Infinite Curiosity with Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute

Cybelle Jones

Get inspired ahead of the 2025 SEGD Conference! Discover how Llisa Demetrios and the Eames Institute are translating the timeless spirit of Ray and Charles Eames into a living, future-facing model of design.

  1. Llisa Demetrios, overseeing the Eames Institute collection, images courtesy of the Eames Institute

  2. Different styles of Eames chairs stacked for display, images courtesy of the Eames Institute

As we look toward Designing Possible Futures at the 2025 SEGD Conference Experience in San Francisco, we’re spotlighting the voices helping shape how design connects people, ideas, and imagination. These are the thinkers expanding what design can mean when rooted in curiosity, accessibility, and care.

Portrait of Llisa Demetrios at her workspace at the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, images courtesy of the Eames Institute

Meet Llisa Demetrios — Chief Curator, Eames Institute

For Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, design is a lifelong practice of learning, experimenting, and sharing. As the granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, Llisa is carrying forward one of the most influential design legacies of the twentieth century—reframed for a new generation.

Established in 2019 and launched publicly in 2022, the Eames Institute is based in Richmond, California, where Llisa leads tours and curates programs that make design thinking accessible to everyone. The Institute recently announced plans to transform a former Birkenstock campus in Novato into a new museum for art and design. The site will allow the public to engage with design in ways that reflect the Eames’ core principles of learning through curiosity, experimentation, and utility.

To share my grandparents’ vision with the world is the honor of a lifetime.
—Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator, Eames Institute

“Ray and Charles’ boundless curiosity for solving problems through design has been at the core of the Eames Institute’s mission, and this expansion will allow us to share those gifts with our community on an even larger scale,” says Llisa.

  1. Images courtesy of the Eames Institute

  2. Images courtesy of the Eames Institute

In her closing keynote, Infinite Curiosity, Llisa will explore how curiosity itself can be a design method—one that keeps ideas alive, opens doors to new voices, and invites everyone to participate in shaping what comes next. Following her presentation, SEGD CEO Cybelle Jones will join Llisa for a conversation on legacy, inclusion, and the creative courage it takes to imagine possible futures.

Key takeaways

  • Curiosity is a design method that fuels experimentation and inclusion.
  • The Eames Institute carries forward a legacy of learning through doing.
  • Design is for everyone—and its greatest power lies in shared discovery.
Catch Llisa Demetrios’ closing keynote, Infinite Curiosity, on Saturday, November 15, for Designing Possible Futures at the 2025 SEGD Conference Experience San Francisco.

The SEGD 2025 Conference Experience will bring together more than 30 speakers, workshops, and tours over three days—November 13–15—to explore how design can create belonging, embrace complexity, and spark transformation.

Register to join the movement →

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