The Good Design Jury Team -> 2025

Alexander is an award-winning, hands-on design leader passionate about creating meaningful and innovative products. His diverse background across various disciplines of design, combined with global experiences from Europe and Asia, gives him a unique and holistic perspective on creating desirable products as well as a unique sensibility to different cultures. He has worked for top companies and market leaders across various industries (telecommunications, automobile, technology): Deutsche Telekom, NIO, and Lenovo.

Currently, Alexander is Head of Design and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom, where he leads teams responsible for product design across Connectivity/Network, TV, and Mobile, including the company’s own mobile phones, where he was part of the founding team creating the first T Phone.

In addition to delivering high-quality products, he leads the Innovation Design Team, which researches and develops cutting-edge digital and physical experiences, generating innovative ideas that contribute to various projects. A key focus for the Innovation team is developing AI-powered experiences, with Alexander serving as a founding member of both Magenta AI and the recently launched AI Phone.

Prior to working at Deutsche Telekom, Alexander spent six years in China, starting from Lenovo’s laptop and tablet team in Beijing. After moving to Shanghai, he set up and lead a multi-disciplinary design team local design agency LinkPlus Architects, focusing on retail design and experiences. He later served as Design Director and founding member of NIO cars’ lifestyle brand NIO Life, setting up the design team and creating the global design language, partnering with top designers such as Tom Dixon and Hussein Chalayan.

Alexander is known for moving easily between different design disciplines and keeping usability and cultural relevance at the forefront. He studied industrial design at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design in London, and his experience covers most areas of design, including product, furniture & interior design, branding & advertising, strategic design, UX and UI design. Alexander believes a strong designer with the right mindset and approach should be able to apply their skills and solve problems across many fields and formats, moving seamlessly between digital and physical, as well as different scales.

Arto Riimala is a multidisciplinary designer whose work bridges industrial design, user experience, and strategic innovation across digital and physical domains.

Arto works on the integration of human-centered design into high-performance agricultural machinery. Holding a Master of Arts in Industrial Design from the University of Lapland, Finland, Riimala brings over two decades of experience spanning consultancy and in-house roles across diverse product categories—from playground equipment and consumer goods to off-road vehicles.

His approach is holistic and data driven, using various product development and research methods to explore design possibilities and having a sharp focus on enabling business impact. Riimala’s ability to shuttle between disciplines has made him a key figure in shaping ergonomic and efficient working environments that seamlessly combine digital interfaces with physical inputs.

Riimala’s most recent work is the Valtra S Series agricultural tractor, a state-of-the-art machine engineered for large-scale farming operations. The project exemplifies his commitment to user experience and strategic design and was recognized by Red Dot: Best of the Best Award in 2025—a testament to groundbreaking innovation and impact in the industry.

As a juror in international design competitions, Riimala brings a holistic and pragmatic lens to evaluating design excellence, informed by his deep understanding of user needs, technical constraints, and the evolving role of design in shaping sustainable futures.

Francesco is an industrial designer with 12+ years of international experience. He holds a Bachelor and a Master’s degree in Industrial and Eco Design from the Polytechnic University of Turin. His expertise spans mainly consumer electronics and home appliances across Asia and Europe.

A native of Southern Italy, Francesco’s professional path was driven by a powerful, singular childhood dream: designing smartphones. This ambition originated from this fascination, instilled by his father, who worked for a telecommunications company and frequently brought new models home. Together, they would open them up, think about improvements, and study their mechanisms. Ultimately, this obsession became the reason he pursued Industrial Design. In time, his passion expanded to the whole consumer electronics domain.

Notably, two-thirds of his professional experience has been based in China while working in-house for global brands like Samsung and TCL, and prominent design agencies such as Designaffairs (now part of Accenture).

He currently works as a Lead Industrial Designer for the Italian design firm Studio Volpi.

Throughout the years, Francesco has earned design awards and patents. Committed to delivering emotionally engaging products that simultaneously drive market success, he also particularly enjoys taking on mentoring roles to guide junior designers through complex projects.

Jeremy Abel is a hands-on design leader with more than 20 years of experience turning ideas into products people connect with. His career has been built around bringing together industrial design, UX, and research to create thoughtful, meaningful experiences that balance user needs with business goals.

He’s helped build and grow design organizations that move fast and deliver results—tightening development timelines, improving collaboration, and showing how great design can directly drive business impact. Jeremy’s work spans everything from defining visual brand systems and leading immersive experience environments to building the design processes that help creative teams do their best work.

At the core, he believes design should serve people. His leadership style focuses on empathy, curiosity, and trust—encouraging teams to experiment, challenge assumptions, and create with intention.

