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AD PRO LIVE: The Road to AD100: Learnings From Today’s Top Design Professionals

AD100 debuts Jessica Helgerson, Darren Jett, and Tal Schori share the career paths that got them into the pages of AD
By AD PRO

Being named to the AD100—AD’s list of the world’s leading talent—is a professional milestone that can make a designer’s career, opening the doors to new, high-profile clients, brand and licensing deals, and a closer relationship with all things AD. In this AD PRO LIVE event, we sit down with three 2026 AD100 debuts—architect Tal Schori of GRT Architects and interior designers Jessica Helgerson and Darren Jett—and discuss the paths that got them into the pages of AD, recall the lessons and surprises they encountered along the way, and get their best advice for designers today. Plus, AD Global Interiors and Garden Editor Alison Levasseur joins to share an inside look at the selection process for the annual list.

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Meet the Panelists

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Jessica Helgerson

Principal and Design Director, Jessica Helgerson Interior Design, and 2026 AD100 Debut

Although her far-flung projects all share a kind of unpretentious beauty and ease, Jessica Helgerson’s portfolio demonstrates a remarkable elasticity of spirit and vision. With offices in Portland, Oregon, and Paris, the AD PRO Directory practice, which Helgerson founded in 2000, knows how to navigate the complexities of older homes, bringing sensitive and creative solutions to the table—and, of course, plenty of style.

Photo: Will Matsuda
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Tal Schori (pictured right)

Founding Partner, GRT Architects, and 2026 AD100 Debut

GRT Architects founding principals Tal Schori and Rustam Mehta first met as third-graders. Both would study at Brown University; both would work as studio assistants for artists; and both would get their masters in architecture from Yale before cutting their teeth at top firms. (Schori worked for Michael Maltzan Architecture and Deborah Berke, and Mehta for Pelli Clarke & Partners, prior to founding GRT in Brooklyn in 2014.) That creative synergy now comes across in their confident and deeply original work, which balances material innovations and historic sensitivity.

Photo: Amy Lombard
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Darren Jett

Design Principal, Jett Projects, and 2026 AD100 Debut

Since launching his own firm in 2020, this New York City–based designer has left a trail of unforgettable spaces that both dazzle your eye and enhance your mood. No matter the project—be it a Manhattan bachelor pad with 1970s swagger or an Ohio Tudor estate with nods to his clients’ Indian heritage—the foundation of his approach is research, with homages to movies, music, and great rooms of the past. But the heart of his practice remains his own sybaritic spirit, expressed through the medium of old-school decorator savoir faire.

Photo: Amy Lombard