Judges & Mentors

JUDGES

Each year, Lexus works with a world-class panel of Judges to select Winners who best embody the Lexus Guiding Principle. The Judges are some of today's most influential figures in art, design, and technology.

PAOLA ANTONELLI

SENIOR CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN, MOMA, NY

Paola Antonelli is Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as MoMA’s founding Director of Research & Development. Her goal is to promote design’s understanding, until its positive influence on the world is universally acknowledged. Her work investigates design’s impact on everyday experience, often including overlooked objects and practices, and combining design, architecture, art, science, and technology.

She has curated shows, written books, lectured worldwide, and taught in several schools, including Harvard and UCLA. Among her most recent exhibitions and books are Broken Nature, devoted to the idea of restorative design (conceived as the XXII Triennale di Milano); Material Ecology, on the groundbreaking work of architect Neri Oxman; and Never Alone, about interactive design and video games. She is currently working on several new sessions of her MoMA R&D Salons and on the Instagram series @design.emergency, conceived with design critic Alice Rawsthorn and devoted to the role of design in the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Alice and Paola’s book, Design Emergency, was published in May 2022.

Photo: ©Marton Perlaki

Karim Rashid

DESIGNER, KARIM RASHID INC.

Visionary and prolific, Karim Rashid is one of the most unique voices in design today. Over 4000 designs in production, over 400 awards, and operating in over 35 countries attest to Karim’s legend of design. His award-winning designs include democratic objects like the ubiquitous Garbo waste can and Oh! Chair for Umbra and interiors like the Morimoto restaurant, Philadelphia and Nhow hotel, Berlin. Karim has created noteworthy designs for clients Method and Pepsi, furniture for Artemide and Vondom, brand identity for Citibank and Hugo Boss, high-tech products for LaCie and Samsung, and luxury goods for Veuve Clicquot and Christofle, to name a few. Karim is a perennial winner of the Red Dot award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, Interior Design Best of Year Award, and IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Award. Karim is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences, globally disseminating the importance of design in everyday life.

Photo: ©Nikola Blagojevic / Spektroom

SIMON HUMPHRIES

HEAD OF TOYOTA & LEXUS GLOBAL DESIGN

Born and educated in the UK, he started his career as a product designer in 1988 before joining Toyota Motor Corporation in 1994. At first, he worked in advanced design and in 2002 played a leading role in establishing and implementing the Toyota (Vibrant Clarity) and Lexus (L-finesse) design philosophies. After managing various projects in both advanced and production design, he was appointed president of ED² (Toyota European Design Development), where his team spearheaded various projects to define Toyota’s transformation to a mobility company. In 2018, he was assigned to the role of head of design, overseeing both the Toyota and Lexus brands.

As Head of Lexus Global Design, he seeks to define Lexus' unique values in the form of a brand philosophy, incorporating a clear cultural reference to Lexus' Japanese heritage and building a design direction that is relevant to users around the world. In his spare time he enjoys carpentry and is restoring a 100-year-old Japanese farmhouse.

MENTORS

Mentorship with globally renowned creators is one of the most attractive benefits of participating in the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD. Mentors follow the emerging designers for months, helping them bring the best out of their work.

Marjan van Aubel

SOLAR DESIGNER, MARJAN VAN AUBEL STUDIO

Marjan van Aubel is a Dutch solar designer whose innovations integrate sunlight and technology for a sustainable future. Her studio, Marjan van Aubel Studio is an award-winning innovative solar design practice that brings solar energy into daily life. Designing for a positive future through combining the fields of sustainability, design and technology.

The studio is creating lasting change through solar design, integrating solar power seamlessly into our environments such as in buildings and objects. With the goal to make solar power more accessible for everyone. Most notable works are Sunne, Current Table, Power Plant and the roof of the Netherlands Pavilion at the World Expo 2020 in Dubai.

Marjan has collaborated with global brands such as Cos, Timberland, Swarovski with the aim of accelerating the global energy transition to solar. Graduating from the Royal College of Art (Design Products MA) in 2012 and the Rietveld Academy DesignLAB (BA) in 2009.

Photo: ©Sander Plug

JOE DOUCET

DESIGNER/ FOUNDER, JOE DOUCET X PARTNERS

A designer, entrepreneur, inventor and creative director, Joe Doucet is one of the most sought-after creative talents working in America today. His work deftly hybridizes function and visual appeal while conveying layers of meaning and message. Doucet believes that design and, more importantly, a designer’s thought process can play a larger role in innovation and problem solving, as well as aesthetics. He currently holds numerous patents for his designs and inventions.

Doucet’s work has been exhibited globally and has received numerous international awards, including a World Technology Award for Design Innovation and multiple Good Design Awards. Doucet was named the Winner of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award as Product Designer—the highest honor in his field. He was also Designer of the Year finalist by Dezeen, and a recipient of Fast Company’s Most Important Companies in Design.

Yuri Suzuki

ARTIST AND DESIGNER/ PARTNER, PENTAGRAM

Yuri Suzuki is an artist, designer and electronic musician. He explores sound and visual language through artworks and projects that examine the relationship between people and their environments, questioning how both visual art and sound evolve to create personal experiences. Suzuki has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including at Tate Britain, V&A, the Barbican and MoMA New York. 

Central to Suzuki's practice is collaboration – he has worked with various musicians including will.i.am and Jeff Mills, as well as commercial clients such as Google and Roland, creating music-based products and digital experiences that explore the relationship between sound and technology.

As a Partner at Pentagram London, Suzuki and his team work internationally pushing the boundaries between art, design, technology and sound, crossing the fields of both low and high technology.

Sumayya Vally

ARCHITECT/ PRINCIPAL, COUNTERSPACE

Sumayya Vally is the principal of the award-winning architecture and research studio Counterspace. Designer of the 20th Serpentine Pavilion, Vally is the youngest architect to win this internationally renowned commission. With the Serpentine, she has initiated and developed a new fellowship program, Support Structures, which assists artists and collectives working at the intersection of art with social justice, the archive, and ecology.

In 2022, Vally was selected by the World Economic Forum to be one of its Young Global Leaders, a community of the world’s most promising artists, researchers, entrepreneurs, activists, and political leaders, and, as a TIME100 Next list honouree, has been identified as someone who will shape the future of architectural practice and canon. Having recently joined the World Monuments Fund, Vally serves on several boards through her interest in dynamic forms of archive, embodied heritage and supporting new networks of knowledge in the arts. As Artistic Director, Vally is currently working on curating the first Islamic Arts Biennale taking place in Jeddah in 2023.

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