Design Ventura Judging Panel 2020

This year’s Pitching Event is going to take place online on Wednesday 12 May 2021. The top shortlisted schools will each submit a 3-minute pitch film, which will be reviewed by our panel of industry experts. The shortlisted state schools will also have a live 10-minute Q&A session where the judges can ask them questions about their product ideas. Here are this year’s panel:

Shahidha Bari
Shahidha Bari is an academic, critic and broadcaster. She is Professor of Fashion Cultures and Histories at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.  She’s also the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s nightly Free Thinking programme, also known as the Arts and Ideas podcast, and the occasional host of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. She’s the author of “Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes” (2019), the winner of The Observer Anthony Burgess Arts Journalism Prize 2016 and has been a judge for the Forward Poetry Prizes and the Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Prize. She writes for The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement and Frieze magazine. 

Sebastian Conran
Sebastian wanted to be an inventor whilst at school and got A levels in Maths Physics and Chemistry; then he studied Industrial Design Engineering at Central St. Martins, where he gave the Sex Pistols their first booking and designed record sleeves and posters for The Clash. After this he worked at corporate identity consultancy Wolff Olins followed by leading hard-goods development at Mothercare, after which he founded Sebastian Conran Associates design studio in 1986 and taught furniture design at the Royal College of Art. Sebastian is now a trustee of the Design Museum, Chair of the Conran Foundation and Conran + Partners, Visiting Professor of Design & Innovation at Bristol Robotics Lab, Designer in Residence at University of Sheffield engineering faculty; he also writes & lectures on innovation.

Yinka Ilori
The Design Ventura 2020 brief setter Yinka Ilori, is a London-based multidisciplinary artist, who specialises in storytelling by fusing his British and Nigerian heritage to tell new stories in contemporary design. Ilori’s work touches on various global themes that resonate with different audiences all over the world. Recent projects include The Dulwich Picture Gallery Pavilion 2019: The Colour Palace, the Thessaly Road Bridge underpass Happy Street, 2019 and the Project Earth window display for Selfridges, London.

Duncan Sanders
Duncan is Head of Trading at the Design Museum, with retail, catering and publishing all within his portfolio. Having worked in commercial roles at multitude of leading cultural organisations – including Museum of London, British Library and Southbank Centre – Duncan has a wealth of experience in product and brand development.

Christoph Woermann
Global Head of Corporate Bank Marketing at Deutsche Bank. Christoph has a passion for garden design and is an ardent supporter of the Design Ventura project and a seasoned member of the judging panel.