Design Classes at RIT as an Assistant Professor in the School of Design and was the lead designer at the Ycombinator backed startup, imgix. 

Miguel currently lives and works remotely for Figma in Rochester, NY with his partner Kate, and black hairless cat, Eartha Kitt.

Seth Eshelman

CO-Founder

Staach

https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-eshelman-ab9944a4/

Seth is the founder and principal designer of Staach, headquartered in Rochester, NY, a multi-disciplinary design and manufacturing company dedicated to responsible business and sustainable manufacturing.

Over the past fifteen years, Seth has been dedicated to the growth and development of the company on the ground floor every step of the way, hiring a team of dedicated individuals to help execute the larger vision. 

The company has attracted world-class clients like Shake Shack, Momofuku, and Google; however, the local community remains a priority as well, supporting the growth of design-focused projects in and around western New York.

Mariana Pinheiro

Senior Industrial Designer and Sustainibility Consultant

Freelance

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maripinheiro/

Mariana is an Industrial Designer (RIT alumni), speculative thinker, hands-on maker, and sustainability advocate.

She has experience designing for IoT in the toy, therapy, and healthcare industries, has taught in academia, and has worked with the retail industries to help accelerate the sustainable shift.

She has now joined Digital Society School as a Digital Transformation Designer for the Digital Twin track where she is excited to explore the possibilities around data analysis in developing a sustainable and accessible future.

Gregory Smiley

Industrial Design Manager

The Raymond Corporation

https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-smiley-95ab463/

Greg Smiley, IDSA, is a 1987 ID graduate of the University of Bridgeport and completed additional course work in human factors at the University of Michigan. He initially became involved with IDSA as a college student, then again at the professional level in the early 1990s.

Now, he's the industrial design manager for The Raymond Corporation, a warehouse electric lift truck manufacturer in the Toyota Material Handling Group (TMHG). As TMHG’s lead designer in North America,

Smiley coordinates global integration, oversight and advocacy for both the Toyota and Raymond branded products (US designed), and represents ID interests in global development projects throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy and Sweden.

Merry Constantino

Principal & Senior Industrial Designer

Product Logic

https://www.linkedin.com/in/merry-constantino-755b885/

Merry began her career in design after receiving her degree in Industrial Design from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

After working as a Toy Designer at Fisher Price, she opened ProductLogic’s doors in 1990. Since then Merry has played a part in developing over 100 commercialized products and is named on 14 United States patents.

Along with her work at ProductLogic, Merry also acts as the Executive Director of the WNY Invention Convention and is affiliated with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and the Industrial Designers Society of America.