Creatives hailing from a variety of design backgrounds and disciplines make up the latest FRAME Awards jury. The 15-person panel will deliberate and determine the top projects and products during the May competition. Get to know this month’s jury below.
Mátyás Simonyi, creative director at Tom Postma Design
Mátyás Simonyi was born in Hungary and studied at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. He has built a multidisciplinary background in architecture, interior and furniture design and art. During his education, he followed a practical approach to design which has informed his current role as design director, helping him to solve challenging issues in his projects. His professional career started in Shanghai, where he developed a strong interest in hospitality design.
Roman Vrtiška, cofounder of Vrtiška & Žák
Part of an emerging generation of Czech creators with a wide range of interests, Roman Vrtiška is a designer, architect, teacher and art director. Vrtiška and Vladimír Žák studied together at VŠUP and later founded their product, interior and architecture design firm Vrtiška & Žák. Their studio’s work covers a complex of areas and scales, from product design to interiors and architecture, focusing both on craftsmanship and industrial scale. Essential to their work process and values is creativity and unconventional thinking.
Alda Ly, founder and principal of ALA Studio
Born in New Zealand and raised in Los Angeles, Alda Ly used to follow her cabinetmaker father in open houses to see how people shape their spaces. She studied freehand drawing at UC Berkeley, and later followed her passion in architecture, gaining her Master’s Degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. While a student she assisted in the launching of MASS Design Group, a nonprofit design practice. She has been living in New York since 2002 and has worked for various design firms, which developed her interest in cultural spaces. In 2017 she founded ALA Studio, serving a growing number of entrepreneurs, startups and established organizations.
Amalia Ramirez, founder and design director of Ar_ea
Amalia Ramirez studied architecture at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia. In 2017 she established her architecture studio Ar_ea in Medellin, Colombia. The studio leads projects from concept creation to construction, with a special interest in spatial and material experimentation. With a diverse range of projects including single-family homes, hotel projects, commercial spaces, residential buildings, and mixed-use projects, the studio’s wide portfolio focuses on architectural structures of various scales and complexities.
Angela Lindahl, cofounder of Yatofu Creatives
Angela Lindahl is a Taiwanese-Canadian designer and a part of the founding duo of Yatofu Creatives. With a profound interest in industrial design, she pursued her Bachelor's degree at New York’s Pratt Institute and later completed her Master’s degree in interior architecture in Helsinki. Lindahl's multicultural and versatile background allowed her to develop an understanding of design and scale, resulting in detailed and multifaceted projects. Through Yatofu Creatives, she intends to create an accessible approach to design for international audiences.
Lyanne Oosterhof, senior interior architect at Mecanoo
After finishing her Master of Interior Architecture in 2016, Lyanne Oosterhof joined the team at Mecanoo, working closely together with the Dutch firm's wider team, clients and consultants. She has been involved in a wide range of ambitious projects. Functionality, user-friendliness, detailing, lighting, materials and acoustics are central to her work. With broad expertise in designing activity-related work environments, and a great empathy for users, she can quickly visualize design ideas. Oosterhof's extensive knowledge of materials, furniture and colours, is implemented in innovative workspaces with great emphasis on details, tactility and experiential value.
Shaikha Al Sulaiti, designer
A furniture designer from Doha, Qatar, Shaika Al Sulaiti’s work merges her Qatari heritage and contemporary aesthetics. Through her design, she demonstrates her ethical commitment to the environment, by challenging traditional notions of luxury. For example: Al Sulaiti's participation in Milan Design Week in 2022 featured a stool made out of deconstructed Hermès Birkin bags, showcasing how luxury and sustainability can coexist.
Matthew Senkowycz, cofounder of Loom Atelier
In 2020, Matthew Senkowycz cofounded spatial, branding and interior architecture studio Loom Atelier, with Telma Caldas. The studio’s practice focuses on crafting enjoyment with the utmost care, across commercial and residential sectors, often working in a collaborative context, helping brands, individuals and agencies to imagine the spaces they could inhabit. This year, Loom Atelier is developing a series of smaller textile installations as part of their practice, complementing their ongoing work in examining texture and space. Senkowycz, coming originally from Australia, has worked in design studios in Japan and Sweden and as an in-house designer for various brands in Amsterdam.
