Marjatta Itkonen is a graphic designer and a professor emerita of Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture. She graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and did her degree at Henryk Tomaszewski’s poster studio. She was working as a designer at Studio Viiva for more than two decades. As a professor at Aalto University she was involved in many social design projects with students. She supervised students’ teams several years with Common Responsibility Campaigns that is the biggest fund raising campaign in Finland. She has travelled with students to do ground research in Angola and Peru. She organized in 2014 with 10 art universities (Russia, Israel, USA, Ecuador, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Japan and Poland) an international students outdoor poster exhibition in cooperation with UNICEF in Lahti, Finland. Itkonen has participated in many international poster events; also being a jury member in Mexico and Warsaw. She has provided social design poster workshops in France, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Belgium and Mexico. She has been a board member at Grafia; Finnish Graphic Designers’ Association, at Muoto design magazine and in many boards at Aalto University 2004-2014.
Tarja Nieminen is an artist and designer. After graduating from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, she pursued further studies in photography and motion media at the Academy of Performing Arts, FAMU in Prague and, on Fulbright grant, at the School of Visual Arts, SVA, in New York. She has been a lecturer of visual communication at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture of the Aalto University since 2007. Before that, she served ten years as the Head of the Graphic Design Department at the Institute of Design of the Lahti University of Applied Sciences. In her educational work, she has focused on developing curricula related to dynamic media and international cooperation. For the past eighteen years, her practice has included free-lance design work in visual communication as well as fine arts activity in Europe and in the US.
Alecos Papadatos is a renowned Greek comic artist & animator. He has studied animation and cartoon design, after his BSc in Economics and an MA in Marketing, in Aristotle University and University of Sorbonne II, respectively. He has worked as an animator for TV animated commercials and cartoon video-clips in 2D/3D for the Greek and European market, among which, the TV cartoon series "Babar", produced by Canal Plus, Paris. In addition, he directed and produced character animation for full-length film credit titles and color background paintings and animation for theatre plays video back projection.
His short-length animated films winning first prize at the 1989 short-length film festival of Drama, Greece; and an official Greek participation at the 1989 Berlin Film Festival.
Alecos has designed comic books with emphasis on corporate advertisement and was one of the main cartoonists at the Greek newspaper 'To Vima' (leading newspaper in Athens, Greece). He is the sole cover illustrator for The Books' Journal, a Greek paper publication exploring the world of books, politics, ideas, literature and the arts and the artist of 'Logicomix', a graphic novel written by Apostolos Doxiadis, No1 New York Times Best Seller Graphic Book for 2009. His latest project released in 2015, 'Democracy', is a graphic novel he co-wrote with Abraham Kawa and co-illustrated with Annie Di Donna.
Maria Nomikou studied Theater Studies at the University of Athens and is currently enrolled in the MA on European and International policies in education, training and research at the University of Piraeus. As a member of the Pool of Trainers of the European Youth Forum from 2017 to 2013 she cooperated with the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the OSCE in Kosovo, Ministries of Education in 3 countries, numerous NGOs in national and European level etc. She has co-authored/edited 5 publications in the field of youth training and non-formal education. At the moment she works at the British Council as Social Economy Project Manager.
Ruedi Baur has been placing his design work in the context of the public space since the 1980s. Working primordially as a graphic designer for numerous cultural institutions in different country, he has also been teaching interdisciplinary courses at different schools since 1990s. He lead the recherche institut Design2context in Zurich, then Civic city in Geneva. Programs like: “Urban Spaces and Design”, "Orientation-desorientation", "Visible-invisible", "Civic design”, ”Design and complexity"…, present his attitude as designer, teacher and rechercher.
As designer he intervenes on problems related to the identification, orientation, scenography and, in broader terms, the representation of institutions, urban spaces and political territories, often alongside architects and urban planners. A proponent of interdisciplinary design, Baur created the Intégral network in 1989 with its own workshops: Intégral Ruedi Baur in Paris and Zurich. Today, he lectures and develops research programs in the HEAD University of Geneva, ENSAD in Paris and at the University of Strasbourg. He lectures and implements research in different country in the world. The most recent of the many wayfinding, visual identity and scenography projects he has designed are the information concept for the 4 new lines of the Subway Paris, the sign and wayfinding system of the New School in New York, the Cologne-Bonn and Vienna airports, but also social design projects for hospitals, prisons, memorials, neighborhoods.
