As President of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) from 2020 to 2026, and now in the role of Past-President, she’s worked hard to advocate for the value of design. As host of DesignThinkers throughout her Presidency, she’s shared the stage with design legends who include Paula Scher, Michael Beirut and Meg Lewis, guiding them through both silly and serious Q&A sessions. As a designer, Nicola’s magazine work has been recognized by the D&AD, the Society of Publication Designers and the National Magazine Awards, among others. She’s also the founder of Issues Magazine Shop, a bricks-and-mortar magazine retailer dedicated to celebrating the people and projects keeping print alive.

Recognizing the ecological, historical political and social forces shaping what we eat, her love for food evolved into a passion for understanding the future of food. She believes that with new ways of thinking, new language and new narratives we can challenge our food industry to build a new future. Erika’s work has earned international recognition including with D&AD pencils, Pentawards, The Dieline Awards, European Design Awards, ADC and Dezeen Awards. Most recently, OlssønBarbieri received “Best in Show” in the 2026 DIELINE Awards for their packaging for German distillery Varus 775.

For more than a decade, he has led a senior practice devoted to one discipline, taking established companies whose brand no longer reflects the calibre of the business and repositioning them as the defining name in their category. His work reaches across three continents, from a century-old New York institution made contemporary to two of Canada’s foremost Indigenous-owned enterprises brought to the national stage, among them a client that tripled in size and earned Gold Standard in Canada’s Best Managed Companies. PJC is a Certified LGBT+ Business Enterprise.

Studio Safar is a dynamic and exploratory design and art direction studio whose name evokes just that: Safar being Arabic for travel. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal Safar and Al Hayya Magazine, two independent publications that position design as a critical cultural practice. Working across editorial design, publishing and visual identity, her practice investigates the relationship between graphic design, archives and the politics of representation. Her work spans a variety of media and design frameworks including publications, exhibitions, album artwork, editorial photoshoots and communication strategies. Her work has been displayed in various cities in Europe and the Middle East and featured in publications that include It’s Nice That, Monocle, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar Japan.

A graduate of Central St. Martins, University of the Arts London, he began his career at Panasonic Design Company and PDD Innovations UK, before playing a key role in launching IDEO Tokyo as a design director. He later served as Head of Design at BCG Digital Ventures before assuming his current position. He has been involved in numerous innovation projects and has served as a judge for D&AD, the Good Design Award and design selections across Japan. He is the author of HELLO, DESIGN (2019), among other publications.

Having recently launched and led Cella’s award-winning creative studio at Fresenius Medical Care, Mike enjoys helping companies of various sizes and industries elevate creative output through a focus on process, people and technology. Mike began his career as a graphic designer, gaining more than 20 years of experience across marketing, creative operations and strategy. He understands the challenges that creatives face, speaks their language and inspires them to do great work. Mike’s thoughtful approach to leadership and client support helped his career grow to manage teams, processes and operations. Mike sees the big picture and enjoys finding common ground among stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and opinions. He’s a strong communicator and comfortable in conversations with everyone from the C-suite to production.

With over 16 years’ experience at the intersection of graphic design and social change, he was the founder of design studio RallyRally, which later merged with Briteweb. Now at O2 Planning and Design, Jay leads communication design on urban planning and public engagement projects across Canada. His impact has been recognized with the RGD UltraBold Award, several So(cial) Good Design Awards and a Next City Vanguard fellowship. He was named one of Canada’s top public space champions by Spacing Magazine.

As Senior Vice President at Aquent Studios, he advises Fortune 100 companies on growth, analytics and agentic AI. He draws on experience as CMO at Deloitte, where he helped shape the firm’s AI market strategy and influenced more than $1 billion in new business opportunities and, at Dubai World, where he built a global digital marketplace connecting hundreds of thousands of businesses across Asia and the Middle East. A consistent thread through his work is using technology to build human connection at scale. He brings that perspective to leadership forums and company events, helping organizations move beyond AI experimentation toward measurable business value.

Originally from Argentina, she moved to Berlin in 2010, where she founded her independent studio specializing in lettering, typography and custom letterforms. Over the past 15 years, Martina has collaborated with global brands including Adobe, Vanity Fair and Mercedes-Benz, spoken on stages around the world and earned international recognition for her work.

Through her three books, online programs, workshops and educational resources, more than 100,000 designers have used Martina’s teaching to sharpen their visual judgment, master lettering and typography and build expertise that sets their work apart.

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Lee’s experience includes leading creative studio work for national and international clients and serving as Associate Editor of DesignEdge Canada. He now teaches design, digital media, creative production, UX/UI, 3D design and studio practice at TMU, while working on his PhD in Media and Design Innovation. His current research focuses on the intersection of design, technology and communications, with particular attention to how new creative tools can support ethical, practitioner-facing workflows without diminishing craft, judgement or originality.