Daniel Zender

Professor of Art and Design at Queens College, New York

Daniel Zender is an artist, living and working in Brooklyn, NY, whose work includes editorial and commercial illustration, graphic design, cartooning, printmaking, painting, and sculpture. He is the recipient of silver and gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and the Art Directors Club Young Guns award. Clients include the New York Times, New Yorker, Nike, Adidas, Facebook, and Google, as well as editorial and commercial work from a variety of clients. He is professor of art and design at Queens College, in Queens, New York City.

Syed Hassan Ameer

Senior Managing Consultant at IBM Pakistan

Hassan is a digital & design thinking professional with over 18 years of experience in the Australian Financial Services market. Currently with IBM Pakistan, he is working with the local clients co-creating their customer journeys.

Anél Strydom

Digital Strategy & iX Lead at IBM South Africa

Anél is an Industrial Psychologist, leading a team of creative strategists, designers and developers set on changing the world, one business at a time. We believe humanity, creativity and humour unlocks the true value technology presents to break down barriers and sustainably solve human problems.

Anél has had the privilege to work in Pakistan guiding design adoption locally. Focusing on working at the convergence of strategy, creativity and technology, using design as a business tool to help clients transform, grow and evolve. And in return being shaped by each of these experiences.

She considers herself a nomad that enjoys nothing more than connecting and creating shared meaning across geographical and cultural borders.

Muhammad Hamayun Sajjad

Chief Digital Officer at United Bank Limited

Muhammad recognised as Asia’s top 100 Fintech leaders, a seasoned executive and entrepreneur that holds various positions as board member and director. He is passionate about delivering culture change in large, complex organisations using Design Thinking methodologies and his work focuses on innovation, digitalisation, and how technology is redefining people’s expectations. At UBL he is leading bank’s digital transformation also crafting new digital banking business opportunities through
Focus on Design lead innovation.

Muqeem Khan

Associate Professor of Communication & Design at Habib University

In 1996, Muqeem Khan became the first Pakistani to start working in the Hollywood visual effects (VFX) industry. His motion picture credits with Walt Disney and Square USA include Deep Rising, George of the Jungle, Flubber, Armageddon, and Final Fantasy. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial design from the Ohio State University and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Charles Sturt University in Australia. His research interests are in the areas of multidisciplinary design, emerging interactive technologies, and Digital Intangible Cultural Heritage. Through empathic design framework and augmented reality, he is currently investigating, documenting, and transmitting the ancient pulse-reading practices/Unani pulse diagnosis in South Asia. He has taught Virginia Commonwealth and Northwestern Universities in Qatar and is currently an associate professor of communication and design program at Habib University in Pakistan. His interactive experimentations can be seen here at his TED talk: https://vimeo.com/88441859

Halima Sadia

Freelance Graphic Designer

Halima Sadia is a graphic designer with an independent freelance practice since 2014. Her prominent solo projects include the branding & campaign design of the IAMKARACHI launch, the IAK Music Festival 2015, the IAK Youth Champions Expo 2015, Art Direction & Graphic Design of the Karachi Biennale 2017 (KB17) and Design & Execution of the Young Historian’s Section in the National History Museum, Lahore by The Citizens Archive of Pakistan. Other notable clients include the Teachers Resource Center (TRC), Mano Animation Studies and P&G Pakistan.

Simultaneously, Halima works as the Creative Manager at Vasl Artists’ Association since 2016, where she designs and manages the creative output of Vasl residencies, events, educational outreach programs and public art projects, with a specific focus on publications.

Halima has also been part time faculty in the Department of Visual Studies at University of Karachi in 2018 and often serves as a guest juror at her alma mater, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Most recently, Halima co-curated and designed for ‘The Long and Short of it’, the IVS Alumni Show 2019.

Laura Berglund

Laura Berglund is a graphic designer and art director in New York, working as an Associate Partner at Pentagram.

Specializing in branding and identity design, she has worked with numerous clients such as Warner Brothers, J.K. Rowling, Snoop Dogg, Sean Parker, Niantic Games, and others, helping them to visually define new ventures, or finesse existing ones.

