About

Amy Devers is an artist, designer, maker, educator, host/producer of design-related media, and Emmy Award-winning television personality. A book + street smarts double threat; Devers is armed with both formal education and hands-on experience. She’s earned three college degrees including an MFA in Furniture Design from RISD, done a major stint as a chief prototype fabricator, and has spent years as an independent designer/builder of furniture and interiors. She’s also made a name for herself on the small screen, demonstrating her skills and know-how as the host of several television and digital series focused on international design, architecture, original furniture design & build, home improvement, culture and food.

About

Avinash Rajagopal is the editor in chief of Metropolis, an award-winning architecture and design publication. He is a frequent speaker and moderator at events related to interior design, architecture, and urbanism, and is an advocate for sustainable architecture and design. He is the author of Hacking Design (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2013) and has contributed to many volumes on design history, including The Culture of Nature in the History of Design (Routledge, 2019) and The Atlas of Furniture Design (Vitra Design Museum, 2019).

About

David Cordell is an associate principal at Perkins&Will. With over 20 years of experience as project designer and technical coordinator on ground-breaking projects, Cordell brings a particular focus on interior environments and their interaction with occupant health and wellness and sustainability. Cordell’s experience includes a variety of corporate, nonprofit, healthcare, and science and technology projects for clients of various sizes. For more than ten years he has been the sustainability leader for the interiors practice in Perkins&Will’s Washington, D.C. office. Cordell has worked on numerous LEED projects, several of which earned Platinum certification, including ASID’s headquarters, the first project in the world to also earn Platinum certification under the WELL Building Standard. Cordell chairs the National ASID Committee on Climate, Health and Equity, and speaks regularly on topics related to healthy interior environments, diversity and inclusion and sustainability.

About

Susan Fernandez is Vice President of UpSpring and a skilled brand strategist who specializes in helping her clients discover their unique voice and differentiate themselves in the competitive building and architectural product industry. With years of experience under her belt, she understands that having a strong brand is essential to stand out in today’s marketplace. By working closely with her clients, Susan uncovers their brand identity and develops comprehensive strategies that align with their business development goals.

About

Bobby Bonett is a digital media leader with experience in building brands, developing content, growing audiences, driving monetization, and scaling teams. As Executive Vice President at SANDOW DESIGN GROUP, Bobby oversees digital strategy and operations, digital content services, content distribution networks, and business growth strategies for SANDOW DESIGN GROUP’s multi-platform collective of design brands.

In 2020, Bobby launched DESIGNTV by SANDOW, a streaming video network that amassed more than 10 million views in its first year; in 2021, he introduced The Agency by SANDOW, a full-service digital agency for the architecture and design industry; and, in 2022, he launched the SURROUND podcast network.

Bobby lives on Long Island with his wife Jenn and their three daughters, Arlene, Lenny, and Margaret. He is a lifelong (and long-suffering) Jets fan; his daughters, mercifully, are not.

As co-founder at digby, Andrew Lane draws from over two decades of digital business and Web 2.0 leadership experience to help heritage-rich global brands navigate their first steps into Web3, blockchain and the metaverse, with a focus on delivering brand value and new revenue and customer engagement opportunities. A seasoned entrepreneur, intrapreneur, speaker, and educator with deep expertise in emerging technologies, Andrew made his career building and leading teams and organizations from startups to multinational corporations through change and transformation. He’s spoken at leading conferences in multiple industries, designed and delivered innovative courses for prominent colleges and universities in digital media and technology, and sat on numerous boards and councils aligned to helping organizations and individuals chart their course into new territory. Andrew is also a co-host of Barriers to Entry, a web3 and emerging tech podcast for the architecture and design industry, and a co-founder of Interior Design Magazine’s Metaverse Architecture & Design (MAD) Awards.

