Design is Human Awards

The Atlanta Design Festival has announced the recipients of the 2026 Design is Human Awards, recognizing work across architecture, industrial design, urban development, brand design and cultural production. The awards are presented on Friday, October 2, at Buckhead Village District.

The 2026 Icon Award winner is:

• Jens Martin Skibsted receives the 2026 Icon Award. The Copenhagen designer, founder of Skibsted Ideation and a co-founder of Biomega, is recognized for work spanning mobility design, urban thinking and design policy.
• The Icon Award was introduced in 2024. Previous Design is Human honorees include Kai-Uwe Bergmann of Bjarke Ingels Group, Todd Bertsch of HOK, BeltLine founder Ryan Gravel, Jim Irwin of New City Properties, and Katherine Dirga of MARTA Artbound.

The 2026 recipients are:

• Sekou Cooke, principal, sekou cooke STUDIO, for being chief spokesmen and curator of Hip-Hop Architecture as a field, through the studio’s built work, his 2021 monograph and the exhibition Close to the Edge
• Chip Gross, whose career spans Boston Consulting Group, UPS, Hearst and IBM, for building design capacity in Atlanta and opening routes into the industry for local talent
• Michael Carroll, Professor of Architecture, Kennesaw State University College of Architecture and Construction Management, for MAT_LAB and research into the material expression of under-represented communities
• Kevin Byrd, interdisciplinary artist and creative director, for founding the Dolby Artist Program and for brand work at Instacart and Postmates, recognized with D&AD Pencils, a Cannes Bronze Lion and an IDSA Gold International Design Excellence Award
• Steve Nygren, founder and CEO, Serenbe, for pioneering biophilic living and placemaking through a community of more than 1,000 residents built on protected land
• Donald Burlock Jr, founder, Kingsman Golf, for experience design work with Dolby, IDEO, GE and Coca-Cola, including a 2015 Red Dot award for a branded cinema experience
• EunSook Kwon, Chair of School of Industrial Design, Georgia Institute of Technology, for three decades building industrial design programs and for work on design thinking and strategy
• Shawn Austin, known as DJ Cozy Shawn, resident DJ at MJQ Concourse from 1998 to 2010 and at Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Cocktails in the Garden, for thirty years building creative community in the city through music

The Emerging Designer Award goes to Sean Spencer, a designer at Perkins&Will, Kennesaw State University graduate and winner of the Metropolis Future100 2025. 

The Student Award goes to Mia Wood, an industrial design student at Georgia Institute of Technology, recognized for her studio work, including Cradle, a lounge chair in mild steel and hand-woven macramé assembled without welding or adhesive.

Established in 2023, the awards recognize people who have improved how the world works through design, innovation, policy and culture. The disciplines are mixed deliberately. This year’s recipients include an architect, an industrial design educator, a developer who built a town, a brand designer and a DJ.

“These awards were set up to recognize global and local figures across disciplines, people who have improved how the world works through design, innovation, policy and culture,” said Bernard McCoy of the Atlanta Design Festival. “That is why an architect, an industrial design educator and a DJ are on the same list this year. Design decides how a city gets built. It also decides how people live in it.”

Research commissioned by the Atlanta Design Festival from Ortus Economic Research in 2018 found the city’s design sector employing 111,000 people and contributing $35.8bn in gross value added.

About the Design is Human Awards

Established in 2023 as part of the Atlanta Design Festival, the Design is Human Awards recognize contributions to design across multiple fields, local and international.

About the Award’s Design

Each Design is Human Award is a work of art, designed by Matteo Caimi and fabricated by Alberto Menichini Marmi and Lavorazioni. The award design draws inspiration from brutalist architecture, paying homage to iconic structures such as the Barbican, with its emphasis on raw materials and bold, geometric forms. 

The use of concrete and stone in the award’s construction is a deliberate nod to the brutalist movement’s ethos of honesty in materials and functional design. By choosing these materials, the award symbolizes strength and resilience and also reflects the essence of the honorees’ work—groundbreaking, impactful, and enduring.