The following individuals participated in the selection of the previous World Design Capitals:

2014 Selection Committee

• Dr. Mark Breitenberg, 2009-2011 Icsid President and Provost at California College of the Arts (USA)
• Edna dos Santos-Duisenberg, Chief of Creative Economy Programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – UNCTAD
• Jeremy Myerson, Director and Chair of the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art (United Kingdom)
• Kohei Nishiyama, Founder and CEO of elephant design co., ltd. and Founder of CUUSOO.com (Japan)
• Jussi Pajunen, Mayor of the City of Helsinki (Finland)

2012 Selection Committee

• Brigitte Borja de Mozota, Director of Research at Parsons Paris School of Art & Design (France)
• Guto Indio da Costa, Industrial Designer, Director of Indio da Costa Design, (Brazil)
• Carlos Hinrichsen, 2007-2009 Icsid President and Director of the School of Design, Instituto Profesional DuocUC of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (Chile)
• Se-hoon Oh, Mayor of the City of Seoul (South Korea)
• Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum (United Kingdom)

2010 Selection Committee

• Sergio Chiamparino, Former Mayor of Torino, 2001-2011 (Italy)
• Jacques Lange, Past President of Icograda 2005-2007 (South Africa)
• Marc Newson, Designer (Australia)
• Patricia Urquiola, Designer (Spain)
• Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, Icsid Senator, President of Icsid from 2005-2007 and is the Founding Chair of the World Design Capital project and President of Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen (Germany)