Design Director and Co-Founder

Byron Glaser is the Co-Founder and Design Director of Hypatia. He is responsible for Hypatia’s design studio across programs and products, both digital and physical. Byron has been designing award-winning products and providing modern visual communication campaigns for 30 years across a wide range of media, from hospital environments to educational toys, from online user experience to global health campaigns. Byron co-leads the design team with Digital Experience Director Sandra Higashi to ensure that Hypatia customers receive products that are engaging and on-mission. Byron has a broad base of technical knowledge to guide teams through an array of complicated design problems. He is a distinguished Honors graduate from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

Byron specializes in visual communication for mission impact, public benefit and stakeholder mobilization. In the government and NGO sector, Byron has developed products, digital platforms, mobile applications and customer engagement experiences for programs that promote global health, environmental sustainability, diversity and equality, mental health, national cybersecurity, science education, cures from clinical trials, and empowering vulnerable populations. One example of mission projects include visual communication strategy and digital outreach campaign for Global Action for Children (GAC), a nonpartisan coalition that achieved Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act (P.L. 109-95), the first comprehensive legislative response to the global crisis for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in developing countries. Another example is the digital strategy, toolkits and curriculum he designed for Positive Tracks Sweating For Good, a nation-wide community mobilization campaign that has engaged 73,600 Positive Trackers — youth across the country — to turn 383,675 miles of athletic activity into advocacy, activism and $11.1 million for causes shaping our future, from racism to mental health, hunger, climate change and other vital causes. He recently led the front-end design of Social Cognition Software for Ivymount, an educational leader in autism spectrum interventions. This mobile tool, supported by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), provides intelligent support, adaptive assessment and progress monitoring for health professionals and educators providing social and emotional learning (SEL) instruction to K-6 students with high functioning autism, ADHD, pragmatic learning disorders, and anxiety disorders.

Core Competencies

Digital presence and web design, OOBE, mobile application design and user interface, mixed reality, public service campaigns and engagement, educational software, training films, kinetic imaging and animation, print and digital publication, high impact annual reports, environmental design for hospitals, health centers, scientific conferences, data visualization, dashboard design, educational toys, medtech product design, consumer product design.

Legacy of Innovative Design for Consumer Engagement and Stakeholder Mobilization

Byron uses design for International coalition building, technology adoption, policy outreach, media outreach, convening diverse groups, training adults, educating youth, promoting play and activating communities for global problems. 

• Board of Directors, Empowerhouse, in Fredericksburg, VA. Byron helped rebrand the Rappahannock Council on Domestic Violence to Empowerhouse which supports survivors through community-wide educational programs, secret shelter, a 24-hour hotline, victim advocacy, children’s services, support groups, Spanish language and culturally relevant services, transition in-place housing assistance, accompaniment to court and healthcare visits, teen dating violence prevention, and batterer intervention programs.

• Creator of Zolo Toys and Games, with a distinguished history as the best-selling product of Museum of Modern Art in New York, New York, and recently selected by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England to join its Permanent Exhibition on the History of Games and Toys.

• Co-Creator of the Biology Bento Box, clinical field kits that bring the clinical trial to patient doorsteps for self-service data collection and assays (lupusbento.com)

• Lead Designer, Global Action for Children (GAC), a nonpartisan coalition dedicated to improving the lives of orphans and highly vulnerable children in the developing world through strategic advocacy, which resulted in passing the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act (P.L. 109-95) and implementation recommendations for the USG

• Lead Designer, Best Public Service Announcement for LA Animation Festival

• Featured Designer in Communication Arts: 100 Years of Graphic Design (Exhibition)

• Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA 50

• Art Director, Grey Advertising, in New York, New York

Education

• ArtCenter College of Design, MFA, Advertising Illustration/Graphics Packaging, with honors