Aidan Mawhinney

Judging Launch Pad Australia

Aidan Mawhinney is the Director of Living Edge – one of Launch Pad’s Founding Partners for 16 years. With an illustrious career supplying the best design work for the A+D community across Australia, Aidan is considered one of this country’s most discerning curators of taste and design. Living Edge – an Australian frontrunner and definite design hot-spot for architects, interior designers and design enthusiasts – is dedicated to offering only the best in design whether from the minute single piece in one’s home to the mammoth design schemes on large-scale commercial projects.

Anton Schiavello

Judging Launch Pad Asia & Australia

Anton Schiavello is the Design and Marketing Director at Schiavello. Anton represents the third generation of the family-run company, being the grandchild of company founder Tony Schiavello. Anton is an internationally experienced business executive with a global outlook and a strong focus on trade. Anton is the only person on the jury who will be carrying out judging at all stages across Asia and Australia.

Benjamin Hubert

International Guest Judge. Shortlisting Launch Pad Asia & Australia

Benjamin Hubert is a UK-based industrial designer and the founder of Layer, a strategic industrial design agency that creates forward-thinking products for tomorrow’s needs – from app design and the next generation of wearables to smart domestic appliances, fast-moving consumer goods, and intelligent furniture systems. Layer delivers award-winning and market-leading experiences across strategy, industrial design and UX/UI. Layer’s creative toolbox includes ethnographic research, UI/UX design, industrial design, branding, packaging, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Benjamin returns to Launch Pad having previously been on the jury in 2011.

Dario Reicherl

Judging Launch Pad Asia

Dario Reicherl is the CEO Asia – Republic of Fritz Hansen. He has been living in Asia since 2003 and has introduced several European design brands to Asia Pacific, such as Tecnocucina, Novamobili, Lightyears and Dr. Vranjes. Dario is passionate about the aesthetics of details, craftsmanship, and going ‘back to basics’ as his way of life. He looks for these values in everything that surrounds him, and his collaboration with Fritz Hansen is possibly the highest expression of his personal values.

Dario joined Republic of Fritz Hansen early 2014 as Vice President Asia Pacific with the task of developing the existing presence in this region. From 2016 he has also been in charge of the Middle East and Japan as CEO. In the past four years, 28 new ‘Fritz Hansen Stores’ have been opened in Asia, this leading to a record growth of 330 per cent. Dario loves to inspire people about the genuine values of Danish design, creating new retail concepts that fully focus on creating happiness for the consumer.

Dr. Brandon Gien

Judging Launch Pad Australia

Dr Brendon Gien is the founder and CEO of Good Design Australia, a Senator of the World Design Organization (WDO, the world body for industrial design), and Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Canberra. He is also Chair of Australia’s Good Design Awards. Prior to founding Good Design Australia, Brandon was the Executive Director of Design Strategy and Head of Corporate Services at Standards Australia, recognised by the Government as Australia’s peak standards body.

Brandon was a member of the WDO’s Board of Directors for three consecutive terms and elected President of the organisation from 2013 to 2015. He was the first Australian to ever hold this position. During his term, he led the strategic transformation of the WDO, resulting in a new name, a new vision and mission, and a new global definition of industrial design. Brandon was made a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) in 2011 for his contribution to the design profession in Australia. He sits on the Advisory Board of numerous design associations and educational institutions in Australia and internationally and has acted as a Jury Member for some of the most prominent design awards in the world.

He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Newcastle where he later graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design. He holds a PhD in Environmental Design from the University of Canberra’s School of Design and Architecture.

Gabriel Tan

Judging Launch Pad Asia

Gabriel Tan Studio is a design practice working across the borders of craft, culture and technology. After nine years as a co-founding partner of international design collective Outofstock, Gabriel Tan established his eponymous studio in 2016. Exploring new ways to interpret luxury and break archetypes, the studio works on product design and creative direction for international brands including Ariake, Turn, Blå Station, Design Within Reach,
Ishinomaki Laboratory and The Conran Shop.

The works of Gabriel Tan have been exhibited in Milan, New York, Stockholm, London,
Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona and Singapore, and his recognition includes the Industrial Designers Society of America’s IDEA Award, Electrolux Design Lab Award and the Bombay Sapphire Asia Grand Prix. Aside from his design work, he has taught as a visiting lecturer at Lasalle
College of the Arts and the University of Oregon, and has also served as a jury member at the Cannes Lions Festival.

Henry Wilson

Judging Launch Pad Australia

Henry Wilson is a designer living and working in Sydney. He studied visual arts at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra, specialising in woodwork. He undertook his Masters study at the Design Academy Eindhoven before returning to Sydney to set up his own studio in 2012.

Henry designs furniture, lighting, accessories and components, working with a range of suppliers and manufacturers. In particular, he has built a close relationship with a local foundry for cast elements in bronze and aluminium. His work combines a rational, democratic utility with an element of sculptural expression. He is interested in the awkward beauty that comes from something made by hand. He likes to explore how imperfection can be introduced into an industrial process. He understands design to be an evolutionary process of refining, learning and improving. Well-made things last. He believes this is one of the simpler forms of sustainability that designers can hope to achieve today.

Hunn Wai

Judging Launch Pad Asia

Hunn Wai is the co‐founder and Creative Director of the award‐winning Italian‐Singaporean industrial design consultancy Lanzavecchia + Wai. He and his partner Francesca Lanzavecchia have applied their human‐centric, research‐driven design methodology to projects as diverse as limited‐edition artisanal carpets, to healthcare research, to baby products, to VIP helicopter interiors. Their clients and commissioners include Cappellini, Herman Miller, Tod’s and Alcantara. L+W has recently been awarded one of the top prizes in design: the Red Dot Award 2016 for Product Design.

