Shaun Modi | Chief Creative Officer at Jelly

In May, Shaun Modi (RISD, Industrial Design, ’07) moved on to his “next adventure” as a design professional, accepting an offer to become chief creative officer at the San Francisco-based startup Jelly. Cofounded last year by CEO Biz Stone (cofounder of Twitter), Jelly invited Modi to accept responsibility for building the design culture – or “designing the way we design,” as Stone put it in the press release announcing his appointment.

“I joined Jelly because I respect the team, the product and the company vision,” Modi says. “Building services that empower people to help one another is directly in line with what motivates me as a designer.”

Modi adds that he sees Jelly as “the future of mobile search” and hopes that his new role with the company will enable him to tap into RISD design talent for additional assistance. “I have my RISD education to thank for helping me reach this new level in creative leadership,” he says. “And Biz is also a huge fan of RISD process and culture.”

Prior to moving to Jelly, Modi worked as an interactive designer at Airbnb, the popular lodging company founded and run by Joe Gebbia | RISD 05 Industrial Design/Graphic Design and Brian Chesky | RISD 04 Industrial Design. He also worked for Google earlier in his career. In 2013 Business Insider named Modi #33 in its list of the top 75 Best Designers in Technology.