Speaker biographies

The Image Space Object Workshop is more like a university than a design conference, and that is why we have a large returning roster of speaker/mentors who are the country’s top experts in people-centered design research and familiar with the tools and methods that are presented in the workshop. This is how we can insure that all participants receive effective tools and methods that they can take back to their office and use in their daily practice.

Chris Conley, Gravity Tank and IIT Institute of Design
Chris Conley’s teaching, research and consulting is focused on a creative, multidisciplinary approach to business innovation called “integrated definition.” This way of working integrates research and design to create meaningfully differentiated products and services that drive business growth. He practices what he preaches as executive director of Gravity Tank, a rapidly growing consulting firm that delivers integrated definition to Fortune 500 clients including Unilever, Goodyear, Samsung, Office Max, Motorola and McDonalds.

As an associate professor and head of the Human-Centered Product Design track at the IIT Institute of Design (ID), Conley has taught product design, planning, and user-centered methods to design and business students over the past 14 years. He is routinely rated as an outstanding instructor for his ability to relate advanced theories to professional practice. He was the 2006 chair of the IDSA/BusinessWeek IDEA Awards and is a regular contributor to design conferences and competitions worldwide.

Prior to founding Gravity Tank, Chris was director of global design planning for Motorola, where he established a global experience research process that enabled the company to better understand users’ wireless experience in key regions around the world including Europe, Asia and the Americas. He holds a Master of Design degree from ID and an engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

Hugh Dubberly, Dubberly Design Office
Hugh Dubberly is a principal in Dubberly Design Office (DDO), a San Francisco-based consultancy that focuses on making software easier to use through interaction design and information design. At Apple Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dubberly managed cross-functional design teams and later managed creative services for the entire company. While at Apple, he co-created a technology-forecast film called Knowledge Navigator that presaged the appearance of the internet in a portable digital device. At Netscape, he became vice president of design and managed groups responsible for the design, engineering and production of Netscape’s web portal. In 2000, he co-founded DDO.

In addition to his practice, Dubberly also teaches. While at Apple, he served at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena as the first and founding chairman of the computer graphics department. He has taught classes in the graphic design department at San Jose State University, at IIT Institute of Design and in the computer science department at Stanford University.

Hugh Graham, Hugh Graham Creative
Hugh Graham is the principal of Hugh Graham Creative and is an interaction designer and creative strategist who uses narrative techniques to craft user-centered design solutions. His focus on the intersection of story and design comes from extensive experience in film, video, music and theater, including projects for MGM/Universal, Paramount, Viacom and the Walker Art Center, combined with a dozen years working in interaction design, including projects for Universal Studios, US West, Qwest, Janus, Aspen Ski Company, the Limited Express, American Friends Service Committee, Maytag, Virgin, the Colorado Rockies, Budget Rent A Car and Heifer International.

Graham is a former director of user experience for Sapient Corporation and director of content strategy at iXL. He is an award-winning performance and media artist and has been recognized by the Denver Mayor’s Office of Art Culture and Film and the Colorado Council for the Arts. He has served as director of strategy for the AIGA Colorado chapter. Graham is also an active digital storyteller and is pursuing this interest through Mile High Stories, a collection of stories about the City of Denver, its inhabitants, landmarks and history.

Michael Arnold Mages, Metropolitan State College
An interaction designer and educator, Michael Mages has exhibited and lectured widely, and has served on the jury on Aesthetics for the Association of Internet Researchers since its inception. Bridging gaps between theoretical, creative and business practice, Mages has taught design research-based approaches to computer science, business and art students at the University of Denver, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design. He has exhibited at the ACM SIGGRAPH Web3D exhibit in St. Malo, France, the Netherlands and the United States. His work is in the permanent collection at rhizome.org. He is a co-founder of -empyre-, a web-based discussion group for Media Arts Practice, archived at College of Fine Arts, Cornell University and the University of NSW, Australia. Currently Mages brings his approach to human-centered interaction and experience design to Metropolitan State College in Denver. His clients have included Oracle Systems, StorageTek, Seagate, Liz Claiborne and NIIT Enterprises.

