Hugh Weber is a senior executive, network theorist, community organizer, and strategic advisor who counsels established leaders facing uncertainty across multiple industries including design, media, government, and business.

Hugh serves as the CEO and Creative Counsel for We Must Be Bold, a creative consultancy that discovers, designs and launches communities for courageous people and the organizations they love. Our shared work includes a passionate community for cheese lovers, a movement to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, a media platform sharing untold stories of creativity and a celebration of the original center of one of the great American cities. Our media subsidiary, The Great Discontent, furthers a commitment to design spaces and opportunities for connection through storytelling and personal narrative.

As Creative Counsel, Hugh provides executive level advice to Chief Executive, Marketing, and Design Officers, as well as other emerging Creative Professionals as they work to design thriving creative careers while navigating client challenges, collaborative complexities and uncertain futures.

Between 2009 and 2017, Hugh founded and led OTA, a for-purpose organization focused on sparking transformation through creative connections and collisions in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. OTA convened 11 large-scale events, hosted over 150 national thought leaders, commissioned 35 micro-documentaries and a full-length feature, and invested approximately $2 million in the creatives who call the region home.

Hugh previously served on the National Board and Executive Committee of AIGA, the professional organization for design, and the advisory board for Design for America, a network of campus studios that harnesses design to create local and social impact. He was also named one of GDUSA’s “People To Watch who embody the spirit of the creative community.”

Hugh lives in the OTA states with his partner, Amy; his daughter, Emerson; and his son, Finn.

As the executive leader of HUB Collective, a design and strategy agency in Portland, Oregon, Lindsey Charlet charts the course for both creative and client services. Genuine curiosity about people fuels her striking leadership philosophy. Lindsey believes vulnerability is a crucial aspect of leadership that spurs creative growth by cultivating a more connected, engaged, and productive workplace.

Charles is the Founder & CEO at Ideation , an ideaexecution company that specializes in helping executives and brands scale their business by effectively
achieving clarity and integrating their strategic plans into day-to-day implementation. Ideation fills this gap between strategy and implementation with innovative approaches to idea refinement, strategic process & infrastructure development, leadership & team building, brand (re)development & positioning, and creative services that bridge concepts into the real world. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?: How to Move Ideas to Execution, a practical book designed to help people move ideas to implementation.

Charles is regularly invited to advise and speak to leading brands on topics such as clarity, creativity, leading innovation, idea-making, brand strategy, and ideation.
Executive leaders from brands including Toyota, Wells Fargo, Google, TOMS, NBCUniversal, WME, Caterpillar, Sequoia Capital, Vanguard Financial, ONE Campaign, (RED), and many others have benefited from engaging Charles on various projects and endeavors. In addition to advising and speaking, Charles has served as host and/or facilitator for numerous events with NY Times best-selling
authors and executives from brands including Google, Twitter, MLB, Starwood, Disney, CAA, Toyota, TOMS, charity: water, United Way, World Vision, and many others.

Rick Griffith is a graphic designer, activist, educator, letterpress printer, collagist, and columnist for Printmag.com. His work is an exploration of language, history, politics, science, music, and ethics—typographically-focused and relevant. He is known as a passionate advocate for design.

Rick was born and raised in Southeast London and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s. It was the album covers of the punk and post-punk music scene in his first jobs at Washington D.C. record stores that turned him on to graphic design. And it was the atmosphere of 90’s New York that made a career in design possible. He currently (with his partner Debra Johnson) sustains the design practice MATTER, which, over the 23 years, has grown into an ambidextrous design consultancy, letterpress workshop, and retail bookstore.

From his home in Denver or his creative atelier in Brooklyn, NY, Rick travels the world as a visiting artist, lecturer, and educator— sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge with the next generation of designers—and contributing critical dialogue regarding graphic design as a broad discipline in the service of community, industry, and the future.

He is Printmag.com’s (Print Magazine’s) first artist/designer in residence. He curates exhibitions and meetings and has served as the program chair for AIGA’s National Design Conference in 2021, and 2022.
Rick’s true orientation is toward self-reliance, disruption, creative compassion, and independent thought. For most of us, life is long—for a lot of reasons, we might begin to act like it.

If we are going to love design, make design useful, give design power, authority and focus on its service to others—well, we are also going to have to know more. Firstly, know ourselves more. Know our planet more. Know our price more. Know more geography, know more physics, know more about loss and grief, know more about love and joy. Not just care about—but know more about—the impact of our actions on others…Good design should have no victims.

Excerpted from Processing Episode 1– from “A Love Letter to Design, a List of Demands, and a Stern Look”

Yvonne Perez Emerson is a wild-spirited, Latinx woman with over 30 years in design and strategy, and the pioneering founder of Make & Mary—a luxury CBD beauty and experiential brand that explores the world of cannabis through art, design and self-care. Perez is an award-winning creative director, storyteller, dreamer and maker. In 2016, as a creative powerhouse in Portland, Oregon, Perez used her background in design and community building to launch Make & Mary as a cannabis-friendly workshop series where attendees gain hands-on experiences in heritage craft practices. Perez began formulating herbal folk remedies over 20 years ago and brought these arts to the forefront of the modern cannabis space. In 2018, Perez expanded Make & Mary into a luxury CBD beauty brand. Her robust product line features clean organic skincare solutions and lifestyle products made with full spectrum CBD, cannabis aromatherapy, and herbal adaptogens.

