The cofounder of Dark Swan Institute, Tea Uglow (born 1975) blends the realms of art and digital innovation.
Tea Uglow. Photo by Simon Tang.
As the Creative Director at Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney, Australia, she’s played a pivotal role in several groundbreaking projects by exploring novel approaches to visual storytelling.
Editions at Play by Google Creative Lab. Branding by Universal Everything.
Born in 1975 in Kent, England, Tea Uglow started coding at six, balancing a passion for art-related activities. During her years at the University of Oxford, she focused on fine arts. Tea Uglow joined Google in 2006. Her role at the time was simple enough: work on the company’s PowerPoint slides. Google soon recognized her talent and had her found the first Creative Lab in London in 2007. Five years later, Tea Uglow opened the second Creative Lab in Sydney. One of her most known works is Editions at Play, an exploration of digital books that received the Peabody Futures Award. She’s also the mind behind SemiConductor, YouTube Symphony Orchestra, Midsummer Night’s Dreaming, and many others. A passionate advocate for inclusivity and a renowned communicator, Tea Uglow champions the use of technology to amplify marginalized voices. She co-authored the trans pride flag emoji proposal to Unicode and wrote the anthology “Great LGBTQ+ Speeches”.
A screenshot from the Semi-Conductor, a virtual AI-powered orchestra. The experiment is courtesy of Google. The screenshot was made by our team.
A cover of the “Great LGBTQ+ Speeches” book by Tea Uglow. White Lion Publishing.
A branding visionary, artist, writer, and educator, Debbie Millman (born 1962) is an inspiration for designers not only from America, but all over the world.
Debbie Millman's portrait form her personal site.
Throughout her career, she has helped an array of brands like 7 Up and Gillette find their identities. Now Millman is set to help aspiring designers discover their voices.
Burger King's logo designed by Debbie Millman © Matthew Horwood / Alamy Stock Photo.
Debbie Millman graduated from SUNY Albany, majoring in English, but decided to shift her career path to design. In 1995 she secured her first design role at Sterling Brands, delving into the dynamics between people and brands. In 1999 she crafted Burger King’s new logo and identity, a design the brand embraced until 2021. Millman, serving as President Emeritus of AIGA, is one of just five women to hold this position in the organization. In 2019 she received a lifetime achievement award from AIGA. Graphic Design USA recognizes her as “one of the most influential designers working today.” Millman sees design as “one of the few disciplines that is a science as well as an art” and wrote seven books to communicate these ideas. In 2004 she launched her podcast “Design Matters with Debbie Millman.” This acclaimed show has received multiple awards, including the prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award.
Debbie Millman's illustration from her Behance project.