The Mohawk Show Judges

Tim Belonax
Design Director, Pinterest

At Pinterest, Tim Belonax uses his world-class design talent to help people understand what Pinterest is and how it can support their creative goals. Though Pinterest is a digital way to collect ideas, Tim believes strongly in the power of print to enact social change.

Tim's previous positions as Design Lead at Airbnb and Principal Designer at Facebook's Analog Research Lab further demonstrate his dedication to exploring the ways design can help us understand and adapt to our rapidly changing culture.

Kelli Anderson
Designer & Paper Engineer

Kelli Anderson's work operates in the space between conceptual art, graphic design, and tech. Her whimsical books have featured a working paper planetarium, a pop-up pinhole camera, and a paper record player. Whenever she can, Kelli uses humble, lo-fi materials to expose the invisible magic of the world and make abstract concepts into tangible items, preferably the kind you can play with.

Kelli is unafraid to mix graphic design with math, the sciences, and of course, a good dose of humor. She has found inspiration in food under a microscope (terrazzo wrapping paper), geologic markers of time (abstract stickers), and meteorite impacts (a data visualization print in bright, juicy colors). She shares her insights with future designers by teaching at the Parsons School of Design and the School for Poetic Computation.

Ellen Lupton
Writer + Curator

Respected academic and artist Ellen Lupton marries the visual and the verbal to make design theory accessible and enjoyable. She is an author, design critic, lecturer, and AIGA Gold Medal recipient whose books, including Thinking with Type, are used by students, designers, and educators worldwide. Design historian Katherine Feo has said of her, "If graphic design has its own history, an understanding of the theory that drives it and a voice for its continuing discourse, it's largely because Lupton wrote it, thought it, or spoke it."

Since 1997, Ellen has been raising consciousness about design-powered communication from her desk at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she serves as both faculty and founding director. She is also Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. Her enthusiasm, curiosity, and willingness to share her knowledge have influenced a countless number of designers who shape the world around us today.

Mike Renaud
Founder & Co-CEO, Varyer

“The unexpected union of unexpected things” – that’s the mantra of Varyer, the Chicago-based creative group and brand consultancy founded by Mike Renaud. Formerly the Vice President and Creative Director of Pitchfork, Mike is adamant that powerful design comes from a place of empathy and enlightenment. He celebrates analog solutions to creative problems and believes that great ideas transcend mediums.

Mike has been recognized with a National Magazine Award, multiple Webby Awards, AIGA’s Corporate Leadership Award, The Society of Publication Design’s Brand of the Year Award, and a spot on Ad Age’s Creativity 50 list.

Andrew Gibbs
Founder, Dieline & Partner, A Plastic Planet

Andrew Gibbs has been called an "innovator in the world of design." As founder of Dieline, a creative platform that serves the packaging community, as well as the Dieline Awards and Dieline Conference, Andrew's commitment to protecting the environment through smarter design solutions is his driving force.

In 2014, he joined the faculty at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA, where he teaches sustainable packaging design to tomorrow's innovators. In 2018, he became a Climate Reality Leader after training under Al Gore at the 2018 Climate RealityCorps. Andrew then joined A Plastic Planet, a nonprofit that is dedicated to dramatically reducing the amount of single-use plastic used in the packaging industry through initiatives like the world's first Plastic Free Certified grocery store aisle, and its Plastic Free Certification mark.