hope akello

hope akello is a Vancouver-based designer and creative technologist passionate about people and technology. hope’s work connects art, new media and community well-being, often leading interactive workshops, mentoring digital arts students and developing programs for local institutions.

hope is passionate about design and its ability to find and communicate meaning to the world. Utilizing design as a vehicle for social justice and anti-oppression, hope strives to design meaningful experiences and telling stories from perspectives not often realized through design.

Michèle Smolkin

Trained as an architect in France, Michèle emigrated to Canada in 1984. She worked successively and sometimes simultaneously as a Radio and TV journalist, literary commentator, host, documentary director and writer, as well as a voice talent, translator and editor. She has written poetry, Christmas tales, short stories, and documentaries for radio and TV.

Ki Wight

Dr. Ki Wight is a critical media industries scholar who studies the relationships between social justice and media education, work cultures and practices.  Her research, creative projects, teaching and facilitating engage critical and decolonial pedagogies, critical media literacy, social justice education, visual arts-based methodologies and critical theory.

She is an Assistant Professor and Educational Developer at ECU where she works in the Teaching + Learning Centre. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies and a PhD in Equity Studies in Educational Theory and Practice from Simon Fraser University. Prior to her academic career, Ki was a film and television producer for Canadian domestic and international productions spanning the visual arts and commercial film industry.  

Amber Frid-Jimenez

Amber Frid-Jimenez is an artist and Associate Professor at ECU, where she directs the Studio for Extensive Aesthetics (SEA) and served as Canada Research Chair in Art and Design Technology from 2014 to 2024. Her research interrogates generative AI and data-driven systems through installations, video, code and artist’s books, asking what forms of collective knowledge emerge when artistic practice drives inquiry into AI’s impact on creative autonomy and epistemic diversity.

Through SEA, she has trained students in critical inquiry and algorithmic literacy while building collaborations with an international network of scholars, curators and technologists. Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Queens Museum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Ars Electronica and Liverpool Biennial, among others, and is held in public and private collections.

Prior to joining ECU, she taught at MIT, RISD, Brown University and the Bergen National Academy of Art in Norway. She holds an MSc in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art and Philosophy from Wesleyan University.

Daniel Garrod

Daniel Garrod is a Vancouver-based designer whose multidisciplinary practice spans industrial, interior and apparel design. He holds a Bachelor of Design from ECU, graduating in 2018, and studied Industrial Design at Lunds Tekniska Högskola in Sweden.

Daniel’s professional foundation is rooted in academic research and intensive material exploration. From 2015 to 2018, he served as a Research Assistant at the Material Matters lab. Recognizing his contributions and leadership, he later advanced to the role of Project Coordinator, where he successfully guided research initiatives and lab operations until 2023. This extensive, hands-on background continues to inform his meticulous, material-driven approach to contemporary design challenges.

Currently, he operates two distinct yet philosophically aligned independent ventures. As a founder of ODDO, an interior and architectural design practice, Daniel focuses on creating functional, highly durable environments. His spatial work is characterized by a clean, minimalist aesthetic, often utilizing honest and robust materials. Recent projects include three different storefronts for Vancouver-based boutique Shop Neighbour and two spaces for Tourist, a wine-bar and cafe located in Victoria. 

Parallel to his interior endeavors, Daniel helms James Coward, an independent slow fashion brand. Drawing inspiration from artisanal craftsmanship and heritage menswear, the label emphasizes thoughtful product development, uncompromising textile quality, and a deep understanding of garment construction. Through both ODDO and James Coward, Daniel successfully merges his rigorous technical expertise with a refined, enduring aesthetic.

Annaka Hoelk

Annaka Hoelk graduated Industrial Design at ECU in 2023, and has since gone on to establish her eponymous studio, focused on contemporary home goods. Annaka Hoelk Studio was founded on the principal of creating design-led products at a more affordable price-point, something for lovers of design.

The work uses simple, architectural forms and often draws reference from everyday objects or contemporary classic designs to create pieces rooted in the familiar, but exploring new possibilities. Drawing from her own habits, Annaka’s work is always considered in its final context: How will it be styled? Can it be used in multiple ways? How does it fit into the home? 

The studio’s goal is not only to create design, but educate about design history, theory and the industry using social media. Annaka has long felt that awareness of design and appreciation for the objects that surround us is an important route to more sustainable consumerism, better living, and simply put, more beautiful spaces. 

Khan Lee

Khan Lee was born in Seoul, Korea. He studied architecture at Hong-Ik University, before immigrating to Canada to study fine art at ECU. Lee received his Master of Fine Art at Bard College.

Through sculptural and media practices, his work attempts to exhibit results of experimentation with form and process to express inherent relationships between material and immaterial content.   

He is a founding member of the Vancouver-based artist collective Intermission and is presently a member of the Instant Coffee artist collective. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and represented by Equinox Gallery, Vancouver. Lee lives and works in Vancouver. 

Kajola Morewood

Kajola Morewood has Inuit ancestry through her birth mother, who had ties to Kuujjuarapik in Nunavik, and British ancestry through her birth father. She holds a BFA in Photography from ECUand a Master of Library and Information Studies with a First Nations Curriculum Concentration from the University of British Columbia. Currently she serves as the Associate Director of Aboriginal Programs at ECU on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. An interdisciplinary artist, she explores issues of cultural re/connection and the ways in which Indigenous knowledge and belongings are held in western cultural institutions.

Hillary Webb

Hillary Webb is a Vancouver-based artist who practices primarily in textile mediums and ceramics, combining techniques such as hand embroidery, natural dyeing and drawing. Hillary’s work is inspired by architecture, geometry, the natural world and a sense of place. She has exhibited her work across North America in solo and group shows, as well as art and craft fairs. She has taught embroidery workshops since 2006, and regularly collaborates with other artists on creative projects. After graduating from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2004 she became a librarian at ECU out of the desire to give people the tools to learn new techniques, to explore and to be inspired by history, ideas and images.