Digital designer and writer Amélie Lamont is a native New Yorker and daughter of Jamaican immigrants. A self-proclaimed nerd, she grew up reading Encyclopedia Britannica and teaching herself to code. A life-long learner, she has pursued many different areas of study in school and hated them all, which is probably why her long-term vision for herself involves a PhD and starting a design school! As an outspoken advocate of PoC, she has initiated projects like People of Craft and The Guide to Allyship.

Fine artist and designer, Daniel Asham, grew up in Miami in the mirror image of the house across the street. After graduating from the Cooper Union, back in Miami he co-founded the artist-run gallery space ‘The House’. An invitation to collaborate with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company led to global adventures in stage design, and in 2007, in order to expand his explorations of spatial manipulation, he formed Snarkitecture, a multidisciplinary design practice with partner Alex Mustonen. 

Google’s Head of Hardware Design, Ivy Ross, learned from her industrial designer father how to see the world for how it’s made, and for the possibilities of how it could be remade. Early professional success as a jewelry designer taught her that life is not about ego hits, it’s about the journey. Fueled by curiosity, she’s traveled through the corporate world as a way to keep learning. She approaches work like conducting an orchestra - drawing out the best in individuals to create beautiful music as a team.

Industrial designer Carl Gustav Magnusson, was born in Sweden and grew up on a farm in Canada. Early life was informed by wide open spaces and a natural curiosity about cars and industrial farm equipment. After engineering and architecture degrees he got straight to work with Charles and Ray Eames, and then logged 30+ years with Knoll. He’s spent his life dedicated to contributing to society’s needs in a thoughtful way. Along the route, he’s worked with the greats, and birthed many iconic designs.

Costume concept artist Gina DeDomenico Flanagan spent the first half of her childhood roller skating around a cul-de-sac and the second half riding a horse around Hawaii. She studied fashion and illustration and then found her way into the entertainment business working with costume designers. After a 10-year motherhood hiatus and a divorce, she re-entered the industry and found that everything had gone digital. Through tears and hard work she learned the new tools and now she helps outfit superheroes. Pow!

Designer, researcher and author Ingrid Fetell Lee spent her childhood traveling back and forth between divorced parents, indulging her curiosity during unstructured time, and losing herself in books and her journal. Her professional path routed her through creative writing, market research and industrial design on the way to dedicating her life to the study of joy, and helping people understand the very profound effects our surroundings have on our well-being. It’s powerful and paradigm-shifting work!

In this special Clever Extra, taped live at a Be Original Americas event in Los Angeles, we conducted 6 lightning round interviews with leaders in different areas of design and architecture. Our central question of the night: How is original design and authentic voices important to the growth and ecosystem of your industry? Our guests included Gegg Buchbinder, Elena Manferdini, Bret Englander, Amanda Dameron and Barbara Bouza. Have a listen and join the conversation with us on social media.

Streetwear designer Bobby Hundreds grew up as a minority of a minority, being both Korean-American and into the socal skate punk scene. He loved to draw, but was not encouraged to pursue the arts so he got a law degree instead. When he started The Hundreds with a classmate, it took off like a rocket and he learned to fight like both an underdog and a champion. With the soul of a storyteller, he uses his voice—zines, blog, film, book—to champion the streetwear ecosystem.

Experience designer Kristy Tillman was a very studious child, extremely driven academically. Always on the advanced track, she assumed she would one day be a lawyer like Clair Huxtable. Coding and art were background passions until a friend made her aware of design as a profession and she immediately redirected them to the foreground. Having recognized the need and summoned the courage to “invite herself to the table,” she is now Head of Global Experience Design at Slack. Still on the advanced track, obvs.

Experience designer David Schwarz grew up “seeking weird things to explore, make and build.” Fast forward to adulthood and he’s still at it. As co-founder of Hush Studios he spends his brain power and energy blending architectural space and digital technology to create installations and experiences that people can inhabit, learn from, play in, and feel things inside of. He arrived via detours in economics and the San Francisco tech boom. It’s not a straight line, or clean story but it’s a fascinating one!