Introducing The Vertex Awards Jury
The Vertex Awards jury is composed of highly respected and experienced branding and package design professionals, handpicked from the retail, private brand and design
Paco Adin
Creative Director
Since beginning his career 20 years ago, Paco has always been associated with branding and the packaging design. In 2003 he created Supperstudio, Branding & Contemporary Solutions Agency. Awards have included the Vertex Awards, D&AD Awards, Pentawards, Laus, Sol, Best Pac, He currently teaches in the Master of Marketing of the Faculty of Economics and Business in Bilbao.
Danielle Beal
Creative Director
The Creative Pack
California, USA
After 10 years at one of the top London branding & packaging agencies, Danielle founded The Creative Pack based in Los Angeles, California. She is dedicated to exceptional creative work and strives for high service standards in everything TCP does. Their work for large retailers, independent brands, and small startups has been rewarded with over 20 international awards including the Vertex Awards, HOW, GDUSA and American Graphic.
Don Childs
Executive Creative Director
Sterling
Cincinnati
As Executive Creative Director at Sterling Brands, Don provides leadership and guidance for Sterling’s design group while adding creative and strategic direction for a wide range of clients, across varied categories and channels.
He has received recognition from Graphis, CLIO awards, Print Magazine, Vertex Awards, GD USA, and Communication Arts. Don has spoken on the topic of brand design as a guest lecturer at Kellogg Graduate School of Management and at numerous conferences.
Don has led brand and packaging initiatives for retailers like 7-Eleven, Kroger, Meijer, Albertsons, The Home Depot, and Lowe’s.
Hamish Campbell
VP Executive Creative Director
As the VP Executive Creative Director of Pearlfisher New York, Hamish is responsible for leading the New York Studio. Prior to moving stateside, he worked with some of London’s design consultancies, developing a strong track record for innovative design, including award-winning work for brands such as Johnnie Walker, Bacardi, and Nike. His brand designs have won recognition from esteemed organizations, including The Vertex Awards, D&AD, Clio Awards, DBA: Design Effectiveness Awards, Dieline Awards, Mobius Awards, Pentawards, and more.
Connie Cao
Senior Graphic Designer
ACE Global Distribution (Shanghai) Ltd. a subsidiary of ACE Hardware Corporation USA
China
Connie Cao has over 15 years of package design & graphic design experience. She created packaging designs for Papa Johns, The Home Depot and POVOS (China professional manufacturer of home appliances) before joining Ace Hardware. At Ace, Connie focuses on creating private brand packaging for all categories within the hardware store. After joining ACE, she also took an IMC (integrated marketing communication) course at the Institute for China Business, HKU SPACE for two years (2012-2014). There she studied brand equity and brand communication. Connie believes that good package design improves brand value.
Tatiana Ryfer
Head of the Branding & Visual Identity
Carrefour
France
From Rio de Janeiro to New York and landing in Paris in 2006, Tatiana Ryfer has a design career marked by an international path.
Head of the Branding and Visual Identity design department in Carrefour for over eight years now, Tatiana was able to contribute to building the design culture inside the company. By managing all the brand’s visual aspects, she helped create consistency through all customer touchpoints.
With a prior 3-year experience in the Decathlon Group known for its innovation approach – as Branding and packaging Manager, Tatiana had the opportunity to create and develop some of the group’s own brands.
Her former experiences were split between Brazil, where she opened her own design Studio specializing in Branding, Signage, and Packaging. She spent three years doing a Branding and packaging Master’s at Pratt Institute and working for design agencies.
Maria Dubuc
President, MBD; Vice President, Big Red Rooster
Marketing by Design (MBD)
Massachusetts, USA
A 25-year pioneer in creative management, Dubuc’s key talent is to combine a career’s worth of branding experience into something personal and unique for each and every client. BJ’s Wholesale Club, Smart & Final, The Home Depot, WinCo Foods and PriceSmart are among the retailer programs she currently runs.