Tessa Bain draws on more than a decade of experience working with prominent and iconic global brands in the interior design world to her role as co-founder of digby. She brings this deep understanding of the design industry to her work to deliver practical strategies to leverage web 3.0, the blockchain and the metaverse, enabling her to deliver brand growth and retail innovation for digby’s partners. A seasoned sales leader, business builder and entrepreneur, she’s proven her ability time and again to open up new revenue streams that expand businesses into new territories while remaining authentic to core values. Most recently, Tessa built the Canadian territory for the iconic family of Design Within Reach Contract brands and guided the business through the Herman Miller acquisition & merger of Knoll. She holds an M.S. from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. from New Mexico State University where she was a NCAA Division 1 swimmer. Tessa is also a co-host of Barriers to Entry, a web3 and emerging tech podcast for the architecture and design industry, and a co-founder of Interior Design Magazine’s Metaverse Architecture & Design (MAD) Awards.

About

Amy Devers is an artist, designer, maker, educator, host/producer of design-related media, and Emmy Award-winning television personality. A book + street smarts double threat; Devers is armed with both formal education and hands-on experience. She’s earned three college degrees including an MFA in Furniture Design from RISD, done a major stint as a chief prototype fabricator, and has spent years as an independent designer/builder of furniture and interiors. She’s also made a name for herself on the small screen, demonstrating her skills and know-how as the host of several television and digital series focused on international design, architecture, original furniture design & build, home improvement, culture and food.

About

AJ Paron, EVP and Design Futurist at SANDOW Design Group is widely respected as a creative thinker, innovative leader, and engaging speaker and panelist.

Her experience includes creating and leading a multimillion-dollar award-winning design/build firm, developing national programs for ASID, and developing design research programs for the University of Minnesota. As a design professional, she has specialized in procurement innovation, design implementation and collaboration, environmental initiatives/LEED, workplace change management and has been the pioneer in research in designing for neurodiversity.

Paron has been honored with accolades from numerous organizations including IIDA, ASID, NKBA, NARI, USGBC, and Chrysalis Awards. She’s been published in Harvard Business Review, featured in Forbes and authored several books including the groundbreaking series on Interior Design for Autism by Wiley Publications.

Evan Orensten is interested in the intersections of COOL HUNTING’s content categories, an accomplished cook, serviceable photographer and enthusiastic storyteller and globetrotter. He’s the co-founder and Executive Editor of COOL HUNTING.

Josh Rubin is COOL HUNTING’s founder, editor and executive creative director. He brings his background as a photographer and expertise as a user experience designer to his point of view on what makes a good story for CH—this most often include some kind of intersectionality between art, culture, technology and design. Josh is a bit of an urban hippie, obsessed with most things Japanese, a Sealyham Terrier lover and very food motivated.

Welcome to Design Nerds Anonymous, the interiors industry-focused podcast that sparks curiosity at the intersection of business and design, from ThinkLab and SANDOW Design Group.

About

Amanda Schneider, LEED AP, MBA is a researcher, writer, and founder of ThinkLab. Amanda is a strategic thinker with a strong background including industrial design, market research, product management, sales, and strategic launch practices with a breadth of companies within the interiors industry. Amanda’s creative process stems from her education in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, while her natural business sense is augmented by her MBA from the University of Iowa. She is passionate about studying the latest workplace trends to make meaningful connections for the industry and regularly blogs about them in various industry publications. When she’s not busy working in her suburban Chicago office or visiting clients, you can find her trail running at freakishly early hours of the morning, dreaming about that book she’ll write someday, or ambushing her secret stash of dark chocolate and red wine.

About

Florencia Kratsman is the Director of Interior Architecture at FXCollaborative. She leads both strategy and design for Interior projects, while actively working with architecture and master planning teams to design spaces and experiences from the inside out. Her work spans corporate, cultural, residential and hospitality, for clients in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

About

Amy Devers is an artist, designer, maker, educator, host/producer of design-related media, and Emmy Award-winning television personality. A book + street smarts double threat; Devers is armed with both formal education and hands-on experience. She’s earned three college degrees including an MFA in Furniture Design from RISD, done a major stint as a chief prototype fabricator, and has spent years as an independent designer/builder of furniture and interiors. She’s also made a name for herself on the small screen, demonstrating her skills and know-how as the host of several television and digital series focused on international design, architecture, original furniture design & build, home improvement, culture and food.