As WITH's Chief Creative Director, Jonathan believes that intelligent design is a powerful tool for helping his clients get ahead in business today. He is an advocate of intelligent design for every engagement, with every client. Jonathan's unique blend of design, branding and business experience has put him at the forefront of the visual communications industry for more than 18 years. He is a frequent speaker, lecturer and commentator on design and branding throughout the U.S. Jonathan was selected by Graphic Design: USA as one of the top 50 graphic designers in the US. His work has been exhibited in North and South America and featured in Applied Arts, Print, HOW, Communications Arts, as well as annuals compiled by Graphis, Rockport Publishing, and PIE Books in Japan. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design at Parsons The New School for Design as well as the Co-Chair of the Alumni Committee for the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

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Since graduating in design studies from the Université du Québec à Montréal, Nathalie has worked in well-known agencies in Toronto and Montréal, where she developed expertise in a range of fields including telecommunications, banking, perfume and the food & beverage industry.  She has also demonstrated her talents for advertising, packaging, B2B commerce, and all dimensions of brand identity. Her design background and a deep-rooted sense for business issues enable Nathalie to bridge strategic thinking with creative excellence.  Her extensive experience in  implementation rounds out her ability to add tremendous value as an identity specialist that extends to naming and brand architecture expertise.

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Patrick Griffin worked in film production for 16 years, then decided to follow his lifelong passion for typography, and co-founded Canada Type in 2003. Since then his work has produced bestselling typefaces and helped the branding and products of high-profile names like Apple, the BBC, the New York Times, and the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. He is a frequent speaker on the typography and type design circuits, and a regular contributor of typography-related articles to design publications around the globe.

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Rita Sasges is founder, principal and creative director at Sasges Inc, in Calgary. In addition to an extraordinary talent for design, Rita has a gift for understanding clients' business needs and building the trust necessary to develop inspired communications that create impact and incite action. This has allowed the studio to flourish and push clients' boundaries - developing solutions which demonstrate creative innovation in annual report design, publication design and branding. Her work has been described as emotionally visual, highly tactile and flawlessly executed - a comment she says comes about because of her 25-year love affair with the print medium. Rita and her team have been honoured with numerous national and international awards including recognition from Applied Arts, Communication Arts, The Advertising & Design Club of Canada, New York Art Directors Club, Black Book AR100 and I.D. Magazine. Rita attended the University of Alberta visual communications program in the 1980's and where she formed an admiration of Swiss typography and modernist design. She is a passionate advocate of "considered" typographic communication and now balances a thriving professional practice with her role as an instructor of typography at ACAD (Alberta College of Art and Design).

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Over his career, Peter has worked with a roster of notable organizations such as Toronto Pearson, La Capitale Financial Group, Dixon Hall, DundeeWealth, the Royal Canadian Mint, AIR MILES, and the Museum of Inuit Art. Peter has garnered awards and recognition for his work from the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, the Applied Arts Awards, the International ARC Awards, the Type Directors Club of New York and Graphis.

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Rod McDonald is an award winning type designer with over forty years experience. He has taught typography at OCAD and NSCAD University. Last year the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada released Gibson, designed to honour his long time friend John Gibson FGDC. All proceeds from Gibson are being donated to the GDC Design Education Committee.

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This is a biography for Scott Reid. While it's odd to write one's biography in the third person, it's understood that biographies such as this one are designed to communicate quickly what an individual has done in his career, often using words such as "strategy", "creative", "innovation", and even words like "design", and "communication." These words are used to assure you, dear reader, that this individual knows what he's talking about, and is indeed qualified to judge a competition such as this. This biography contains none of those words, in such a context, but rest assured; Scott has, in fact, worked in places and done things and won awards for those things, even from this esteemed publication, Applied Arts. He believes wholeheartedly that everything begins with a story, and applies this belief daily.

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Stéphane Monnet is the founder and principal of Monnet Design in Toronto. Prior to founding Monnet Design in 2009, Stéphane spent ten years working at Toronto's top design firms, including Hahn Smith and Concrete. His work has been widely published and has received recognition from many of the industry's top publications and organizations including the AIGA, The Type Director's Club, The ADCC, Communication Arts, HOW Magazine, Applied Arts and Graphis. Stéphane has guest lectured at OCADU and sits on Humber College's graphic design advisory committee. He has recently been named among the top designers in Canada by both Design Edge Magazine and The Canadian Design Resource.

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Udo Schliemann has over 25 years experience in identity development, corporate communications, sign design and programming. A native of Germany, Udo graduated from the Technical College for Design in Würzburg in 1982, and then started his career in the Studio Stankowski+Duschek in Stuttgart, a leading design studio in Germany at the time, with such projects as the Deutsche Bank, Munich Re, and the International Olympic Congress. In 1999, Udo immigrated to Canada to work at the Toronto office of Gottschalk+Ash International. He directed the design of wayfinding projects for the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, MaRS Research Facility, Ryerson University, Downtown Yonge Street and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. He has fostered corporate identity programs for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLGC), Downtown Yonge BIA, Oliver and Bonacini's restaurants, the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, and Aquatopia Aquarium in Belgium. He has also developed signage and wayfinding programs for Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canadian Museum of Nature, Bell Lightbox (home of the Toronto International Film Festival), and Artscape Wychwood Barns. Since 2011, Udo has been the creative lead with Entro | G+A, working on projects around the globe. He has served as guest lecturer at Würzburg's Technical College for Design from 1993-1998 and more recently, at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD). Udo was the Chairman of the 2011 SEGD Conference in Montreal and continues as an active member of SEGD and the Design Exchange.

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