Isil Akgul

Isil is a creative designer with a Master of Science Degree in Sustainable Environmental Systems. She has worked in the field of architecture for many years and has taken on the role of project manager on various projects. Since she arrived in New York City for her Master’s she has worked with not-for-profits on complex issues regarding Climate Change and Sustainability. She is passionate about designing for urban resilience, both in physical and social environments.

My website: www.isilakgul.com

Miles Barretto

Miles Barretto is a NYC based graphic designer originally from the Philippines. His work specializes in print and his main interests lies in creating design that explores social issues. He graduated from Parsons the New School of Design with a BFA in Communication Design. 

Tanya Bhandari

Tanya is a communication designer from New Delhi, India who is trying to make and do good. She moved to New York in 2012 to study Design for Social Innovation and hasn’t looked back since. Currently, Tanya is a senior designer at the Office of Innovation at UNICEF. She loves to illustrate, fool around with analog photography, play the ukulele and lie around in water bodies. 

CITAD

CITAD is a design, consultancy and research studio based in Brooklyn aiming to improve the urban experience for Everyone. CITAD learns from cities and their residents, collaborates and helps to build healthy and equitable environments.

With backgrounds in architecture, urban planning and design and sustainable mobility CITAD explores new ways to tackle the social and territorial challenges that human settlements face today.
Website: www.citad.xyz (still under constructiont)

Kevin Cadena

Kevin Cadena is a Colombian-American designer, creative technologist, community organizer and artist who is currently based in Queens, NY. Kevin intersects these mediums together in different ways to critique, enforce or speculate on culture, conventions, and ethics in his environment. Kevin graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016 with a BFA in graphic design and since then, he has worked with many different organizations ranging from research labs and design agencies to museums and co-working spaces. In his free time, he enjoys supporting local music, playing video games, watching basketball, and organizing his room.

Janet Chan

Janet is a graphic designer, raised in China and now based in New York. She attended Parsons The School of Design and holds a BFA in Communication Design and minor in Data Visualization. She has worked with commercial clients as well as those in the arts and culture industry. Outside of the office, she enjoys fostering cat and dogs for the ASPCA. Janet is passionate for design and social issues and believes that good design is key to successful communication and education.

D Wang Zhao Chloe Chang

D Wang Zhao (赵梦仪) is a queer, gender non-binary, second generation Han Chinese immigrant from Anishinabek and Odawa and Peoria territories (known as Mid-Michigan). They use they/them/their pronouns. They are currently transitioning on testosterone with the understanding that their journey has no end goal. Based in Lenape territory (known as Brooklyn, NY), they are a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator who is passionate about understanding the intersections of fashion, media, design and business so they can hack the system in order to give space and opportunities to marginalized folks. On the side, they make comics, care for their house’s chickens, and dream about ways queer, trans, immigrant, disabled, creatives of color can help each other thrive. 

Website: www.dwangzhao.com

Chloe Chang (张洛书) is a designer, researcher and strategist with 6 years of experience working in advertising and human-centered design firms. She lived in Beijing for 12 years before moving to Brooklyn in 2009 to study Communication Design at Pratt Institute, and has made her home here since. She has experience in branding and marketing from her early advertising days, but is now focused on bringing design-led strategy and research methods to mission-driven spaces and initiatives. Most recently, she has been part of the team at design studio Openbox, designing greater low-income access to Neighborhood Trust’s financial services, creating opportunities for student-led education at the Williamsburg High School of Arts and Technology, and researching how community engagement in urban development projects in the Lower East Side can be more inclusive and beneficial to the communities who live there.

Website: www.chloechang.design

Chloe x Albane Chloé Maës, Albane Jerphanion

Chloe x Albane is a design partnership started in 2017 in Brooklyn by two NY French transplants Chloé Maës and Albane Jerphanion. While evolving as designers in bigger agencies, they started working together on side-projects in order to regain involvement in the creative process. Their personalities and skills are complementary, spanning from ideation to production, web design to large-scale way finding, and illustration to brand identity. Stronger together, they aim to work on hand-picked projects and collaborations that involve smart ideas and passionate people. chloemaes.com/albane/

Boyeon Choi

I am an illustrator/graphic designer based in New York. I love making images to make sense out of things, or sometimes rather to obscure them. I have worked at MTWTF and prior to that, participated in a residency program at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, as a design group ‘FF’ working on community-based art projects. Currently, I am working as a freelancer to collaborate with various clients on a wide range of projects from printed matters to website. As a side project, I also make zines and hand-silkscreened stationery goods for a project group ‘Instant Rabbit’ which I co-founded with two of my classmates from SVA in 2012.

Alayna Citrin

Alayna Citrin is a graphic designer interested in process oriented design, experimental typography and lettering, and sustainability’s role in the world of design. She is interested in working with people in a rigorous, collaborative environment on projects that use design for good. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD with a BFA in Graphic Design and is currently working at as an Art Director at Green Team Global. 

Luisa Covaria

Luisa Covaria is a filmmaker, animator, interaction designer and social entrepreneur. She recently graduated from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. Luisa received a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship and a Tisch school of the arts Fellowship. In 2004, Luisa received a scholarship to attend the Mahindra United world college of India. In 2009 Luisa received a Davis scholarship to attend Middlebury College where she majored in Film, Media Culture and German. In the past 10 years Luisa has led participatory video projects and develop curricula in India, China, Uruguay, Colombia and the US. Luisa’s films and interactive installations have been exhibited in Korea, India, China, U.S and Colombia. www.luisacovaria.com

Luisa was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow.

Lauren Dellaquila

Lauren Dellaquila currently works as a designer and art director in Brooklyn, NY where she lives with her two cats, Massimo and Lella. She works with clients ranging from global branding agencies and international action-sport companies, to start-ups and non-profits. She specializes in spatial experience, branding, art direction, conceptual process, and human-centered design. Lauren is a 2009 Project M alumnus, where she refined her skills as a socially-minded designer. Her pro-bono work includes Community Darkroom, BetterGrads, Pizza Farm, COMMON, OpenIDEO, Brooklyn Skillshare, Transforme and most recently, Food Shift. Lauren continues to advise Project M sessions in Belfast, ME, Greensboro, AL and give occasional lectures to budding design students around the north east. laurendellaquila.com

Petra Farinha

Petra Farinha is a NY Interaction Designer with several years of experience. She works at Purpose as the Lead Interaction Designer and co-manager of the Design Department. From developing websites for large scale collective action for nonprofits, political movements  to civic engagement platforms, Petra promotes and advocates for the value of design thinking and human-centered approaches. Petra studied at ITP, Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, where she explored the possibilities of technology,  their impact in our daily routines and how they are changing the way we experience cities. Before moving to NY, Petra was a freelance interaction/ visual designer and design faculty at the School of Arts and Design in Caldas da Rainha. prntscreen.net

James Frankis

James’ core focus is on how design can help to empower people to discover new information and understand complex problems. During his undergrad, in Information Design he designed ways to explain complex scientific information through visualization and interaction design. This led him to being hired by the National Science Museum in London as a designer, where he worked on both exhibition and print design. James is now studying for an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons. His work at Parsons has dealt with topics as diverse as making Neuroscience cool, food access in NY and youth empowerment in slum populations. jamesfrankis.co.uk

James was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow.

Erik Freer

Erik Freer is a designer, artist and writer who lives and works in New York City. Currently, Erik works managing the graphic design at the Neue Galerie Museum in Manhattan. Erik also maintains an independent cross-disciplinary practice. Contact Erik and find out more at his website, erikfreer.com.