Michael Duffy
Group Creative Director & Board Director
Equator Design
Illinois, USA
An Equator US co-founder, Michael drives the business from both studio and boardroom to deliver operational efficiency and unrivalled creativity for clients. Splitting his time between Equator’s global studio locations, Michael develops collaborative practices across our network of studios, leveraging our under-one-roof model while harnessing global experience and insight to create outstanding value and cross-platform standout for America’s national and private brands.
Hernán Braberman
Executive Design Director
TridImage
Argentina
In 1995 Hernán´s passion led him to found Tridimage. Since then, he has not stopped creating and renewing brands throughout Latin America and Europe, achieving a positive impact on consumers, the market, and society.
Tridimage’s reputation attracts the attention of both established and emerging companies operating in Latin America, USA, and Europe. Tridimage has worked for more than 30 countries in the world.
Its projects have been awarded six Pentawards, Vertex Awards, A’ Design Awards, Ameristar, Good Design Seal, POPAI, Estrella del Sur, and Pack Andina awards.
Hernán hosts BRANDERMAN podcast, focused on branding and packaging design. His work as a designer continues to take him around the world, sharing his experience and knowledge with all those who recognize the unlimited power of design.
Masanori Eto
Creative Director
A board member of the Japan Package Design Association, Eto has over 25 years of package design and advertising experience. His designs have been recognized nationally in Japan and globally. He has also served on the jury of the A’Design awards and competition, Japan Package Design Award, and The Dieline Awards.
Matt Clemens
Creative Director
As a Founder and Creative Director of CONTRAST, Matt champions all creative engagements for the agency. Being a hands-on leader is how Matt inspires his team and ensures the vision is realized from creation to completion. This collaborative approach allows for agility and speed for small- and large-scale projects alike.
Matt has spent his career building brands, collaborating and managing creatives, and developing meaningful experiences for consumers. Matt relies on 15+ years of brand building expertise to guide and develop strategic and insightful brand design that delivers the unexpected and drives sales. He has partnered with many national and private brands including Kroger, Aldi, Spartan Nash, Lowes, Staples, Tyson, Turtle Wax and many more.
Charlene Codner
Founder & Chief Creative Officer<br />
Fish
Ontario, Canada
A creative visionary with over 25 years experience, Charlene leads the FISH creative team through her Rigorous Design approach.
Firmly believing in the transformative power of design, Charlene and her team have crafted exceptional Brand Coherent design solutions for clients such as Sobeys, Fujifilm and Burnbrae Farms.
With numerous design awards and accolades—including Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies by Profit 500—Charlene’s innovative approaches have led her to being recognized as one of Canada’s top 100 Women Entrepreneurs.
Steven Cox
Creative Director
Daymon
Connecticut, USA
Steven Cox is a New York Based Creative Director, with 15+ years experience leading award-winning, branding and packaging design teams. Steven is a strong conceptual thinker and strategically focused designer. He believes in a hands-on approach to creative development that focuses on creating a supportive team culture. His branding and design experience is a unique mix of national and private brands; Steven is currently the Creative Director at Daymon where his focus is dedicated to the creative evolution of private brands.
Dr Vickie Van Hurley
Adjunct Professor at University of Tampa and Florida Southern College
Vickie has over 25 years of experience in the advertising, brand design, and marketing field as a practitioner. Most recently she had the pleasure to work for Meijer (multi-billion dollar Midwestern retailer), and Michigan State University. She has also earned formidable creative, pedagogy, and corporate experience with the University of Kentucky, Southern Illinois University, Hurley Medical Center, and numerous contract clients.
Todd Maute
Partner
CBX
New York, USA
As a partner at CBX, Todd is responsible for all things retail. He works with clients across multiple channels of trade including grocery, pharmaceutical, mass, pet specialty, consumer electronics, convenience, office, home improvement, clubs and auto parts supply.
Prior to joining CBX, Todd was vice president of marketing and consumer research for Daymon Worldwide, a global $10 billion sales and marketing company specializing in retail development of private label programs.
Todd has published articles on private label branding for PLBuyer, My Private Brand and Progressive Grocer. Todd has also spoken at FMI, PLMA, and NACS about retail brand development and growth.
