Design Ventura Shortlisting Panel 2020

Thank you to our participating schools for your submissions! All entries will be carefully reviewed by our shortlisting panel of judges. They will have the difficult task of selecting the shortlisted ideas for Design Ventura 2020. You can read more about them below, in alphabetical order:

Cynthia Voza Lusilu
Cynthia is a transdisciplinary designer born and raised in Paris. She is interested in working with people to collaboratively reimagine ways of learning, thinking, and making.

After graduating with a Masters in Design at Goldsmiths College, she started working as a project designer at CIVIC SQUARE, a Birmingham-based organisation that aims at building the social and civic infrastructure for neighbourhoods of the 21st century. She is currently a Designer in Residence at the Design Museum where she is exploring mental health in Black British communities and developing tools to promote wellbeing and emotional awareness.

Elaine Kelly
Elaine enjoys being a Design Ventura volunteer, and seeing how the school teams are able to develop and deliver such unique and innovative ideas and products. Working within Financial service organisations, Elaine always finds this level of creativity and innovation is both refreshing and inspiring. Elaine brings business insight from her experience working in financial services across multiple organisations and disciplines. Elaine has a keen interest in people and culture within the changing business environment, which is the area she specialised in for her MBA.  

Florence Okoye
Florence (pronouns: she/her) is a UX (User Experience) designer whose practice is based on using service design methods to inclusively design digital experiences and infrastructure. She currently works as a UX designer at the Natural History Museum and is a member of the Kiondo design collective.

Harry Mitchell
Harry co-founded Beta Design Office, a London based multi-disciplinary design consultancy with a core focus on industrial design. An inventor and maker at heart, Harry’s mechanical intuition and love for how things work means he designs products that last. Previously Associate Director at Sebastian Conran Associates, he has worked on a variety of projects from consumer robotics through to furniture, homewares, and custom motorcycles. 

Peta Miller
Peta is passionate about design, and believes in the power of the big idea as the starting point for every brand’s identity. Peta has over three decades of creative expertise, business acumen and production know-how, working directly with clients from most sectors, from global giants to innovative start-ups. Peta trained at Ravensbourne College of Art & Design (Foundation in Graphic Design), and Middlesex Polytechnic (BA Hons in Graphic Design). Peta is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and has been a ‘Design Ventura’ industry expert volunteer since 2013.

Samuel Mensah
Samuel Mensah is a London based Creative, whose experience spans from Branding to Art Direction, Digital Product, and Industrial Design. Mensah has used his educational foundation as a springboard for his career. He has created and been credited with crafting award-winning campaigns and products globally for clients such as Nike, Google and Virgin. His self-initiated work and bespoke typefaces have been featured on platforms such as Creative Review, Adobe.com, Abduzeedo, and DesignYouTrust to name a few.

Sara-Jane Shore
Sara-Jane has been an active Design Ventura volunteer for a number of years, and supports workshops by providing practical business insight as a Technology Risk Manager at Deutsche Bank, along with her experience from studying art and graphic design. Sara-Jane enjoys seeing how participating Design Ventura schools are able to design, build and deliver innovative products to be sold in a business context.