President of “civic city”, Institute et Association for critical research and sciences in design
Vera is sociologist, cultural scientist, specialised in visual and urban anthropology. She is associate researcher in Sociology of Design at the University St Gallen, Switzerland. Vera Baur develops a research and interdisciplinary practice in the crossing of culture, sciences and politics. She founded and lead since 1989 INTERDIS_Institute for Interdisciplinarity, Berlin and realized numerous publications and exhibitions, as well as conferences and research projects. After her international career as independent exhibition curator, critic and director of the museums for contemporary art Kunstverein Gütersloh and Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft Nuremberg, she was founder and co-director of the Institute of Art, Design and Mediatechnology at the GSO University of Nuremberg (2000-04), the Institute Design2context at the University of Arts Zurich (05-11) and was engaged inter alia as member of the directory board at the Society of Interdisciplinary Visual Sciences (GIB) and of the Transmedia Academy Hellerau, Dresden. She is president of the international Association Civic City - Institute for critical research and sciences in design and runs with Ruedi Baur the research programme Visible / Invisible at the University of Art and Design Geneva as well as the department of social design at the Designstudio Integral Ruedi Baur, Paris / Zurich.
Educator at University of the West of Scotland (UWS)
Margaret was an undergraduate at the University of St Andrews. She received her Doctorate in Education from the University of Stirling with a thesis entitled: ‘Migrant ESOL Learners: a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis’. She has worked with migrant, refugee and asylum seeking students, as well as learners from settled migrant communities, in the university, college and school sectors both in the UK and in Egypt. She teaches in the School of Education at UWS where she is Programme Leader for the MEd TESOL and coordinates, and teaches, the ‘Analysing Discourse’, ‘Bilingualism’ and ‘Second Language Acquisition’ modules. She also supervises research at both Masters and Doctoral levels.
Konstantinos Aivaliotis has graduated from the Department of Social Policy & Social Anthropology, Panteion University, and holds two MA degrees in Anthropology of Education (France, University of Rouen) and in Visual Anthropology (UK, Goldsmiths College). He has completed his PhD in Social Anthropology (Panteion University) with his thesis subject being “Culture, Documentaries and Film Festivals”. His research interests include film festivals, visual anthropology and ethnographic cinema.
He is co-founder of the Athens Ethnographic Film Festival – Ethnofest and has been its Director until 2016. Until 2015 he was a member of the program coordination team of the Athens International Film Festival Opening Nights, an associate of the Cinema magazine and of the website cinemag.gr and instructor of the school educational program “First Hour in Cinema”. He is currently the Director of the Directorate of Distribution and Support-Hellas Film of the Greek Film Centre.
Silas Michalakas has studied Archaeology (BA, University of Ioannina), History & Philosophy of Science & Technology (MA, University of Athens-NTUA) and Visual Anthropology (MA, Goldsmiths College, University of London). He has worked in research projects of universities and research institutions, in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and lately as an independent researcher and producer of documentaries and audiovisual material for museums. He has extensive experience in filmmaking focusing in intangible cultural heritage, while he is particularly interested in the technological advances on filmmaking and the flexibility they provide to the documentary creation process. He is currently the Development & Educational Programs Manager of the Athens Ethnographic Film Festival – Ethnofest.
Marta PACHOCKA holds a PhD in Economics (2013). Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Studies of the Collegium of Socio-Economics of the Warsaw School of Economics (WSE). Coordinator of the project EUMIGRO – “Jean Monnet Module on the European Union and the Contemporary International Migration – an Interdisciplinary Approach” (2016–2019) co-financed by the EU in the framework of Erasmus+ Programme. Key staff member of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the Warsaw School of Economics (2016–2019). Researcher in the project IMINTEG at the Centre of Migration Research of the University of Warsaw. Involved in many national and international projects co-funded by i.a. EU, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Bank of Poland, Polish National Science Center. Beneficiary of “Young Scientists’ Research Grants” financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education since 2012. Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre d’études européennes of the Sciences Po Paris (2015). Visiting Professor at the University of Economics in Bratislava (2015) and at the University of Tartu (2016). Secretary of the Polish European Community Studies Association (PECSA). Member of PTE, UACES, IPSA, IMISCOE, IASFM, AIELF. Her main research interests are i.a. socio-demographic changes in Europe/EU; Europe/EU and international migration; EU policy on migration and asylum; immigration policy and integration policy in France; France’s international position; European economy, world economy, global public goods.