Fred Richards
Founder
The Hive Principle
Chicago, United States
Fred is the Founder of The HIve Principle. Prior to that he was the CCO / Partner for Kaleidoscope.
Fred has worked in the international design industry for over 20 years, specifically in the “Fast Moving Consumer Goods” category. Having worked for some of the world’s leading branding and design companies in Britain, USA, and Switzerland,
Fred has led creative work for P&G (Cascade, Dawn, Joy, Duracell, Old Spice, Charmin, Aussie, Infusium, Head & Shoulders, Puffs, Pepto Bismol, Align and Bounty), Bayer (Aleve & Aspirin), Wrigley (5 Gum, Orbit, LifeSavers, Extra, Skittles), GSK (Beechams, Tums, Pronamel, Zovirax, Abreva) Reckitt Benckiser (Airwick), Kimberly Clark, AT&T, Akzo Nobel, Valvoline, Hunter, Lowe’s and Kroger among others.
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Warren Spence
CEO & Founder
Motor Brand Design
Australia
ALDI International, McCain Foods, Mars Confectionery, Masterfoods, Mattel, Pfizer, Boots the Chemist,
PWC, Muk Global Haircare, Independant Craft Breweries in the USA and Australia, and many Wineries to name a few.
For three of those years, his focus as President was the importance of design education.
Jens Sievert
Creative Director
Daymon International
Lisbon, Portugal
Jens is the creative director at Daymon International, where he leads a multi-disciplinary design team. He creates brands, retail design solutions, and packaging design strategies for top retailers across the globe, focused on Private Brands. With almost a 20-year-long career, Jens is a mixture of a creative mind and strategist, with a background that touches all fields of design.
After joining Daymon in 2013, Jens kicked off the international design team and since then, he has delivered projects for more than 28 Retailers, helping to develop brands in 19 different countries.
Jens is an award-winning designer in branding, packaging design, product design and editorial, including 19 Vertex Awards.
Bianka Voigt
Creative Director
The Thrills
Australia
With 15+ years of experience, she’s designed packaging and branding for Australian brands, refining her craft in studios across Melbourne, Sydney, and London.
As Creative Director at The Thrills, she helps lead the team in bringing the creative visions of Australia’s brands to life. Notable projects include rebranding for Allen’s lollies, Cocobella, Soothers, Carman’s, and Bulla.
Much of her journey has been dedicated to elevating Coles Own Brand, resulting in impressive market growth through strategic rebranding and department-wide refreshes.
Tahir Idouri
Creative Director
Brand Potential
The Netherlands
Since beginning his career over 20 years ago, Tahir has always been associated with branding and strategic packaging design.
He is responsible as Creative Director for retailer Ahold-Delhaize and other brands. He has been rewarded with international awards, including the Vertex Awards, Red Dot Design Award, Pentawards, and Dieline.
Lia Collier
Design Director
Aire Global
England
As an award-winning Design Director at Aire Global, Lisa leads the creative design team working with global brands and FMCG clients. Lisa has over ten years of experience in the design industry working with clients such as Kellogg’s, Pepsi, PZ Cussons, Hero Group, Aldi UK, Solgar, and many more across various disciplines – This includes global campaigns, packaging design, and content creation. Lisa strives for excellence, innovation, and curiosity in creative and design. Her creative proficiency extends into e-commerce, animation and digital content, making her a versatile and adaptable creative.
Meriyem Kaf
Director of Merchandise Strategy & Execution
Home Hardware Stores
Canada
With 15+ years of international retail expertise across three continents, Meriyem has been instrumental in reshaping the private label landscape. From influential roles at global giants like Walmart, Carrefour, and Sobeys to her current position as the Director of Merchandise Strategy & Execution at Home Hardware Stores Limited, her journey reflects strategic leadership and impactful contributions. As she directs Private Brands, Global Sourcing, Category Management, and Space Management, Meriyem’s focus on branding and packaging design has driven innovation and consistency, leaving an enduring mark on the retail landscape. She revamped 70+ private labels, crafted several major brands, and defined packaging strategies for thousands of products.
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