Architect but also unconditional designer, he advocates in each of his projects an eclecticism and a sweetness of life that resembles him. In 2007 he founded mid [michelangeli design], to focus his creative work on unique international projects and new living spaces. He is recognized as 40 under 40, one of the 40 European Architects under the age of 40 having an impact on the environment of the future, the city, the places to live and work. From Madrid and Without borders, he designed and built in association with the greatest including Kevin Roche, Pritzker Prize winner 1992, for the training center of the Santander Financial city.

During his former collaborations, Jérôme Michelangeli planned several new operations and restructuring in urban areas for major developers and specialized in hotel design. With over 1,000 rooms completed or under development across Europe & Africa, he is establishing itself as an emerging player in hotel design on the 2 continents. In Europe, as part of his activity, he finished the design of the  Domaine Dolomieu Hotel & Spa near Lyon and The Square Gauthier Hotel & Spa in Casablanca. He received  the International Architecture Award 2022 in Athens by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum for the Milano Santa Giulia Terrazze Multi-family Housing, The Future House Award 2024 for Villa FELIPAO, an iconic villa for a renowned Madrid-based sculptor and recently the Modern furniture and Lighting prize 2025 for ANGEL•A chair design proposal.

Jon Simmons is an Industrial Design leader creating innovative, intuitive product experiences through deep technical and customer insights. He currently leads Industrial Design for Verizon’s Home & Connectivity portfolio, including broadband and IoT products used in over 12 million homes. Jon has helped guide Verizon to several awards, including Good Design, Red Dot, and IDEA, and has spearheaded key patent-pending innovations making Verizon’s products substantially more delightful to use, performant, and sustainable.

Previously, Jon was the sole Industrial Designer in Samsung’s Global UX Studio, where he helped shape future mobile and wearable strategy. Earlier, he worked with leading design consultancies such as Smart Design and Native Design to create award-winning consumer electronics, medical devices, and housewares.

His multi-disciplinary approach has informed product roadmaps, design languages, and development processes across several global technology organizations. He holds an MFA in Industrial Design from California College of the Arts and a Bachelor’s in Engineering with a minor in Economics from Lafayette College.

Nichole Rouillac is the Founder and Creative Director of level, a women-led industrial design studio in San Francisco. She leads with a mission to create intelligent, thoughtful designs that shape industries and enhance lives. Her work has propelled breakthrough products into the global spotlight, with an award-winning portfolio that includes Microsoft, Google, Logitech, Fitbit, HTC, AliveCor, and Tempo.

level’s impact has been recognized with top accolades, including GOOD Design, IDEA, Red Dot, iF, and Spark Platinum awards, as well as Fast Company’s #3 Most Innovative Design Company.

Beyond design, Nichole is a dedicated advocate for diversity in the industry. As the former chair of IDSA’s Women in Design, she mentors and champions the next generation of female designers, helping to reshape an industry where women remain underrepresented.

Simon Kidd is the Director of Product Design & Engineering at Blackmagic Design where he has built and led the company’s 70+ in-house design team since 2007. Kidd has played a pivotal role in transforming Blackmagic from a technology-driven manufacturer to a globally recognised design-led brand, earning more than 200 international design awards including the prestigious Red Dot “Design Team of the Year” title. Products developed under his direction have been used on many acclaimed film and television productions including Oppenheimer, Moonlight, La La Land, The Martian, Stranger Things, Mad Max and Avatar.

Kidd holds an Industrial Design degree from RMIT University and an accreditation from the UK Design Business Association. Prior to joining Blackmagic, he worked across Australia, the UK and China on products for British Telecom, Apple, Intel, Black & Decker, Colgate-Palmolive, Schick-Energizer, Unilever, Roche and Virgin. He is a keynote speaker and writer on design and has had works featured in the Henry Ford Museum, Red Dot Design Museum, Powerhouse Museum Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria and BMW Museum Munich.

Umut Demirel is a multidisciplinary designer. After studying in Volda University College, Norway and graduating from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul; he set up his own studio in 2012.

Umut Demirel Design Studio works in various fields of design ranging from daily and retail objects to tableware and packaging for various international clients, such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Pasabahce, Haremlique, Alhambra, Th Manufacture…

He’s been found worthy of a number of prestigious awards including: Red Dot Design Award 2011 and 2012, Frankfurt Ambiente Talents 2010,  New York Wanted Design 2013 “Design: Istanbul – New York“, Maison & Objet Paris 2014 “Talents a la Carte“, Design Turkey Good Design Award 2014 and 2016, Elle Decoration International Turkish Design Awards 2015 and several other grants.