About US

Kara Pecknold

Kara Pecknold is a Canadian living in Munich and a Creative Director at frog, a company that advances the human experience through design. She specialized in design research, a discipline that maps the difference between what people say and what they actually do to help her clients design meaningful experiences for their customers or employees.

She holds a Master's degree in Design from Emily Carr University, where she focused her research on cross-cultural design and process. During this time, she created packaging for the national implementation of a food fortification protocol in Rwanda and taught a variety of courses at conferences and universities to connect diverse disciplines to the idea of designing for social change.

She is a former contributing writer for Core77, a TEDxVancouver speaker and the creator and facilitator of Dinner With A Side Of Design, an event that allows designers and civic leaders to share a meal while using design process to look at how they could innovate the city of the future.

When she's not doing all of the above, she likes yoga, hiking, food, wine and bringing people together around the shared table.

Jess Covi

Jess Covi is an Austrian-born industrial designer who specializes in experiential and holistic product design. After her master studies at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and working in Zurich, Switzerland, Jess moved to New York City to work as an industrial designer at the design firm, frog design. She taught classes and workshops at SVA, NYU and Google's 30weeks startup incubator, and was chosen to be an artist in residence at Pitch, a product innovation space.

Now Creative Director at BMW Group she previously worked as a Design Consultant and Creative Director with clients such as Google, Hyundai, Unilever and Anheuser Bush inBev across industries including hospitality, architecture, consumer goods and retail. She provides creative vision and leadership for multidisciplinary teams creating innovative products and experiences at the junction of design, culture, and product realization.

Jess Covi is founder of Grete Kraft Atelier.