Kelli Anderson is a designer and paper engineer whose work operates in the space between conceptual art, graphic design, and tech. Her whimsical books have featured a working paper planetarium, a pop-up pinhole camera, and a paper record player. Whenever she can, she uses humble, lo-fi materials to expose the invisible magic of the world and make abstraction concepts “real” and tangible for people.
Raphael designs experiences to help people make sense of complex systems. He’s currently a Principal Designer at Khan Academy building tools that empower teachers to better meet the needs of each and every student. Previously, he tackled ethical platforms of AI at IBM Research, taught at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and designed over a hundred iOS apps with Apple.
A product designer living on the outskirts of Oakland. Linzi currently leads the Design Systems team at Lyft, who are responsible for building, maintaining and supporting ‘Lyft Product Language’ which spans across mobile and web. Previously she designed digital branding and systems agency side for 7+ years for brands like Tesla, SpaceX, Hennessy, Audemars Piguet, and Fitbit. Dedicated to giving back to the digital design community that taught her, Linzi shares her detailed thoughts on Tap to Dismiss.
Josh is a vocal advocate for Design Leadership, writing and speaking about the challenges of building Design-led companies and products. In his current role as CEO of Abstract, an Advisor & Mentor to the Designer Fund, and previously as Principal Designer at Twitter, Josh continues to influence the centrality of Design in early and late-stage companies.
Erica designs teams, products, systems, and brands for social change. She’s currently a design manager at Khan Academy, where she’s building tools to help teachers make classroom learning personalized and joyful. Erica is an alumna of Hillary for America, 18F, Adaptive Path, the Civic Data Design Lab, and 2x4.
Liana is a product designer on the Paper team at Dropbox. Previous to Dropbox, she co-founded Memo.ai, which was acquired by Coinbase. Liana is originally from Romania and she loves typography, books, and chocolate.
Dylan Field is the CEO of Figma, the only cloud-based collaborative design tool. He was inspired to work on design technology after struggling with design software as an intern at Flipboard in 2012. Dylan champions open, accessible design and believes design technology must evolve for a cloud-based, collaborative world.
Val Head, Design Evangelist at Adobe, is a web animation expert and author with a talent for getting designers and developers alike excited about the power of animation. Val speaks at conferences and workshops around the world to connect Adobe directly to the UX design community.
Tj Hughes, known online under "Terrifying Jellyfish" began his journey in game development by teaching himself various software at the age of 13, using the only materials available to him: the internet and an insatiable desire to create. Since then, he has found his niche online, with color, playfulness, and visual aesthetics being the center of all his creations. His latest project is a game called Nour, a video game that encourages you to play with your food, but does not discourage you with typical video game constructs such as high scores, time limits, and objectives.
May-Li is passionate about helping people cultivate their own creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking. When she's not busy building and empowering design teams, she’s juggling one of too many side projects, usually involving some combination of cultural practice, bright colors, faces-on-things, and glitter. In the past, May-Li invented new interactions across Apple’s hardware and software platforms, built educational games at Leapfrog, and researched at the MIT Media Lab. Currently at Khan Academy, May-Li is developing a critically conscious practice of inclusiveness and serving as VP of Design. She also DJs, dances, and daydreams about more joyful ways to subvert the status quo.
Brooklyn Raised. HBCU Educated. Former Apple Developer Relations mage. Currently Start-up Advisory & Independent App Consultant.
Travis is the founder and director of Flow, the best tool for animating Sketch designs and delivering developer-friendly code. Having worked at pioneering institutions such as the Ars Electronica Futurelab and the Banff Centre for the Arts, Flow is the culmination of a career spent at the cutting-edge of interaction, design, and culture.
Originally, Matthaeus was going to be a furniture designer in Austria, but ten years ago, he followed his now-wife to Silicon Valley, made a little tweak to his résumé, and stumbled into software design instead. He recently quit his experimental interface design job at Apple. Now he works on a few things on his own, teaches his daughter Mario Kart, and dreams about bread while eating celery for lunch.
Pieter Omvlee is the founder and creator of Sketch, the definitive platform for digital design. Over one million designers use Sketch to transform their ideas into incredible products, every day, and Sketch continues to grow, empowering designers to share and collaborate on their best work. Pieter lives in the Hague, NL and, when he’s not working on Sketch, he plays reasonably good piano and bakes excellent pizza.
Amber Samdahl is a Creative Executive who spent the last decade at Walt Disney Imagineering telling new stories and creating innovative entertainment experiences for the Disney Theme Parks worldwide. She has a passion for designing and building new forms of interactive entertainment, with a focus on games and collaborative experiences for children and families. She is particularly devoted to creating meaningful stories that connect people to each other through play.
Kat Zhou is a product designer at IBM Security and the creator of the <Design Ethically> project. Aside from providing a comprehensive framework, <Design Ethically> also includes a toolkit of activities for product teams to leverage as they reimagine their design processes with ethics. When she's not building cybersecurity products or piloting <Design Ethically> at IBM, Kat is probably making podcast art, attending a rally somewhere, or burying her nose in a good book.
A conference of thoughtful content, wonderful attendees, and generous snacks, Layers provides a positive backdrop for the challenges and accomplishments in design and technology. For designers and non-designers alike, we showcase design fundamentals for industry newcomers and advanced ideas for seasoned professionals.
At Layers, you'll:
...and have the best time.
Layers takes place at the historic Montgomery Theater, right around the corner from Apple’s WWDC.
We have a limited number of pre-paid hotel rooms set aside at the Hotel Clariana, just 5 blocks from Layers. Register your hotel room for June 3-6 at a flat rate of $1000 for 3 nights with check in at 3p and check out at 11a. Reservations can’t be shortened, but it may be possible to lengthen your stay.
Layers is committed to providing a harassment-free event for everyone. Harassment isn't only result of intention; it can also take place when we don't stop to think about how our actions could make others uncomfortable. Let’s go over some common forms of harassment:
🚫 Verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination
related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation,
disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, etc.
🚫 Bullying of any kind, in-person or online
🚫 Sexual images in public spaces
🚫 Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following
🚫 Sustained disruption of talks or other events
🚫 Uninvited and/or inappropriate physical contact
🚫 Unwelcome sexual attention
🚫 Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour
If any attendee or speaker engages in one or more of the inappropriate behaviors listed above, we reserve the right to take any action we deem necessary. This includes, and is not limited to, issuing a warning, complete removal from the conference without refund, and contacting the appropriate authorities.
In the unfortunate case anyone is made to feel uncomfortable at our event, notify us or one of our volunteers immediately. Whether it's a full-fledged complaint, or a "hey, that person could have handled this better" observation, we’re dedicated to providing a safe space for everyone to discuss their experience. If approaching us in person is difficult or uncomfortable, reach us at info@layers.is or submit an anonymous form.
👩🏻 Jessie & Elaine 🧑🏻
Thanks to Geek Feminism for the list of what qualifies as harassment. We welcome feedback on our code of conduct; if you believe an important qualifier of harassment is missing, please let us know at info@layers.is.
Opening Night was founded in 2015 by Jessie Char and Elaine Pow. Together they produce thoughtful events that draw from their combined backgrounds in design, technology, and retail.
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