Meet the first FLORA Immersion cohort

A few weeks ago, we opened up applications for our first ever FLORA Immersion Program.

FLORA was designed with the best creatives in the industry in mind. We’ve seen firsthand — through our work with studios like Base Design, Pentagram, and Mother — what happens when talented designers get serious access to the tool.

The FLORA Immersion Program brings that same depth of training to individual designers ready to explore what FLORA can do for their own practice. Hundreds of talented designers applied, and we’re excited to talk about the ten that have joined our first cohort.

Who’s in the room

Lance Rusoff spent twenty years building identity at Paramount and MTV. Yeryung (Jenny) Ko has done the same through Pentagram, Interbrand Korea and Day One Agency. Yooneui Joo has done identity and campaign work at Milk Agency and independently for Kasmin Gallery, Printemps and Tiffany & Co.

Lance Rusoff — lancerusoff.com

Yooneui Joo — yooneuijoo.com

Alex Manrique renders products and simulates garments for Nike, Bose and Aritzia. Mitchell Kwak works across brand identity, illustration, marketing, and systems, running the apparel label dweenk on the side.

Alex Manrique — alexjmanrique.com

Mitchell Kwak — mitchellkwak.com

Grace Heitmann came out of eight years at The New York Times, New York Magazine and Square. Kevin (Chung-Yu) Liao listed more disciplines than anyone in the cohort — type design, packaging, editorial, signage — and splits his time between MSCHF and Gretel. Minh Pham has worked across brand and campaign design at R/GA and COLLINS, with clients including Google and Samsung. Paula Balondo is a creative designer at Condé Nast across Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, Architectural Digest, Allure and Bon Appétit, with seven years of cross-platform campaign work for Bumble, Klarna, PVH and Bandier behind her, and is moving into art direction.

Grace Heitmann — graceheitmann.com

Kevin (Chung-Yu) Liao — chungyuliao.com

Paula Balondo — paulabalondo.com

Rozi Zhu is a brand designer at Instagram who also codes — typography, creative coding and interactive installation, sometimes in the same project.

Added up, they bring experience across brand, motion, 3D, editorial, type, illustration, product and creative code.

The full cohort

• Paula Balondo — Creative Designer, Condé Nast · paulabalondo.com

• Grace Heitmann — Independent Designer (prev. Square, New York Magazine, The New York Times) · graceheitmann.com · Instagram @graceheitmann

• Yooneui Joo — Designer & Art Director · yooneuijoo.com · Instagram @yooneui.joo

• Yeryung (Jenny) Ko — Multidisciplinary Designer (prev. Pentagram, Day One Agency)

• Mitchell Kwak — Freelance Designer · mitchellkwak.com

• Kevin (Chung-Yu) Liao — Graphic Designer, MSCHF / Gretel · chungyuliao.com

• Alex Manrique — 3D Artist & Art Director, Freelance · alexjmanrique.com

• Minh (Huu Minh) Pham — Visual Designer, R/GA · Instagram @Pham.archive

• Lance Rusoff — Creative Director & Designer (prev. Paramount, MTV) · lancerusoff.com

• Rozi Zhu — Brand Designer, Instagram · Instagram @Rozi.525 · LinkedIn

This cohort will meet for the next five weeks to see how AI and FLORA fit into their work, and the real use cases that they will build. Welcome our inaugural class of Immersion fellows!

If you're interested in applying for the next cohort, you can learn more at this link!