Kim Baer

founder/principal

KBDA

Kim Baer is founder/principal of KBDA, a multidisciplinary design studio in Los Angeles, California. Consistently honored by every major design and business organization in the country, KBDA has produced work that has been featured in the Library of Congress and published in numerous design compilations. National design publications, including Communication Arts, Graphis, How, Print and Step Inside Design, have showcased the firm’s work and methodology. The firm’s client list ranges from nonprofit organizations to consumer companies. Baer frequently judges design competitions and speaks at design conferences across the country. She recently received the Fellows Award from the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) in honor of lifetime achievement.

Burkey Belser

president and creative director

Greenfield/Belser

Burkey Belser is the president and creative director of Greenfield/Belser, a brand design agency located in Washington, DC. He has won hundreds of awards in every major field of graphic design: identity, collateral, Web and periodicals. In 1997, Belser was awarded a Presidential Design Award by President Bill Clinton for his design of Nutrition Facts, the nation’s food labeling system, which the New York Times reported to be the most frequently published design of the 20th century. Belser served for two years as the president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington and has been quoted on brand design topics by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and dozens of industry publications.

Sarah Nelson Forss

Werner Design Werks

Sarah Nelson Forss, a graduate of Moorhead State University, is one half of the two-person design team of Werner Design Werks. The Minneapolis-St. Paul studio has projects that range from book design, posters and promotional materials to package design and identity development. Their work is part of the permanent collection at Toronto’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs. They were named Target’s “Vendor of the Year” in 2002 and have been recognized with awards from the American Center for Design, the Art Directors Club, AIGA, Communication Arts, I.D., Print magazine’s Regional Design Annual and the Type Directors Club.

Michael Gericke

designer/partner

Pentagram Design

Michael Gericke is a designer/partner at Pentagram Design. Gericke was educated in graphic design at the University of Wisconsin. After graduation he moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he produced projects at Communication Arts Inc. Gericke joined Pentagram’s New York office in 1986. He has received many accolades from design associations and museums, including Fortune magazine’s Beacon Award for the creation of outstanding strategic design programs. His identity, promotional and poster work appears regularly in international design exhibitions and is represented in various permanent museum collections. He served on the Executive Committee of the New York Chapter of the AIGA and is a frequent lecturer at universities and professional organizations.

Christian Helms

co-founder and president

The Decoder Ring Design Concern

Christian Helms is co-founder and president of Austin, Texas-based The Decoder Ring Design Concern, a multidisciplinary partnership founded in 2004 with roots in the music industry and retail design. A graduate of Portfolio Center and the University of North Carolina, he began his career as an intern for Michael Bierut at Pentagram. Before moving to Texas, he served as a founding member of Project M, John Bielenberg’s experimental collective for socially-conscious design. Helms lectures across the country, and his work has been featured internationally in publications including Communication Arts, Graphis, I.D., Identity, Metropolis, Print and Step Inside Design.

David Turner

co-founder and principal

Turner Duckworth design offices

David Turner is co-founder and principal of Turner Duckworth design offices in San Francisco, California, and London, United Kingdom. In the eighties, Turner studied design at St. Martin’s School of Art in London and spent the next ten years based in London working on projects in the U.K., Europe and Japan. Then he founded Turner Duckworth with Bruce Duckworth in 1992. Almost immediately he left for America in pursuit of his future wife Ellen, and Turner Duckworth became international. Turner Duckworth’s work has consistently been recognized by the design industry’s leading publications and competitions but, being English, he’s a bit uncomfortable blowing his own trumpet.

Kevin Wade

co-founder, principal, creative director

Planet Propaganda

Kevin Wade is co-founder, principal, creative director of Planet Propaganda in Madison, Wisconsin. His work has earned him wide recognition, including a Grammy nomination for Best Package Design, awards from publications such as Communication Arts, Graphis, How, I.D. and Print, as well as publication in dozens of design books. Most recently, Planet Propaganda’s work was included in the Smithsonian/Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Triennial. Wade recalls receiving a degree in visual communications from Eastern Illinois University, but hastens to add, “That was a long time ago.” In addition to his visual aesthetic and philosophical contributions to Planet, Wade composes and produces soundtracks for many of Planet’s television and motion graphics projects.

Terri S. Wolfe

principal and creative director

Wolfe Design, Ltd

Terri S. Wolfe is principal and creative director of Wolfe Design, Ltd, a communications consultancy and graphic design firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The work of the firm has received national and international design awards from the most esteemed design competitions including American Institute of Architects, Communication Arts Design Annual, Communication Arts Design for the Public Good, Congress for the New Urbanism Charter Awards, The Council on Foundations Silver and Bronze Wilmer Shields Rich Awards, Graphis and Print magazine’s Regional Design Annual. Wolfe received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design from Kent State University in 1986, with an outside interest in writing, architecture and the environment.