Lauralee Alben

2020 AIGA SF Fellow

Always an advocate for the transformative power of design, Lauralee Alben has dedicated her forty-year career to exploring how it can serve life. She is founder of the Sea Change Design Institute, which practices “design consciousness,” a new way of being that creates thriving relationships at the confluence of humanity, nature, spirit, and time.

In 2001, Lauralee developed Sea Change Design, a living design system that has been used to inspire ocean conservation, protect human rights, build innovative cultures, humanize technology, and brand initiatives for clients including the Environmental Defense Fund, Procter & Gamble, ServiceNow, Apple, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sea Change Design coaching engages leaders in designing their lives, work, and legacies.

A seasoned speaker at professional conferences, corporations, and schools, Lauralee has presented at TED, the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society, AIGA, Adobe, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and SJSU. Her design work and seminal articles have been published internationally. Lauralee is a Muriel Cooper Fellow at the Design Management Institute and one of the I.D. Forty most influential designers.

Lauralee co-founded Alben+Faris with Jim Faris in 1985, pioneering interface design and interactive experiences. She received her BFA from RISD and her master’s from Basel School of Design.

Lauralee Alben Interview by Bonnie DeVarco