Political scientist and economist, editor and research consultant, with extensive experience in academiaand the think-tank sector. Dr. Visvizi has presented herwork in many forums in Europe and the U.S., including Capitol Hill. Her research interests include the economy, security and politics of broadly conceived Central Europe; the political economy of the Eurozone crisis, and especially the crisis in Greece; global safety and security, including transatlantic relations and global governance structures. Currently Dr. Visvizi serves as Assistant Professor at Deree-The American College of Greece. She is also a Member of the Academic Board of the Institute of Diplomacy and Global Affairs (IDGA).For her most recent publications, see here
She graduated from Warsaw School of Economics (Faculty of Foreign Trade), and postgraduate studies in pedagogy (SGH) and intellectual property protection (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin). Her research interests include international integration and international organizations. She has worked on many Polish universities and supervised more than 180 master and bachelor thesis. Frequent author, co-author and editor of articles, monographs, reviews, etc. She also received and coordinated many grants (including Jean Monnet Permanent Course (1995–1998), Jean Monnet – Life-long Learnig Programm (2013–2014), Jean Monnet Programme (2014–2015), ERASMUS+. Trice she has received Warsaw School of Economics Rector’s team award for teaching as well as numerous other awards, also for her doctoral dissertation. Member of many professional bodies and organizations, including Polish European Community Studies Association and Polish Economic Society. She has organized many conferences, and national and international seminars. She has collaborated with the World Bank, UNDP, UNHCR, Amnesty International, Robert Schuman Foundation (Fundacja R.Schumana), US Embassy in Poland, National School for Public Administration (KSAP), National Bank of Poland (NBP) and Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Science.
Ewa Satalecka is Professor at Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technologies in Warsaw and leader of its motion typography class. She represents Poland on the international forum of ATypI (International Typography Association). Satalecka organizes international design workshops, conferences, and exhibitions of typography and information design. Her work includes kinetic typography installations presented at the “Liquid Page” Symposium in Britain's Tate (2008) and as a part of the international “Moving Type” Exhibition in the Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany (2011). Edited by Satalecka: MOTYF2013, MOTYF2014, Fajrant (available on issuu, prized TDC 2012 certificate). Her articles were included in Very Graphic: Polish designers of the 20th Century, edited by Jacek Mrowczyk, (IAM, 2015) and 365xtypo: 365 stories on type, typography, and graphic design, edited by Linda Kudrnovska (Etapes, 2015).
Kinga graduated from the University of Warsaw with a Master's Degree in Linguistics. Since then she has worked as a business assisstant, ESL teacher and IT trainer, translator and web designer - often integrating these areas in creative ways. She is interested in web technologies, games and education, as well as popular science. Moreover, she is a Polish Language Coordinator in the TED Translators project and a member of TEDx Warsaw team. In the Alien project she works as a teaching methodology designer and advisor. Feel free to talk to her about the use of games and web tools for education, organizing TEDx events and any of your interests
Rama Gheerawo is an international figure within design, business and innovation with nearly two decades of experience. He is interested in how design can address society’s toughest challenges. He is a serial innovator in the fields of technology, products, services and transport with over 100 projects to his name. He works with government, industry and the public sector with a client list that includes Samsung, Toyota, P&G, Panasonic, Sony, Arthritis Research UK and the UK and Hong Kong governments – training around 400 civil servants for the latter on design, creativity and leadership. He is co-leading a redesign of the London taxi, currently one of the most significant projects on the globe and has instigated and delivered ground-breaking work across a variety of sectors. He is demand as a workshop leader, speaker and author.
