Judy Smilow was born in 1958, and she grew up in Usonia near Pleasantville, NY.  In 1983, she earned her B.F.A. in communication design from the Parsons School of Design in New York City. 

From 1983 to 1985, Smilow worked as a graphic designer for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  From 1989 to 1992, she was partner at Fresh Design, a New York-based firm specializing in product, packaging and identity design.  From 1996 to 2000, she returned to the Museum of Modern Art in their retail division as a consultant working in design and product development.  Between 2007 and 2009, Smilow worked as design director and project manager for Nap Home Decor in New York launching the Paula Dean at Home collection.  And from 2009 to 2011, she worked as a consulting creative director for product and brand design for the Save the Children Federation collection at PACE.

Since 1985, Smilow has been the president and creative director for Smilow Design, specializing in product design and development, creative direction, strategic merchandise planning, graphic, and surface design.  Products have included dinnerware, glassware, textiles, jewelry, and stationery items for clients such as Target Corporation, Victoria's Secret, Sasaki, Steuben, Tupperware, Kurt Adler Inc., Museum of Modern Art, Dansk Designs, and Food Network star Paula Dean.

Smilow’s design is included in the public collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art,  the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. In addition, Smilow is listed in the publication The Design Encyclopedia by Mel Byars, and her designs appear in "Product Design 3" by Joe Dolce, "The International Design Yearbook", Edited by Arata Isozaki, and  the exhibition and publication by Lloyd E. Herman, 1990 "Design that Works."