Meet the jurors for the 2026 Innovation by Design Awards

FastCompany: We’re excited to announce the judges of the 2026 Innovation by Design Awards. Innovation by Design honors the best projects and ideas across the design spectrum, as represented by our fantastic group of jurors, who come from some of the world’s most exciting design-led companies. You can read more about their expertise and backgrounds below. And remember to apply for the Innovation by Design Awards by April 11. Erik Carter, Designer Erik Carter is a designer, illustrator, art director, and writer whose work bridges commercial design and critical discourse.

He has designed for Verso Books, The New York Times , MIT Technology Review , The New Yorker , and New Directions Publishing, and his essays explore the ethics, the contradictions, and the future of visual communication. Carter’s first book of essays, Design Harder , was published in 2025 by Book Ideas and is currently in its second printing. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Institute, both in New York City, as well as the California College of the Arts, and he currently teaches at San Diego City College.

Abidur Chowdhury, Head of Design, Hark Born and raised in London, Abidur Chowdhury has recently joined a new startup in California as its head of design. He’s interested in creating advanced intelligence with the goal of freeing people from the digital clutter of the technology we have today—in hopes of creating space for meaning, focus, and creativity. Prior to his current appointment, Chowdhury was a member of Apple’s industrial design team for seven years, helping craft a variety of Apple’s products used daily by hundreds of millions of people across the world. Prior to Apple, he had worked with many of London’s top design agencies.

He graduated from Loughborough University with a Bachelor of Science degree in product design . Eames Demetrios, Director, Eames Office, and Chairman of the Board, Charles & Ray Eames Foundation Eames Demetrios is a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, and filmmaker, and the leading global authority on his grandparents, the American designers and creative visionaries Charles and Ray Eames. As director of the Eames Office and chairman of the newly launched Charles & Ray Eames Foundation, he’s spearheaded efforts to preserve and expand their legacy for the past 35 years.

His work has included curating exhibitions; overseeing authentic design reissues and collaborations with Herman Miller, Vitra, and Cassina; and restoring numerous Eames films. A prolific author, Demetrios has written several books—including An Eames Primer; Eames: Beautiful Details; Kcymaerxthaere: The Story so Far; and Essential Eames —which have been translated into more than 25 languages. His ongoing global art project, Kcymaerxthaere, reimagines storytelling through a parallel universe, with 159 installations in 30 countries across six continents—and counting.

As a filmmaker, Demetrios has created more than 70 works of various lengths, and as a sought-after speaker, he has presented in 53 countries on subjects ranging from design and science to storytelling and scale, including the TED mainstage and many TEDx events. He lives in Los Angeles. Jay Kamath, Cofounder and Chief Creative Officer, Haymaker Jay Kamath founded the independent, Emmy-winning, L.A./NYC-based creative agency Haymaker in 2017. Since then, it’s grown a functioning couch-potato farm for Pluto TV, launched the Seattle Kraken, and let Ty Burrell teach kids what not to do with money through Greenlight.

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The article discusses a significant awards event that highlights design-led innovation, which is important for brand strategy professionals, but the concept of awards and jurors is not particularly novel.