BKLYN DESIGNS

Lisa Albin

Principal, iglooplay by Lisa Albin Design

Lisa Albin has worked in architecture, interiors and set design in New York since 1992, with projects ranging from private residences to feature film production design. Albin received her B.F.A. and B.Arch. from The Rhode Island School of Design and has taught at Parsons School of Design (NY) and guest-lectured at Columbia University, School of Visual Arts and The Cooper-Hewitt Museum’s after school program. Inspired by her first daughter and after a seminar at The Haystack Mt. School of Crafts in Maine, Albin launched Iglooplay, a line of contemporary children’s furniture in 2005. In her Brooklyn studio, Albin designs interiors and furniture and develops proposals for public spaces for children.

Iglooplay’s Mod Rocker was recently featured in New York magazine’s “Best of NY” issue as the favorite child’s chair for the NYC “chic parent” and was awarded Honorable Mention by the 2006 I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review. 

Marc Alt

Creative Director, Marc Alt + Partners

Marc Alt is president and creative director of Marc Alt + Partners, a design and brand strategy firm specializing in environmental strategy, innovation and sustainability. Marc works with select companies in a wide range of industries on developing green strategy and communications. He has spoken at a variety of industry events and to private companies, including GE, Bloomberg LP, Estee Lauder, Liz Claiborne, Lippincott, Neenah Paper, AIGA, GAA and the PSFK Trends Conference and is quoted frequently in media. As an advocate of business transformation, Marc develops environmental conferences, including Grow, the first conference dedicated to the intersection of design, sustainability and commerce, and Greener Gadgets, a conference exploring the challenges, possibilities and trends in the greening of the $170 billion consumer electronics industry. He is also involved with a number of initiatives that are helping designers and companies come together to share knowledge and accelerate understanding of sustainable design principles. Marc serves on the advisory board and is Vice President of the The Designers Accord and is founding co-chair of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design. Marc previously served on the executive board of the NY Chapter of AIGA, The Professional Association for Design. When not busy saving the world, he can be found working on restoring his vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He also finds time to teach a class on sustainable design at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

Susan Huckvale Arann

President, American & International Designs, Inc.

A native New Yorker, Arann is a graduate of CUNY and attended Parsons and New York School of Design. She is president of American & International Designs, Inc. a full service interior design firm headquartered in New York.  She is past-president of the American Society of Interior Designers New York Metropolitan Chapter and holds professional licenses in New York and Florida and has won numerous awards for excellence in interior design. Her firm specializes in luxury residences and commercial projects including model homes, restaurants, waterfront properties, spas, healing environments and vacation homes. Commercial projects include Ritz Carlton and Hilton properties. A majority of Ms. Arann’s clients are international and retain her firm to complete their New York City spaces. Ms. Arann loves that she get paid for her passion and her passion is design in all forms.

Ms. Arann is also widely acclaimed for her expertise in color trends and has given numerous well-received lectures on the subject. Susan was nominated for Working Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards and is a member of the Color Marketing Group.

Jenny Argie

Principal, Argington

Argington’s modern design creations come from the studio and home of the husband and wife design team, Jenny Argie and Andrew Thornton. Inspired by their family, the New York based couple has fused their respective backgrounds in fine art and architecture to form Argington™ Modern Children’s Furniture.

Since 2003, Argie and Thornton have developed clean, modern and versatile designs for a wide range of ages and uses, designing each of their products with both parents and children in mind. Passionately involved in every aspect of their development and fabrication, Argie and Thornton offer handsome furniture of unique design that will provide your family with warmth, security, and thoughtful design.

Argington’s current line, The Wonders Collection, spans the world for inspiration, framing our global community in compact terms. Each piece of furniture is named after one of the natural or man made wonders of the world.

Colin Beavan

"No Impact Man"

Colin Beavan aka “No Impact Man” has lived the usual literary lifestyle in Manhattan for most of his adult life. He is the author of Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America’s First Shadow War (Viking, 2006) and Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and the Murder Case that Launched Forensic Science (Hyperion, 2001). His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, Esquire, Mens’ Journal, Mens’ Health, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many other national magazines. His books have been translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

Along the way, Colin always considered himself an environmentalist. But then in August 2006, he decided to challenge his own notions of what one man, and his family, can do to impact the world on a daily basis. He made it his quest, along with his Prada wearing wife, young daughter and the family dog, to make it as real and personal as possible. The exercise being to reduce their ecological footprint. Colin’s goal is to better understand how “Saving this planet depends on finding a middle path that is neither unconsciously consumerist nor self-consciously anti-materialist.” His book, titled No Impact Man, is scheduled to be published in May 2009, along with the companion documentary film.