Katherine and Michael McCoy, High Ground Design Workshops
The McCoys are internationally recognized for their unique, multidisciplinary design education methods that give designers the tools and methods to collaborate in creating compelling design experiences. As directors of design at Cranbrook Academy of Art for 24 years, distinguished visiting professors at London's Royal College of Art, faculty at IIT Institute of Design in Chicago, directors of professional programs at RMCAD in Denver and principals in High Ground Design Workshops, Katherine and Michael have developed effective methods for designers to work together to create visions for the future.

They have received over 200 awards for their work in graphic, product, furniture, signage, exhibit and interior design, including the IDSA Gold Award, I.D. magazine's Best of Category, Interior Design magazine's Best Office Design, the IBD Award and the European Ergo Design Award. Michael's work (with his partner Dale Fahnstrom) includes Knoll's best selling Bulldog Chair, Details Accessories for Steelcase, and electronics for Philips and NEC. Katherine's graphic design work includes Radical Graphics/Graphic Radicals (Chronicle Books), Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse (Rizzoli) and many posters and publications for Cranbrook Academy of Art. Their work and writings have been widely published and exhibited, and they lecture on design theory at conferences around the world.

Their pioneering methods in design education have earned them the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, the IDSA Education Award, the American Center for Design Education Award, the AIGA Medal (for Katherine), honorary doctorates from Kansas City Art Institute, and the Smithsonian Institution’s first ever “Design Minds” National Design Award. 

Sigi Moeslinger, Antenna Design New York, Inc.
Sigi Moeslinger is a partner at Antenna Design New York, Inc., which she cofounded with Masamichi Udagawa in 1997. Antenna’s design projects range from public and commercial to experimental and artistic, typically spanning object, interface and environment. Among Antenna’s best known projects are the design of New York City subway cars and ticket vending machines, JetBlue check-in kiosks, Bloomberg displays and interactive environments, such as Power Flower and an installation in the windows of Bloomingdale’s activated by passersby. Antenna’s user-centered design approach helps understand human behavior, which is particularly important when designing the unfamiliar, elicited by new technology. Antenna’s work has won numerous awards, including recognition from IDSA/BusinessWeek, I.D., Fast Company and Wired magazines. In 2003 and 2006 Antenna was a finalist for the National Design Award in Product Design from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. In 2006 Moeslinger and Udagawa won the United States Artists Fellowship in the category of Architecture and Design.

Before forming Antenna, Moeslinger was an Interval Research Fellow at New York University, where she designed and built digitally enhanced objects. Prior, she was at IDEO in San Francisco, working on corporate product design languages, consumer products and equipment, as well as future scenarios for new technology products. She holds an MA in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University and a BS in Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design.

Fred Murrell, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design
Fred Murrell is the chair of design at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and a pioneer in advanced design management practices in the United States. Murrell is well known as a design director at Sapient, Texas Instruments, Corning and Tenet Healthcare, where he created information design environments and user-centered design programs, managed internal design teams that worked closely with design consultants like Doblin Group, IDEO and Meta Design and produced integrated communications programs, user interactions and product experiences.

Murrell has served on the AIGA national board of directors, American Center for Design national board, Design Management Institute advisory board and the AIGA National Experience Design steering committee, and he was the first president for the New York AIGA Chapter (Rochester, NY). He has received awards from AIGA, ACD, Graphis, New York Art Directors Show, Print, Communications Arts, United Way and Creativity. He has lectured at the IIID (International Institute for Information Design) in Schwarzenburg, Austria; UIAH (University of Art & Design), Helsinki; AIGA National Conference, Seattle; AIGA Business Conference, New York; Design Management Institute, Corporate Identity Conference, Montreal; Rochester Institute of Technology and SUNY Fredonia, New York.

Melody Roberts, McDonald's Corporation
Melody Roberts is the director of customer experience design at McDonald's Corporation. Formerly a director of research at Smart Design and Good Grips, Roberts is responsible for defining and leading the customer experience design function for the global innovation team at McDonald's Corporation. In this role, Roberts is responsible for turning consumer insight into viable new product, system and service concepts. Engaged from trend analysis through international concept piloting, she collaborates closely with colleagues in business research, engineering, IT, operations, design and marketing.