Ken Koo

Judging Launch Pad Asia

Ken Koo has been the Asia President of the red dot design award since 2005. Ken, together with Prof. Dr Peter Zec, initiated the international red dot award for design concepts. Ken has been instrumental in developing the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore, the MAAD (Market of Artists and Deisgners), and the Design District of Singapore – a network of more than 70 creative points of interest and businesses within a 2km radius of the former Red Dot Design Museum at the Red Dot Traffic building. In 2017, the Red Dot Design Museum Singapore moved to Marina Bay.

Ken served on the advisory board for the industrial design course of Ngee Ann Polytechnic from 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Parliamentary Resource Panel for the Ministry of Information, Communication and Arts in Singapore from 2008 to 2010. In 2011, he served in the Arts & Culture Strategic Review, ‘Place’ Working Committee to review how place making can promote the arts in Singapore. Ken also served as an EXCO member of the Design Business Chamber of Singapore from 2011 to 2014. As a designer and a producer, Ken has presented in international shows such as Ambiente in Frankfurt, Salon du Meuble de Paris, International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York and Tendence Lifestyle in Frankfurt.

Michael Young

International Guest Judge. Shortlisting Launch Pad Asia & Australia

Michael Young was born in Sunderland, a small industrial city in the north-east of England. In 1993 he founded the Michael Young Studio with the aim of providing exclusive, quality design services across an eclectic range of markets – from interiors to technology. He quickly became one of the UK’s most sought-after young designers and revered retailers, known in the industry as a sophisticated minimalist and acclaimed for his elegant, pared-down aesthetic design, which was in direct opposition to the elaborate style dominating London at the time.

After nearly a decade working across the UK and Iceland, Michael was enticed to Asia by his passion for pioneering technology, and in 2006 set up a studio in Hong Kong. Today Michael Young Studio is considered to be one of the most exciting and formidable design companies operating in Asia. The studio specialises in creating modern design through exploring the endless possibilities Asia’s technological ingenuity provides. Propelled by the momentum created through collaboration with Chinese industrialists, the studio captures the strengthening ties between local industry and design, and exemplifies the skills of Asia’s industrial innovation. The result is work that transcends design by harnessing some of the highest and most innovative manufacturing skills to create industrial art.

Priscilla Lui

Judging Launch Pad Asia

Priscilla Lui is co-founder with Timo Wong of Studio Juju, an interdisciplinary design practice based in Singapore. The studio’s approach is fresh and optimistic, and each project is a union of simplicity and warmth, functionalism and whimsy, refinement and relevance. Since 2009, the studio has undertaken design works in the fields of furniture, accessories, interiors and art, and has worked with clients such as Living Divani, W Hotels, Gardens by the Bay, Land Authority of Singapore and OCBC Bank.

The works of Studio Juju have been exhibited and published internationally and the studio’s recognition includes the ‘Designers of the Future’ by Design Miami, Design Report Award by SaloneSatellite in Milan, and Singapore President’s Design Award, Design of the Year. Priscilla trained as an industrial designer. Aside from her design work, she has taught at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts as an adjunct lecturer.

Raymond Scott

Judging Launch Pad Australia

Raymond Scott is the Managing Director of Workshopped. Raymond has a background in production and film development in Europe. On his return to Australia, he found a very limited film industry, so the best thing to do was adapt and change. He became manager/producer of a communications company in Sydney, and was later recruited to manage a design team for Brand Environments and Experience, developing new design concepts for casinos, hotels and restaurants in Las Vegas, Macau and Sydney.

He has been involved with Workshopped for the past 13 years, initially producing exhibitions. He’s been a Director of Workshopped for the past 8 years, during which time he opened the Design Store in Hill Street, Surry Hills, and started a designer program with Object, The Australian Design Centre (ADC). He co-produced and curated a touring exhibition with the ADC: Resolved – Journeys in Australian Design. Workshopped recently opened their second larger showroom in Rosebery, NSW. Raymond is the founder and Past President of the Surry Hills Creative Precinct Inc., Surry Hills Business Chamber. He is a member of the East Sydney Creative Group and of the Australian Design Centre Advisory Group.

Terri Winter

Judging Launch Pad Australia

Terri Winter is a wife, mother, designer and Australian entrepreneur who is fuelled by a passion to unearth the best designs on the planet and share them with a wider audience.
Terri founded top3 by design in 2001 and with it she brings top3 fans an edited selection of the very best. Terri’s eye for innovative (yet always commercially viable) design is of particular interest and it’s why Terri is keen to be involved in awards programs. She wants to ensure designers ‘keep it real’. Terri is a host and judge on the TV series ‘Australia by Design – Innovation’ Channel 10.

She is a mentor for emerging designers through the Australian Design Centre and has judged on many different design awards programs over the years. She is regularly invited to sit on design panels and be involved in discussion workshops relating to design, innovation and retail.

Tom Skeehan

Judging Launch Pad Australia

Skeehan Studio is the design firm headed by founder Tom Skeehan, based in Canberra. It produces commercial furniture, lighting and product design, adopting a uniquely considered, material-minded process.

Skeehan designs have been awarded and exhibited internationally. Skeehan Studio designs and manufactures in Australia, working closely with local vendors to ensure quality articulations of its designs, fostering local support and efficient sourcing of materials. Tom is committed to education, his own learning and also activating knowledge of just how great good design can be. He regularly presents talks and events encouraging community participation, sharing of ideas and most of all enjoyment.