Previously she has worked at Paperless Post, Hyperakt, and Design Army, and graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2010. She was named one of Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists of 2015 and her work has been recognized by Communication Arts, the Print Regional Design Annual, HOW International Awards, HOW In-House Design Awards, AIGA, AAF, Graphis, and The Society of Publication Designers.

Syed Hasnat Masood

Behavioral Design Consultant at White Rice

Hasnat is a behavioral design strategist, challenging the way interventions are created to solve wicked social problems.

Having 20 years of experience across fields as diverse as Genomics, Public Relations, and Design, he applies creative freedom and analytical rigor in equal parts to systemic issues.

Method-agnostic and bent on trying “whatever works,” Hasnat is constantly evolving his tool box with cutting-edge behavioral approaches, design techniques, and predictive models.

Currently, he is interested in harnessing the power of unfettered questions for problem-framing and the magic of humor for generating truly divergent ideas.

His mantra: Make life easier for people.

Bushra Mahmood

Principal Designer at Unity Technologies

Bushra got her start in tech nearly a decade ago working in motion graphics and visual effects. she then gradually moved into product design. Bushra led design at a fintech startup that was acquired by Goldman Sachs and then moved to Adobe. At Adobe she worked on several tools ranging from Dimension, Premiere Rush, After Effects and Project Aero. Bushra recently joined Unity Technologies working in the Labs team working on AR/VR and the future of authoring tools.

Faraz Maqsood Hamidi

CoFounder, Partner & Chief Creative Officer at The D’Hamidi Partnership

Faraz Maqsood Hamidi is a multi-hyphenate creative tour de force. He is a professional writer and speaker, internationally published author, poet, visiting lecturer, columnist, and branding and identity specialist with over 25 years of diversified experience in the creation, development, management, and restructuring of world-class products and services into iconic brands for blue-chip clients across multiple categories.

Alongside his professional responsibilities, Mr. Hamidi is a visiting lecturer across a number of institutes and chief columnist for Aurora, the industry’s preeminent trade magazine, where he pens one of the world’s longest running columns on advertising, Above-the-Line.

After reading for his degree in Mass Communication from the College of Communication at Boston University, Mr. Hamidi trained with Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide (London/Singapore) and joined Saatchi Pakistan as Chief Creative in 1991. Since 1994, he is CoFounder, Partner and Chief Creative Officer of The D’Hamidi Partnership — the agency that bears his name — where he continues to push the envelope for Pakistan’s creative community and the region, at large.

Saad Khurshid

Graphic Designer

Saad Khurshid (b. 1986) is a graphic designer from Karachi, Pakistan. In his teenage years, he was an active member of the early 2000’s internet design scene. Later, he studied at Indus Valley School of Art. After graduating in 2015, he started his studio practice focusing on designing corporate identities, with the use of intricate grid-systems. He often collaborates with architects to create holistic design experiences. His studio output includes the branding for Pakistan Chowk Community Centre (PCCC), Kurachee, Thyme, Nomad Coffee and Red Apple.

Gulraiz Khan

Head of Level 3 – Digital Design Lab at United Bank Ltd

Gulraiz is a design researcher and strategist, working at the intersection of design, urbanism and finance. He currently heads Level 3, the Digital Design Lab at UBL. Previously, he taught design at Habib University, and co-founded the playground, Habib’s Center for Transdisciplinarity, Design & Innovation. He received his MFA in Transdisciplinary Design from Parsons The New School for Design.

Awais Imran

Lead Product Designer at KeepTruckin

“Awais is an entrepreneurial product designer and community manager. He is a Lead Product Designer at KeepTruckin — a Bay Area-based billion-dollar tech company that builds fleet management products for the US transportation industry; Community Manager at UXDP — the biggest, most active design community in Pakistan with 5,000+ members; and co-founder of PriceOye — Pakistan’s leading price comparison startup.

Awais enjoys sharing insights on design, personal growth and entrepreneurship. He has written for UXMatters, UX Collective, Tech in Asia, The Express Tribune, Dawn, TechJuice, ProPakistani, and MIT Technology Review PK. He has also spoken at numerous Google and TED community events across Pakistan. In 2017, he was featured in TechJuice’s 25 High Achievers Under 25.”

