Designers of the Year 2021: Introducing Our Furniture Design Judges

ICYMI: we’ve extended the deadline to enter our 2021 Designers of the Year Awards! You’ve got until April 16 to enter one of nine categories€”including furniture design, helmed by these all-star judges. Read all about the below€”and learn how to enter your designs, here!

Sara Khodja, CB2

Sara Khodja leads the strategy, design and development of all furniture at CB2. Over the course of her 15+ year tenure, she has also helped evolve categories including textiles, decorative accessories and lighting. Prior to becoming a home merchant, Sara's work involved guiding design projects with industrial and graphic designers for consumer brands.

Jaye Buchbinder, Emeco

Jaye Buchbinder, daughter of Emeco’s owner Gregg Buchbinder, grew up watching her dad flip over chairs at every restaurant and café they passed. She also followed him into the ocean to start swimming and surfing at a young age. After an undergrad in Sustainable Design and Engineering and a Masters in Engineering, both at Stanford University, she joined Emeco as a Product Developer in 2018. She is passionate about sustainability and was instrumental in launching Emeco’s initiative to measure and declare the carbon footprint of its products. She still flips over chairs and surfs with her dad every Friday.

Credit: Andrew Querner

Brent Comber, Brent Comber Originals

Brent Comber is an artist and designer creating sculpted objects, functional pieces, and designed environments. Brent initially began working with wood as a garden designer in the early 1990s, creating pieces to compliment his Pacific Rim inspired gardens. Using solid pieces of wood, he found a new take on design that truly integrated with the landscape. It is his interpretation of the natural world that drives Brent to create pieces that reflect the stories that surround him.

Brent is the fourth generation of his family to be raised within the Pacific Northwest. Ranging from residential to commercial installations, his aesthetic interpretation of the West Coast has been recognized both locally and globally, showing as far as Paris, London, Japan, Bora Bora and beyond. Brent continues to explore themes unique to the Pacific Northwest that connect people to this unparalleled setting and the history and dynamism of the landscape.