Iva Babaja, mag. art, was born in Zagreb. She received her Master's degree in 1996. at the prestigious University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She started her career as an freelance designer, and continued in the advertising industry, where she achieved many successes and was chosen as one of the best creative directors in the region. In 2017, she founded Babaja Branding & Design Consultancy d.o.o. In addition to her professional work, Iva has from the very beginning also been engaged in volunteer work and spent 10 years on the Board of the International Council of Design ICoD, which represents about 200 organizations in about 70 countries. Through her engagement, she systematically worked on the promotion of the design profession, international regulations for tenders and professional ethics and practice, wrote numerous international regulations and implemented numerous reforms, the most significant of which is the expansion of the Council's activities from graphic design into a multidisciplinary area. Thanks to her work, in 2015 she was elected the first female President in the institution's 50-year history. Iva's works have been published in numerous publications in Croatia and around the world, and she is a frequent guest lecturer at conferences and professional gatherings and a member of numerous international juries. Along with numerous other awards, in 2018 she was honoured with the Order of Danica Hrvatska by the President of Croatia for her contribution to the promotion of Croatian culture and design. Iva is a member of the Croatian Design Society (HDD) and ULUPUH and is a lifetime honorary member of the ICoD.
