Who We Are

The Wilson School of Design houses seven design programs within KPU, Canada’s only polytechnic university, where we focus on hands-on skills in addition to traditional academics.
 

We believe that the purpose of design is to universally and responsibly affect positive change. The Wilson School of Design is a catalyst for relevant and meaningful change. Change that positively affects people’s lives calls for rigorously exploring, identifying, and developing where the potential for progress lies. The potential we see and nurture in the students we select, and the potential for advancing society at large. 

This conference is made possible in part by a Teaching and Learning Innovation Grant, which celebrates KPU’s proud history as a teaching university. 

Organisers

Erin Ashenhurst, BFA, MA, CDP 

Erin has taught history, culture studies, and studio courses at the Wilson School of Design since 2010. With a background in editorial art direction and interactive design, her academic and creative projects explore themes including urban living and the built environment, digital narrative and online identities, film, photography, memory, and humour. Living in Vancouver, the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, her writing on the depiction of the city in film and television has been published in books including The Fantasy of Reality: Critical Essays on The Real Housewives (2015), and Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: The Real, the Virtual, and the Cinematic (2023). 

 

Carley Hodgkinson, BSc, BDes, MDes 

Carley has chaired and taught studio and technology ethics courses in the Graphic Design for Marketing program at the Wilson School of Design since 2017. In her graphic design practice, Carley worked in agency, inhouse, and publication positions, and ran her own business, focusing on book design in the cultural sector. Prior to returning to teaching full time, Carley moved into user experience design, working as a senior visual designer on business intelligence software and big data collection. Her Masters work, Designing for Experience: Socio-Technological Installation in Transitional Public Space, opened up new interests in public spaces, experience design, and urban planning, with participation in social practice exhibits in Halifax, Lisbon and Vancouver.  

 

Elias Lemke 

Elias is a 3rd year student in the Graphic Design for Marketing program at the Wilson School of Design. His main interests are typographic and editorial design. His student work has been recognized by the Association of Registered Graphic Designers, the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, and Applied Arts Magazine.

Sponsors