Raheel Waqar

CEO at White Rice

Raheel works at the intersection of design and change. He is the CEO and founder of White Rice, a leading behavior design agency, focused on behavior change.

Raheel brings 18 years of experience and is a certified Behavioral Designer, Design Thinker and Social Impact Strategist. He actively contributes to his field by serving as an advisor, mentor, trainer, board member and consultant for local and international institutions.

Sadia Bashir

Founder/CEO at PixelArt Games Academy

Sadia Bashir is the founder of PixelArt Games Academy (PGA), which is Pakistan’s first games academy. She has done bachelors and MS in computer science and has done research about Game Development Practices in Industry during her Masters research. She has been working in the game industry for past 8 years and has started PixelArt Games Academy about 3 years ago. PGA is a training academy that teach game development, design and production, art and animation through collaborative learning experience. She has also established a GameLab at PGA to help developers to design & Implement creative ideas. She has been listed as Forbes 30 Under 30 in Enterprise technology 2018 and recognized as a Global Gaming Citizen at The Game Awards 2018 by Facebook Gaming.

Carol Cavaleiro

Assistant Art Editor at O Globo

Carol Cavaleiro is a visual journalist. She is responsible for the infographics department at O Globo, newspaper from the largest media conglomerate in Brazil. Carolina leads a multidisciplinary team and edits the daily visual content. She is current focus on UX/UI and cross-platform data visualizations.

Gemma O’Brien

Lettering Artist

Gemma O’Brien is an Australian artist best known for her expressive, highly-detailed typography and illustration work. Although unrestricted to a single style or application, Gemma’s work is recognized for its energetic, youthful quality, and handcrafted lettering. Many of her murals are created in front of live audiences, championing an authenticity often eluded by the digital landscape.

Jess Freaner

Design Lead & Data Scientist at IDEO

Jess is a Data Scientist and Design Lead with global design company IDEO where she leads multidisciplinary teams in the pursuit of the human-centered design of intelligent products, systems, & services. She has a Psychology background and is passionate about unlocking the potential latent in data and making it more accessible to empower users and to activate underrepresented communities as designers of AI. Jess co-organizes the Chicago Data Science and Women in Machine Learning & Data Science (WiMLDS) Meetups and has played an integral role in shaping IDEO’s core data principles and AI & Ethics activities for designers.

Omer Jilani

Creative Director at Happa Studios

“Storyteller, brand seller, thought leader and entrepreneur, Omer Jilani, CEO Happa studios, remains a graphic designer at heart.

When he founded Happa studios ten years ago, his home was his first workspace. From then to now, he has grown his business with the studio employing more than 50 people offering 360 solutions to cater to a brand’s communication needs.

“ Taking the first step is always the most daunting task and when good design works, you can see the results.” Much of his philosophy towards design and keeping it at par with
International practices and aesthetic has made him a force to be reckoned with in the field of graphic design.”

Yawar Iqbal

Executive Creative Director at JWT – Grey

A storyteller by nature with a career expanding 17+ years, Yawar had the privilege to be associated with the leading agencies in the country, reshaping and reimagining some great global and local brands. He has won several local and international awards and had the pleasure to judge the Lisbon Ad Fest.

With a degree in communication design and an illustrious portfolio that comprises of brands like Mobilink, Ufone, Coke, Engro Foods, Lux, Sunsilk, LU biscuits, shell, Khaadi and many more, Yawar had the opportunity to give these brands a unique visual point of view that not only resulted in business growth but also in the emotional growth of the brands. This transformation of brands let him experience amazing human narratives that played a key role in his work.

Currently, Yawar is working at JWT-Grey as an Executive Creative Director.

