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MITCH JAFERY, CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGN STRATEGIST

Working with the creative collective Nomenobo, I partner with leaders and organizations curious to build vibrant creative teams and imagine new spaces, services, systems, and products that challenge old norms. My work is grounded in driving human-centered design strategies and guiding their tangible translation into iconic sensorial experiences across mediums.

I firmly believe the world deserves a rewilding of the collective imagination in service of braver, more beautiful futures for all.

With a background in sociology and psychology, my practice is grounded in design strategy, brand building and storytelling, cultural foresight and cross-cultural trendspotting, human-centered design, emerging tech, and an unrelenting quest to explore the next global aesthetic edges.

I served as the Chief Creative Officer at IDEO, where I helped drive the strategic and creative vision of a global collective of 400+ designers, strategists, and multidisciplinary makers, leading initiatives to elevate our creative culture, strategic bravery, and design futuring practice. I spent the last decade working across in the Middle East, where I co-founded and led the Dubai Design Lab in partnership with the UAE Government, created to bring human-centered design into the heart of government, designing new strategies, services, spaces, and entirely new ministries.

Over the past 20 years in the design world, I’ve partnered with brands and organizations including MTV, Beyoncé, Adidas, and Bose to shape brands, products, services, and experiences from fashion and hospitality to entertainment and education. I have lectured at Harvard University, the MIT Media Lab, Intercorp in Peru, Fabrica in Italy, the Dubai Future Academy, and Ithra in Saudi Arabia.

Most recently, I launched the Friday Gallery in Los Angeles, an art gallery and cultural salon series celebrating creative voices from the Middle East, South Asia, and across the Global South. From surrealist Iraqi photographers to South Asian minimalists and queer gothic brujas from Mexico, Friday exists to champion some of the most compelling voices working outside the Western art world and give them serious critical attention.

Here for Good Trouble.