Prior to Make & Mary, Perez founded two arts nonprofits, La Mesa Arts Alliance and WeMake. The La Mesa Arts Alliance was founded in 2004 with the city of La Mesa, California, Parks & Recreation department to provide a variety of arts experiences to the local community. WeMake, a 501C non-profit, was founded in 2012. It was developed to foster art and design in Portland’s creative community through hands-on experiences, dialogue, and design in action initiatives. WeMake helped raise over $165,000 for arts and education in Portland, and through its various exhibits, art shows, talks, and 4 conferences, featured 4000+ makers over 10 years. WeMake conferences were held at the Portland Art Museum and The Armory, and in 2018 it was recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Eye on Design as the most gender-equitable conference in the UK and US.

In 2019, Perez transitioned her work with WeMake into Make & Mary to fully focus on growing the company. Perez is also the owner and founder of Portland’s Tillamook Station, a reclaimed warehouse nestled within the old Triangle Milling building that housed many of WeMake’s workshops. Currently, Tillamook Station plays home to creative professionals, Make & Mary’s workshops, and Perez’s award-winning design studio The Study, which she founded in 2006 and runs to this day. The Study has been awarded the Rosey Award of Excellence by the Portland Advertising Federation for its work on the “WeMake Celebrates” campaign, along with Print Magazine’s Regional Design Award “Best of Region,” and HOW Magazine Design Award for best self-promotion. Perez also served as an adjunct design professor at Portland State University for 6 years (2010-2016).

John Bielenberg is a designer, entrepreneur, and imaginative advocate for a better world. He is the founder of Project M, CCA Secret Project, The Think Wrong Institute and co-founder of Future, Pando Populus, the Pando Institute and Common. In 2003, John Bielenberg created Project M, an immersive program designed to inspire and educate young designers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers by proving that their work—especially their “wrongest” thinking—can have significant impact on communities. Project M has developed projects in Alabama, Baltimore, Connecticut, Costa Rica, Detroit, Germany, Ghana, Iceland, Maine, Minneapolis, and New Orleans. John has won more than 250 design awards in his career, including the 2013 AIGA Gold Medal for leadership in the design for good movement. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art staged a solo exhibition of his work in 2000. Clients have spanned the private and public sectors and included Fortune 500 corporations, technology leaders, venture capital firms and universities. John is the father of two great kids, an avid cyclist and van-life advocate and is currently the Director of the Think Wrong Institute at the University of Kansas and Creative Director of the Pando Institute.
In 2016, John co-wrote a book called Think Wrong that inspires people to conquer the status quo and do work that matters.

Chris Cloud is the Director of Marketing at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and has a passion for connecting people and ideas. Previously, he was the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Marketing Content Director at the immersive art experience Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Social Media and Community Manager at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Outside of being the hype person for dope art institutions, Cloud is an artist and culture maker himself.

Photo by Hannah Bernabe of HB Photos

Schessa Garbutt (they/them) is the founder and creative director at Firebrand in Inglewood, CA. They specialize in visual identity and UI/UX for mission-driven organizations. Garbutt is also an essayist and lecturer, speaking on topics of diversity in design education and co-design practices. They are currently working on a forthcoming anthology of QT-BIPOC near-futurism art and writing called Time and Its Travelers.

As an Executive Creative Director for Walt Disney Imagineering, Scott is responsible for overseeing the strategic development and conceptual design of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Throughout his 30-year career working on theme parks, museum exhibitions, visitor centers, resorts and Olympic Games, he has focused on the creation of physical spaces and emotional connections – dimensional, immersive and experiential storytelling – to realize compelling guest experiences. His Disney portfolio includes the Magic Kingdom New Fantasyland expansion at Walt Disney World Resort, Buena Vista Street at Disney’s California Adventure, Princess Fantasy Faire at Disneyland and other transformative projects.
Scott has served on the International Board of the Themed Entertainment Association, the Board of Directors for the Society for Environmental Graphic Design, and was founding president of the Museum Committee for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
Walt Disney Imagineering is the unique innovative organization that creates – from concept through construction – all Disney theme parks, resorts, attractions, cruise ships, real estate developments, and regional entertainment venues worldwide. Imagineering’s unique strength comes from the teamwork and syntheses of creative and technical professionals representing more than 100 diverse disciplines.

Bennett Peji is past President of AIGA San Diego, co-founder of the AIGA Center for Cross-cultural Design, and served on the national board of AIGA (2006-2009). He has received lifetime achievement awards from AIGA San Diego and SDX/The One Club.
Now, Bennett is an entrepreneur and social impact executive with a passion for sustainable community development, corporate social responsibility, impact investing, and public/private partnerships. He is Chief Innovation Officer of ODM/Tzilla, Designer-in-Residence at the UCSD Design Lab, and immediate past Chairman of California Humanities. Prior to that, Bennett served as Vice President of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, directing the community affairs work as well as the business accelerator, branding, marketing, and public relations. He is an international brand consultant, designer, and frequent speaker on inclusive, community-centered design. He served as a Commissioner of Arts & Culture for the City of San Diego from 2003 to 2012. He has also served as President of the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Asian Business Association.

Missy is a multi-certified movement therapist who has been educating and coaching for over 12 years.

As a young professional dancer, she battled many injuries over her career, and one day she found someone who studied neurology (the study of the brain and nervous system). After one session with this person, her 4-year knee pain was completely gone. She knew she wanted to teach this approach to the world.

The importance of brain function and using the nervous system to rapidly “debug” movement patterns, decrease pain and increase performance, has led her to teach and create lightning-fast improvements with people from all walks of life. Her specialties include injury prevention, injury rehabilitation, joint mobility, and decreasing pain, holistically.