Faris Khalid

College Registrar at Government Elementary College

Faris Khalid can be best described by the words “curious” and “restless”.
Having worked in the corporate worlds of Advertising and Restaurant Marketing in Karachi and Dubai for a number of years, he always maintained an interest and involvement with performing arts.
From playing drums in a college band to a founding member (and later trainer) of Karachi-based improv comedy troupe, Black Fish (circa 2002-2007). Faris’s passion for acting, particularly on stage, was further fueled when he worked alongside Pakistani theatre stalwarts Ayesha Alam, Rahat Kazmi and Zia Mohiyuddin in various projects over the years. His stage experience led to a few TV projects before Faris signed on to act in Pakistani films such as ‘Chalay Thay Saath’ (2017) and ‘Cake’ (2018).
Quite convinced he had a face for radio, Faris produced and hosted a radio show on FM91 called “Radio Circus” (circa 2017).
The experience with improvisational theater with Black Fish defined a deep-rooted interest in personal development which led Faris to design and conduct improve workshops for soft skill development with students such as Haque Academy and Cedar College (where he worked as Head of Learning and Development) and corporate organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank, Shell, AKU and The Nest I/O. Faris has also spoken about developing Emotional Intelligence using Improv techniques at AKU, KLIC Conferences and NED University.
Faris is currently involved with local education reforms and is College Registrar at Government Elementary College for Education, as a project of Durbeen (affiliated with Zindagi Trust) and a certified fitness trainer.
He also looks nothing like what he does in this photograph because he became “fed up with looking the same for so long” so he’s grown out his hair and added some to his face as well.

Raiha Ahmed

Co-founder at UP Design

A Bachelor’s in computer sciences from National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences that offers one of the most prestigious computer sciences programs. She had an interest in design from an early age and learned design tools on the side during her college which allowed her to start a career that offered a mix of technology and Design: UX/UI design. She has worked as a freelancer from time to time for designing websites, brand identity and communication design work for local clients. Recently she quit her well paying job at Telenor Pakistan to start her own UX firm called Up Design with her business partner and friend Nudrat Anjum. UP Design offers Complete digital product design, consultancy and UX trainings.

Danish Iftikhar

CEO at Infinity

Danish Iftikhar, design & freelancing trainer who trained more than 500 students and helped them earn thousands of dollars. He is a design strategist at various startups. He is a top freelancer with an amazing success story. He is working with various multinational companies such as BMW, T-Series, Nestle, ARY, Walmart and many more. He runs a design studio and mentor many young designers. Immensely creative and articulate, he is a man well aware of the current trends, a rare breed of intellectual designers who has roots deep down to the depths of understanding and conceptual thinking, combined with the richness of his visual expression, to his highly ingenious and breathtaking work.
Experience:
– CEO at Infinity
– Freelancing (6 years)
– Creative Design Trainer at Punjab IT Board
– MSP at Microsoft (2 years)

Halima Sadia

Freelance Graphic Designer

Halima Sadia is a graphic designer with an independent freelance practice since 2014. Her prominent solo projects include the branding & campaign design of the IAMKARACHI launch, the IAK Music Festival 2015, the IAK Youth Champions Expo 2015, Art Direction & Graphic Design of the Karachi Biennale 2017 (KB17) and Design & Execution of the Young Historian’s Section in the National History Museum, Lahore by The Citizens Archive of Pakistan. Other notable clients include the Teachers Resource Center (TRC), Mano Animation Studies and P&G Pakistan.

Simultaneously, Halima works as the Creative Manager at Vasl Artists’ Association since 2016, where she designs and manages the creative output of Vasl residencies, events, educational outreach programs and public art projects, with a specific focus on publications.

Halima has also been part time faculty in the Department of Visual Studies at University of Karachi in 2018 and often serves as a guest juror at her alma mater, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Most recently, Halima co-curated and designed for ‘The Long and Short of it’, the IVS Alumni Show 2019.

Abdullah Saqib

Pakistan Country Director and Global Telecom Partnerships Lead at VIAMO

Abdullah Saqib is the Pakistan Country Director and Global Telecom Partnerships Lead for VIAMO - a global social enterprise that helps organizations maximize impact by leveraging the power of mobile phones and digital communications. In the past, he has worked with organizations like Acumen, FAO and Telenor with rich experiences at the overlap of technology and international development. He is a firm believer of knowledge sharing and supports MIT D-Lab in accelerating growth for early-stage social enterprises around the world.