Prior to McDonald’s, Roberts spent seven years in design and innovation consulting. She worked at IDEO from 2004 to 2006. At IDEO, she led joint IDEO/client teams in 6-month to year-long design programs intended to foster a culture of customer-centered innovation within the client organization. From 1999 through 2003 she formalized and led Smart Design’s design research and new product strategy work. During this time she also managed their largest client account.

A native of Colorado, Roberts earned a Master of Design degree in Human-Centered Product Design at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Yale University.

Rick E. Robinson, PhD
Rick E. Robinson is an interdisciplinary social scientist who holds a PhD in Human Development from the University of Chicago. He was formerly a principal in Luth Research and global director for NOP World’s observational and ethnographic practice. For nearly 15 years, Robinson has been a leader in developing and applying observational research as a basis for new product, service and strategy solutions. He was a co-founder of E-Lab, a research and design consultancy, which pioneered ethnographic and observational research approaches for understanding the interactions between people and products. In 1999, E-Lab was acquired by Sapient, where he became senior vice president and chief experience officer. Among his clients have been leading companies in many different business sectors, including BP/Amoco, BMW, Ford, General Mills, General Motors, Hallmark, Intel, McDonald’s, Nabisco, Samsung, Schick, Sony, Tropicana, Unilever, Warner–Lambert and Wells Fargo. His contributions to the development of business applications for ethnography have been written up in academic and marketing publications, profiled in Business Week, Fast Company, Business 2.0, The Financial Times and many others, as well as on CNN’s Business Unusual.

Robinson publishes and lectures widely on ethnographic practice and design research methodology, the value of understanding everyday life and the role of social theory in design. He is the co-author of The Art of Seeing with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He is on the editorial board of Design Issues and the advisory boards of the Design Management Institute and the California College of the Arts.

Masamichi Udagawa, Antenna Design New York, Inc.
Masamichi Udagawa is a partner at Antenna Design New York, Inc., which he co-founded with Sigi Moeslinger in 1997. Antenna’s design projects range from public and commercial to experimental and artistic, typically spanning object, interface and environment. Among Antenna’s best known projects are the design of New York City subway cars and ticket vending machines, JetBlue check-in kiosks, Bloomberg displays and interactive environments, such as Power Flower and an installation in the windows of Bloomingdale’s activated by passersby. Antenna’s user-centered design approach helps understand human behavior, which is particularly important when designing the unfamiliar, elicited by new technology. Antenna’s work has won numerous awards, including recognition from IDSA/BusinessWeek, I.D., Fast Company and Wired magazines. In 2003 and 2006 Antenna was a finalist for the National Design Award in Product Design from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. In 2006 Moeslinger and Udagawa won the United States Artists Fellowship in the category of Architecture and Design.

Before forming Antenna, Udagawa ran a New York satellite studio of IDEO Product Development. Prior to IDEO, he was a senior designer at Apple Computer Industrial Design Group in Cupertino, CA, where he designed a number of products such as the PowerBook 5300/3400 series. He has also worked at Emilio Ambasz Design Group in New York. Prior to coming to the United States, Udagawa worked at the Yamaha Product Design Laboratory in Japan, where he designed electronic musical instruments, including the award winning YS200 synthesizer. He holds an MA in Industrial Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BE in Industrial Design from Chiba University in Japan.

Tucker Viemeister, Rockwell Group
Tucker Viemeister has created memorable and compelling brand experiences and products for Coke, Joe Boxer, OXO Good Grips, McDonald’s and many others. He is currently vice president, creative, at Rockwell Group.

A graduate from Pratt Institute, he was president of Springtime–USA, a partnership with the young Dutch industrial design company. He helped to found Razorfish’s physical design capability, frogdesign’s New York office and Smart Design, where he helped design the widely acclaimed OXO “GoodGrips” universal kitchen tools. He serves on the board of directors of the Architectural League of New York, is chair of the Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund and president of the International Design Network Foundation. He produced and designed a book written by Gail Greet Hannah, Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships. BusinessWeek has called him “guru”; “scruffy brand-meister” by the Architect’s Newspaper (February 2006); and he was dubbed "Industrial Design’s Elder Wonderkind" in I.D. magazine’s “I.D. 40.” He teaches at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, holds 32 U.S. Utility Patents and was named after a car.