LADF AWARDS

Shirley Kurata is a wardrobe stylist and costume designer born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and has worked on various tv shows, short films, commercials, music videos, fashion editorials and print campaigns. She was nominated for an Academy award for Best Costume Design and won the Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Sci Fi/Fantasy Film for her work on the indie film Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.

Born and raised in Nashville TN, Anne Dereaux's path as a creator was set before she could walk. With parents who noticed her aptitude for the visual arts, they surrounded her with paint and canvases from an early age. This interest in painting soon translated into 3 dimensional space, and she set her sights on architecture - moving to New Orleans to pursue undergraduate and master's degrees in architecture between Tulane and Cornell University.

Her final year at Tulane found her swept up in Hurricane Katrina, something that unwittingly set her career sights on residential design. In her first job out of school, she worked in conjunction with Kronberg Wall Architects and the City of New Orleans to restore dozens of historical properties in disenfranchised districts of New Orleans, making them sustainable, accessible, and affordable - in perpetuity. From there, she landed in Los Angeles, where her residential design journey continued.

Now with a decade in LA under her belt, she has started her own design studio, where she focuses on various scales of residential design - from multi-structure estates to quaint mid century renovations, in addition to home furniture and product design. But the focus remains steadfast - pushing the envelope of design while honoring the tenets of historical architecture that have stood the test of time - warmth, light, and a real connection to nature and the human experience.

Schessa Garbutt (they/them) is a first-generation Belizean-American artist & designer living in Inglewood, CA on unceded Tonga land. They tell stories of the past, present, and future through carefully-researched visual and craft histories which they incorporate into their identity design work.

Their practice transcends mediums—combining intuition, type, illustration and UX in print and digital design. While attending the University of Southern California, they got their start in social impact design by rebranding a beloved local non-profit called Troy Camp. In 2020, they founded Firebrand Creative House, a design studio that works alongside activists, non-profits, and social impact initiatives.

They’ve created in collaboration with March for Black Women San Diego, Harvard, Mindfulness for the People, The California Endowment, Black Wealth Data Center, and more. Recently, they began teaching at Type Electives, bringing a Black, queer, and intersectional lens to type history and theory. They are a published essayist (recently in The Black Experience in Design anthology) and lecturer, speaking on diversifying design history and co-design practices at universities and organizations such as IDEO, SF Design Week, Where are the Black Designers, and Adobe’s Wireframe podcast.

Schessa holds a B.A. in Design from the University of Southern California, and a certificate in Type Design from Type West. “We have the power to create the world we want to live in. It’s important now more than ever that queer, trans, and BIPOC creatives make sure that our cultures, histories, and futures are not forgotten.”