Meet the 2025 SEGD Fellows
SEGD is proud to announce the 2025 SEGD Fellows: Ingūna Elere and Holgers Elers, co-founders of Design Studio H2E in Riga, Latvia.
Honoring Ingūna Elere & Holgers Elers for Their Lasting Contributions to Experiential Design
Since 1987, the SEGD Fellows designation has recognized individuals who have made a lasting and profound impact on experiential and environmental graphic design—those whose ideas, leadership, and practice have helped define how people connect to place, story, and one another.
This year’s honorees join a distinguished community of 52 SEGD Fellows, including design luminaries such as Paula Scher, Bruce Mau, Deborah Sussman, Sylvia Harris, Lance Wyman, Michael Gericke, Shirin Frangoul-Brückner, Marquise Stillwell, and Stefan Sagmeister. Together, they represent the living history—and evolving future—of experiential design.
“Ingūna and Holgers are extraordinary examples of how design can hold memory and meaning at once,” said Alan Jacobson, FSEGD, Chair of the 2025 SEGD Fellows Committee.
Their work demonstrates that design is not only about form or function, but about humanity. Their vision has transformed how we understand storytelling, space, and the cultural power of design.
A Practice Rooted in Meaning
Partners in both life and design, Ingūna Elere and Holgers Elers have profoundly shaped how design communicates emotion, history, and identity. Through their collaborative practice at H2E, they’ve elevated the language of exhibition, wayfinding, and memorial design in Latvia and beyond—bridging art, architecture, and communication to create experiences that resonate deeply.
Since Latvia’s independence in the 1990s, H2E has been instrumental in defining the country’s design identity. Their Latvian Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover marked the nation’s re-emergence onto the world stage. In the decades since, their projects—such as the Memorial to the Victims of Soviet Occupation (an SEGD Global Design Awards Best of Show recipient), the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, and the Children’s Clinical University Hospital of Latvia—have embodied a careful balance between restraint and resonance, silence and storytelling.
Their guiding philosophy is simple yet profound:
Life is too short to only solve for function. Every project must offer another layer—meaning, value, or emotion.
This belief has guided H2E to international acclaim, including three SEGD Best of Show Awards—a rare distinction—alongside recognition from Red Dot, iF Design, and Communication Arts.
A Shared Vision in Life and Design
Both Ingūna and Holgers bring distinct strengths to their collaboration. She is a strategist, educator, and storyteller—founder of the Interior Design Department at the Art Academy of Latvia, where she champions design as an empathetic language. He is a designer, professor, and craftsman—grounding their shared vision in material understanding and technical excellence.
Together, they’ve created a practice where form follows emotion and design becomes dialogue. Their work invites reflection, empathy, and connection—reminding us that the most powerful experiences are those that feel honest and human.
A Celebration at the SEGD Conference Experience San Francisco
The 2025 SEGD Fellows will be celebrated on Saturday morning, November 15, 2025, during the Fellow & Achievement Awards Ceremony at the SEGD Conference Experience San Francisco.
During this special session, the Fellows will be honored alongside the recipients of SEGD’s Achievement Awards, recognizing excellence across education, practice, and service. Attendees will then break for a celebratory mimosa and bloody mary bar, before returning for an intimate conversation with Ingūna and Holgers on their life, work, and the philosophies that have shaped their design journey.
This gathering offers a chance for the SEGD community to pause, reflect, and celebrate the individuals whose creativity, empathy, and leadership continue to define our profession.
Join us in recognizing Ingūna Elere and Holgers Elers, whose work exemplifies the heart of experiential design and the power of design to connect, move, and inspire.
About SEGD Fellows
Since its inception in 1987, the SEGD Fellows program has honored individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of experiential and environmental graphic design. Fellows are selected for their commitment to excellence, leadership, and innovation—helping define the evolving language of experience design around the world.
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