Eftichia was born in Piraeus and studied acting at the Drama School of Athens, Theater in Education at Trinity College (Dublin, IR) and Coaching at the Athens Coaching Institute. She has followed dance and singing classes as well as seminars in direction, marionette construction and animation, drama therapy and cognitive behavioural drama.
She is actively engaged in theater peadagogy in children, adolescents & adults and designs educational programmes for museums, schools and spaces for creative learning. She has collaborated with the center of Cognitive Behavioral Drama and with the University of Athens in the “Education for Roma children” and has been an animator and director of children and adult groups. As a co-founder of “Paperdollwise” she has designed and implemented theater-performance educational programmes for museum exhibitions, animation spaces and theatrical plays for children. Furthermore, she constucts interactive stories for children with learning and communication difficulties.
Eftychia has taken part in several theatrical and tv productions and “lends” her voice to dubbed series, animation films, internet games and commercials.
Adam Cooke was born in 1973 and lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Studying Fine Art at UCA, University for the Creative Arts. Completing his Masters in Interactive Multimedia Arts at John Moores University, Liverpool. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Design Communication at School of Creative Arts, Glyndwr University. His research explores open technologies in a community context.
Babis Alexiadis is an animator and media artist that works between London and Athens. He works mainly with traditional animation techniques. He produces animation and film projects for interdisciplinary platforms such as theatre, site specific installations, music videos, commercials and other visual media.
Recent projects include an animation commission for Ron Arad’s 360 projection installation Curtain Call (2016) London, currently on an international tour. Also an animation commission for the 50th Dimitria Festival (2015), Thessaloniki, the creative direction of moving image for the theatre production The Barometer of My Heart (2015), London, a 360 animation projection for Mark Storor’s theatre production The Fat Girl Gets A Haircut and Other Stories (2011), London, an animation for the award winning touring opera production Laika The Spacedog (2012) and an animation for the award-winning theatre production For The Best (2010), London.
1998, Verena Gerlach founded her studio for graphic design, typedesign and typography in Berlin. Since 2006, she has been working as a freelance book designer for art book publishers alike Hatje Cantz and Kerber. She started lecturing in type design, and typography in 2003, and she now gives lectures and workshops all over the globe.
Beside designing corporate fonts for global companies, she also is working on the typographic production for international, contemporary artists.
In 2013, Verena published her book “Karbid—From Lettering to Type Design”.
2014, she took part of an artist and residency program by Goethe Institute Bangalore on lettering and the textile industryin India. The result is an embroidery project in collaboration with a group of underprivileged, young women from the city of Ramanagaram.
Modern live in a society, still dominated by men and contemptuous of women is one of the main topics for Verena’s artistic, and politcal works.
With the belief that both design and story-making are tools for life, Dr Alexandra Antonopoulou's teaching, research and design practice are concerned with discourses on learning, shared authorship, power and collaboration. Her research has resulted into the development of learning programmes, books and products for children and adults. Currently a Senior Lecturer in the UK Alexandra has been teaching in several institutions such as the University of the Arts London, Goldsmiths-University of London and University of Greenwich. Her multidisciplinary design practice and research has been showcased at the London Victoria & Albert Museum, the London Design Museum, the Whitechapel Gallery, the E4 channel and several universities and research institutions internationally.
Born in Ottawa, Canada and raised in Athens, Alexandros Mistriotis studied at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille, France. His research led him to literature, painting, cinema, photography and hybrid forms of multimedia. Back in Greece in 2004 Alexandros started working in the performing arts field in various positions, in the beginning as a video artist, afterwards as a dramaturge and eventually as a performer. His own texts are performed as part of a project called "The Theater of Quietude". Compelled by social developments in Greece and all over Europe, he changed considerably his artistic practice.
He is focusing more on contemporary orality, history and its formative influence on public space. His artistic profile is questioning the spectacular, oscillating between texts and images, poetry and theory, presence and representation, precision and abstraction. He is part of the Greek independent scene that emerges the last decade, defending fragility and disappearance and keeps a critical distance to all kinds of media representations or institutions. He's been invited in multiple occasions to share his views around Europe in a variety of issues like the relation of art with politics or the relation of technology with culture.