Lawrence Azerrad’s, studio LAD has produced work in film, print, and digital media since 2001. Creating comprehensive visual identity systems for a wide range of clients including, surf legend Laird Hamilton, The Foo Fighters, The Clinton Foundation, UCLA Live, Oliver Peoples Eyewear, hotels, spas, and over thirteen years of creating art and design for the band Wilco, LAD continues to design album packaging and artwork for recording artists including Herbie Hancock, Wilco, The Silversun Pickups and The Beach Boys.

In his career, John has won more than 250 design awards, is an AIGA Fellow, has been featured in the ID 50, and teaches at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art staged a solo exhibition in 2000, and John was awarded the Skandalaris Award for Design Entrepreneurship from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009 and an honorary doctorate degree from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2011. Also in 2011, John was awarded the NASAD citation for outstanding work as designer, author, educator, social activist and overall impact on the fields of art and design.

In 2003, John created an immersive program called Project M that is designed to inspire and educate young designers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers by proving that their work can have a significant impact on communities. Project M has developed projects in Alabama, Baltimore, Connecticut, Costa Rica, Detroit, Germany, Ghana, Iceland, Maine, Minneapolis, and New Orleans.

John collaborated with Alex and Ana Bogusky, and Rob Schuham in 2010 to form COMMON, a brand that supports, connects and celebrates those designing a new era of socially minded enterprise. And most recently, John has partnered with long-time collaborator Greg Galle to launch a new firm called FUTURE that engages with organizations, institutions and companies that believe benefiting people, communities, society, and the environment is the new advantage in business.

Renata Graw is a founder and managing partner at Plural Design and the AIGA Chicago vice-president. She also teaches graphic design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been recognized by the Art Directors Club, Type Directors Club, AIGA, and the Society of Typographic Arts. Print Magazine, Eye Magazine, and Communications Arts have published her work.

Renata was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she received a BFA from Pontificia Universidade Catolica. She studied typography under Wolfgang Weingart at the Basel School of Design and graduationed with an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Since opening in 1999, Firebelly has produced solid work they believe in and clients trust. Work that has merited mention in a journal here and a design archive there. While certainly proud of the studio’s history and accomplishments, Dawn feels no need to rehash the past.

She prefers to live and work in the present, to make of it something rich and sustainable that can make a lasting impact.

Though the studio remains Dawn’s focal point and her center of gravity, Firebelly has expanded into a bustling little world that she hustles across daily. A world built with her own two hands, the fearless work of her team, and an abundance of neighborhood support. Already coordinating the annual Grant for Good, a charitable award that supports one non-profit for a year, she decided to launch her own organization, which evolved into an entire socially minded enterprise.

The Firebelly Foundation, established in 2006, includes several programs, each a reflection of Dawn’s passion and ethic. Under the Foundation’s umbrella, she established the Humboldt Park non-profit Reason to Give and runs the 10-day intensive Camp Firebelly for hungry young designers. Most recently, she started Firebelly University, an entrepreneurial incubator that emphasizes taking risks and doing good. Yet Dawn continues to ask what more could she be doing.

Dawn knows that sustainable innovation and social responsibility are not simply badges or buzzwords. They are principles. Ways to live. Through the Foundation’s work and her civic and social engagement, Dawn is ceaseless in her dedication to building and inspiring, to connecting ideas to individuals, and individuals to each other.

Upon joining the board of AIGA Chicago as Community Outreach Chair in 2009, Dawn seized upon the opportunity to create a free mentorship program available to the entire Chicago community. Each year, nearly 300 individuals from all areas come together in design therapy groups. They share their success stories as well as their missteps and questions, seeking and offering guidance regardless of career level. Together they form a community that believes, as Dawn does, that we are all in this together.

And still more. Always more. Dawn is thrilled to occasionally speak at design schools, workshops, and conferences near and far. Presenting at TEDxWindyCity in February 2010 was an honor and a challenge – terrifying, uplifting, and wholly exhilarating. As most things are. She is ready.

Wally Krantz is a graphic designer who has been developing corporate identity systems for nearly twenty years, starting as a designer at Landor Associates in San Francisco up to today as Executive Creative Director at The Brand Union in New York. He has always loved the collaboration of the team he is working with to create ideas and craft them to serve an organization across multiple touchpoints long after it is out of his hands.

From leading the brand refresh of Time Warner Cable at The Brand Union in 2010 to cutting his teeth as a designer on the FedEx identity program at Landor in '93, Wally has led or been a designer on programs for The Wildlife Conservation Society, Avid, Shazam, The NFL, SuperBowl XL, MasterCard Worldwide, Japan Airlines, Chevrolet, The American Red Cross, LG Electronics, YBCA, and the International Rescue Committee.

Wally grew up in a suburb of Detroit, received his B.F.A. from Western Michigan University, and has lived in Brooklyn for the past eleven years. He will occasionally tweet @wallykrantz, and more frequently, post pictures at plateoffish.com

Mike McQuade currently lives, works and plays in Chicago. He believes that hard work, persistance, insane optimism and mistakes lead to better work. Mike describes his graphic design and illustration methods as a raw and always transforming. He gathers most of his inspiration from everyday happenings. “I am obsessed with visual communication, sometimes it's strange & awkward, other times beautiful & moving, most of the time it's outrageous and full of insults. Nevertheless, it's fun to observe and it indirectly informs all of my work.” Mike believes strong concept in design is as important as the the visuals themselves and says, “No matter how good the execution or style of a piece, it will not work without a great idea.”

Joe Stewart is Global Creative Director at Huge where he oversees digital creative and design for some of the world's largest brands. Guiding the work of handpicked creatives in offices from New York to Los Angeles, London and Rio de Janeiro, Stewart pushes Huge’s team to create solutions that simultaneously solve business problems and improve people’s lives.

Joe started his career at Huge as the agency’s first art director after cutting his teeth at boutique agencies and digital consultancy firms during the dot-com era. While at Huge, Joe has directed some of the agency's most influential work for clients including JetBlue, Target, Pepsi, Reuters and The City of New York. In 2010, he was appointed to the company’s management team as a partner and head of creative.

Joe lives in Brooklyn with his son Ace and wife Natasha.

Michael is the Principal & Creative Director of Gesture Theory where he has had the opportunity to help in the creation of compelling and engaging digital experiences for such companies as Forbes, Thomson Reuters, the AIGA, Etsy, and Undercurrent among others. He publishes the well know blog Design Notes and can be found sharing photos everyday under the hashtag #walkingtoworktoday.

Ben Wu is an award winning documentary filmmaker from San Francisco, CA. He went to school at UC San Diego, received his MA in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford University, and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He loves a good deviled egg, and has a pretty decent jump shot.

Lost & Found Films is a non-fiction film production company dedicated to telling stories that explore cultural and social issues and finding new ways to engage audiences. Founded in 2009 by Ben Wu and David Usui, Lost & Found has collaborated with many outlets including the NY Times, Wired, Wallpaper, Food+Wine, Vice and GOOD magazine. Their previous commercial work has included campaigns with Pepsi, Nike, Lexus, MoMA, Chandelier Creative, Martha Stewart Living and the 2012 Obama Campaign.