Introducing the 2025 SEGD Global Design Awards Jury
The 2025 SEGD Global Design Awards are presented by DCL (Design Communications Ltd.)
The SEGD Global Design Awards have set the standard of excellence for experiential design since 1987 and brings together a jury of talented and inspiring thought leaders to recognize and promote excellence in contemporary experiential design.
Each year, SEGD recognizes the best-of-the-best in Experiential Design with projects spanning a wide range of topics, disciplines, and verticals within the following categories:
- Branded Environments
- Digital Experiences
- Exhibition
- Placemaking
- Public Installation
- Strategy/Research/Planning
- Wayfinding
SEGD is proud to announce the esteemed jury members who will select the 2025 Global Design Award winners. The multidisciplinary jury will evaluate projects based on their effectiveness in connecting people to place, creating unique and memorable user experiences while solving design challenges.
For more information about the awards program and to submit your project(s) for consideration, please visit the link below.
2025 Global Design Awards Chair
Jonathan Alger
Managing Partner and a co-founder of C&G Partners, SEGD President 2006-2007
Chairing the 2025 jury will be Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner and co-founder of C&G Partners. Jonathan is also the host and author of “Making the Museum”, a podcast and newsletter for the cultural experience field. His clients include the 9/11 Memorial Museum, AIA, Bronx Zoo, Holocaust Museum, Japanese-American National Museum, NASA, National Archives, Smithsonian, and US Department of State. As a multi-specialist designer working in interactive cultural space and experiential design, Jonathan has been honored by several organizations including American Institute of Graphic Arts, American Association of Museums, Communication Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, SEGD, and the Webbys. Before co-founding C&G Partners, Jonathan was a Principal at the design firm Chermayeff & Geismar Inc.
2025 Global Design Awards Jury
In addition to Alger, the 2025 SEGD Global Design Awards jury includes eight other internationally acclaimed designers who will review and help select the Global Design Award winners in March 2025.
Ujijji Davis Williams
Founder of JIMA Studio
Ujijji Davis Williams is a practicing landscape architect and urban planner who focuses on landscape and urban design, cultural landscapes and planning process. She is the founder of JIMA (jee-mah) Studio, a landscape architectural design and urban planning studio that collaborates with community groups, organizations and builders committed to culturally relevant placemaking and strategic implementation that centralize participatory design methods to provide full site design and planning services, from idea to implementation. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University, and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. She’s originally from Brooklyn.
Chad Finken
Experiential Design Director at IA Interior Architects
Chad Finken leads the experience design team in the Chicago studio at IA Interior Architects, bringing 25 years of expertise in workplace, retail, and exhibition design for a variety of clients spanning consumer goods, financial, tech and foodservice, among others. With a foundation in fine art and a deep passion for narrative, he specializes in conceptualizing and bringing client brands to life within physical spaces through storytelling. Chad’s design process is driven by a strategic approach, immersing himself in each client’s brand to thoughtfully curate experiences that seamlessly blend architecture, art, and design. Chad is committed to creating inclusive, impactful moments that forge lasting connections between users and brands.
Natasha Jen
Partner at Pentagram
Natasha Jen is an award-winning designer, educator, and partner at Pentagram. Her work is celebrated for its innovative use of graphic, verbal, digital, and spatial interventions that challenge conventional notions of media and cultural contexts. Operating at the intersection of technology and culture, Natasha has led transformative design and strategy projects for some of the most influential names in the tech and consumer sectors. Natasha is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale), a prestigious organization of the world’s leading graphic designers. In 2023, the Royal College of Art awarded her an honorary fellowship in recognition of her contributions and achievements in the design field.
Roger Mann
Co-founder and Creative Director of Casson Mann
As one half of the founding partnership of London-based practice Casson Mann, Roger Mann has conceived, designed and delivered pioneering exhibitions, museums and visitor attractions across the world over several decades. A founder of Casson Mann but also its principal Creative Director, he is currently leading the team as it delivers significant projects in the US, France and the UK. With partner Dinah Casson, Roger Mann formed Casson Mann in 1984, a specialist museum, exhibition, and interior design studio. With Roger at the helm, Casson Mann has been consistently recognised for our high-quality installations and thoughtful, engaging design.
Timothy McNeil
Professor of Design and Director of the Design Museum at the University of California, Davis
Timothy McNeil is a professor of design and director of the Design Museum at the University of California, Davis. He has spent 30 years as a practicing exhibition designer working for major museums, researching exhibition design history and methods, and teaching the next generations of exhibition design thinkers and practitioners. He contributed to building the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center and Getty Villa, and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. His work has been recognized for design excellence by the Society for Experiential Graphic Design and the American Alliance of Museums, and he is the author of The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook.
Judy K. Suh
Creative Director at Journey’s New York studio
Judy is a Creative Director at Journey’s New York studio. She brings a background in filmmaking and installation art to her role for a wide range of projects in experience design. Judy works closely with architects, exhibition designers, animators, and technologists to push the boundaries of visitor experience. She has brought that motivation to creating unique experiences around the world, in Hong Kong, Riyadh, Chicago, Seoul, and New York.
Julie Vogel
President of Clearstory
Julie Vogel is the president of Clearstory, a San Francisco-based wayfinding and placemaking studio dedicated to improving civic, community, and public spaces through design. Prior to her current role, she worked with multiple award winning firms in New York and San Francisco. Julie is an active listener and quick to understand abstract issues, allowing her to nimbly explore opportunities for impacts and consequences. She focuses on both the client’s aspirations and the human experience to distill the essence of a space, elevating a project’s design. Julie intuitively combines the range of potential users with the context of a project, resulting in enduring designs that connect people to place.
Jocelyn Zhao
Freelance Graphic Designer
Jocelyn Zhao is an award-winning graphic designer based in New York, specializing in branding, generative design, and the intersection of technology and visual communication. Currently working at Google Creative Lab, Jocelyn explores innovative applications of generative AI, merging cutting-edge technology with thoughtful design strategies. Her work is recognized globally by Type Directors Club, Communication Arts, Core77, and Graphis, among others. Jocelyn’s design philosophy blends traditional craftsmanship with modern digital tools, creating impactful solutions that push creative boundaries and envision the future of design.
About SEGD
We are designers of experiences connecting people to place. SEGD is a multidisciplinary community collectively shaping the future of experience design. We are a thought leader and an amplifier in the practice of experience design. Learn more at segd.org.