Simon Hamilton, interior designer, educator, moderator and founder of Simon Hamilton Creative
Simon Hamilton began his creative journey in the commercial office sector after graduating with a BA Hons interior design degree from Nottingham Trent. As an interior designer, he has delivered a wide range of projects from private residential to healthcare, retail, workplace and hospitality. His passion for social justice and design excellence has led him to campaign for diversity and equality in the design industry, and volunteer for United In Design. As moderator and associate lecturer at the Royal College of Art, he has gained extensive experience and knowledge in the design field, which he shares with the next generation of designers and emerging talent, as a career lecturer, advisor and mentor.
Laura Guido-Clark, founder/ CEO of Love Good Colour
Laura Guido-Clark is an interior design graduate from Wayne State University and an expert in consumer products. In 2017, Laura launched her colour methodology called Love Good Color, which integrates science and the senses, enabling designers to factor in emotive responses when using colour. It is a language-based system that facilitates selection confidence and efficacy while simplifying and reducing iterations. Laura has helped major companies use colour and materials on their products that resonate with consumers and succeed in competitive markets. Laura’s expertise ranges from textiles to consumer products such as automotive, electronics, and major household appliances.
Hui Xie, design director at Ace Design
As a designer, Hui Xie is dedicated to promoting the importance of the living environment and its consequences on people’s physical and mental health. Adhering to the concept of healthy house design, she prioritizes people to create living spaces that foster happiness and wellbeing. Her work, consisting mostly of residential projects, pays attention to family relations, emotional interaction, and quality of life. Hui Xie founded ACE design in 2010, committing to improving the contemporary living environment with healthy residential design. The studio provides customers with services of interior, architectural design and landscape design, as well as soft decorating, including product and artwork selection.
Shuhei Aoyama, founder and director of B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio
Shuhei Aoyama was born in 1980 in Japan. He graduated from Osaka University in 2003 and received a master's degree from the University of Tokyo in 2005. In 2014, Aoyama and Yoko Fuji founded B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio in Beijing. B.L.U.E stands for Beijing Laboratory for Urban Environment, which reflects the core design philosophy of the studio. The international architecture firm works on the intersection of architecture, interior, product design, and art, aiming to create a design platform that truly connects to the urban environments.
Xinglin Lee, founder and creative director of c.dd
With a deep love for interior design, Xinglin Lee has gained practical experience in projects in multiple industries for more than 20 years. His work promotes the coexistence of art and business, and he brings a wealth of knowledge to his projects such as business strategy, space design, community operations, humanities and history. In 2009, he founded c.dd, a space design company, that conducts in-depth research on lifestyle and business models and focuses on user experience. The studio works with a wide range of commercial and cultural architecture and design.
Maria Felicitas Navia, founder of OHIO Estudio
Maria Felicitas Navia is the founder of the architecture and interior design studio Ohio, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With a main mission to redefine the conventional, the studio transforms materials through experimentation and alternative use. Minimizing environmental impact has been a fundamental aim of the studio’s design approach. Maria studied architecture at the University of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism in Buenos Aires, where she has also served as a design teaching assistant.
Natasa Stanaćev, founding partner of Stanaćev Granados Arquitectura
A founding partner at Stanaćev Granados, Nataša Stanaćev is a Serbian architect with experience in a wide range of roles in the design industry. After graduating from the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Architecture, she spent several years contributing as a research and teaching assistant at the university, before relocating to Chile. She collaborated with several renowned local offices over seven years, working on diverse projects ranging from single-family housing to large infrastructural projects such as Santiago’s Metro and Airport. In 2019 she cofounded Stanaćev Granados with her partner, Manu Granados. Located in Santiago, the practice specializes in residential projects, exploring solutions that enhance everyday experiences.