Srdja Hrisafovic is an architect, lighting designer, teacher and applied researcher with over 30 years of work experience. He authored / co-authored over 40 architectural and lighting design projects and published over 30 peer-reviewed publications, articles, chapters and conference papers. Furthermore, Hrisafovic advises the local government of Sarajevo on matters of lighting and environment policy. He teaches lighting and design at a number of universities throughout Europe, the USA and New Zealand. Hrisafovic is currently the vice dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo where he teaches at the Department of Product Design.

Adla Isanović holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana (doctoral study programme Comparative Studies of Ideas and Culture), where she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled ‘Databases and Art in the Function of Knowledge Production in the Digital Age’ (2017). She completed an MA in New Media (Multimedia), Haute École d’Arts Appliqués in Geneva (2005), as well as a research-based postgraduate programme in Critical, Curatorial, Cybermedia Studies at Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Geneva (2005). She completed her undergraduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo (2002). Isanović teaches multimedia and interactive multimedia.

Amer Mrzljak graduated from the Department of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo and earned his master’s in the same department in 2016. Since 2019, he has been engaged at the academy, currently holding the position of Associate Professor and Head of Graphic Design Department. He has worked as an art director within creative teams at Design Trio Sarajevo and the marketing agency Fabrika. Throughout his professional career, Mrzljak has been involved in numerous socially engaged, cultural and commercial projects, contributing to the creation of various publications. He has particularly been active in the field of advertising, participating in the making of numerous campaigns for both domestic and international clients.

Barbara Revelli is the Head of Programmes at ELIA. With over 15 years of experience in strategy, policy, international projects, events and content development within the cultural and creative industries and arts education, she has been a key figure at ELIA since 2011. Revelli has led several pan-European projects, including the large-scale CYANOTYPES initiative focussed on skills development in the Cultural and Creative Industries. She also manages various working groups and fosters partnerships and knowledge exchange across diverse communities. Prior to ELIA, Revelli worked in various sub-sectors of the Cultural and Creative Industries. Following her experience at GRI – Global Reporting Initiative, a leader in CSR and sustainability reporting, Revelli deepened her focus on the intersection of ecology and creativity.

Janja Škerget has been working for more than seven years as an ELIA Conference Manager, focussing on organisation, communication and development of ELIA professional events and meetings in different formats (in-person, online and hybrid). She received a Master Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship from Erasmus University Rotterdam and worked as a communications manager and event coordinator at several cultural organisations before joining ELIA. Škerget is also a holder of a certificate of MOOC Managing the Arts: Marketing for Cultural Organizations, provided by the Goethe-Institute and Leuphana University.

Derville Quigley is an experienced communications manager with a background in strategic storytelling, stakeholder engagement and cultural leadership. With expertise spanning arts, education and digital media, she has led high-impact campaigns. While leading international communications at ELIA, she has directed digital outreach for a network of 290+ arts institutions, overseeing content strategy, branding and event communications. A skilled project manager, she has designed professional development initiatives, produced award-winning digital content and launched cultural advocacy campaigns. Holding an MBA and an MA in Screen Arts, she is passionate about strengthening creative networks, advancing the visibility of the cultural sector and is a poet at heart.

Saúl Baeza (does-work.com) is DOES, MAYBE and VIBE Creative Director and VISIONS BY Editor-in-chief. While lecturing at Elisava, Barcelona University of Design and Engineering he also researches functional and digital identities as part of the Making with… Research Group (TU Eindhoven Research) and Futures Now Research Group (Elisava Research). Baeza is the Co-Director of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures, organised by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Elisava, in collaboration with the Fab Academy. He has been visiting professor and lecturer at international universities, educational institutions and cultural venues such as Harvard GSD, Central Saint Martins and London College of Communication, IAAC, RMIT University in Melbourne, Rhode Island School of Design, Pascual Bravo University in Medellín, Sónar+D, Victoria and Albert Museum, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and Disseny Hub Barcelona among others.

Marina Castán is a textile designer who received an Undergraduate Degree in Textile and Design from ESDi Higher School of Design at Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, a Postgraduate in Design and Innovation from Elisava-UPF, and a Master in Art and New Media Curatorship from ESDi. She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art in London in Textiles (2019) in the framework of the European project ArcInTexETN – Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship 2014–18. Castán has extensive experience as a teacher and researcher in interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts. She has conducted research projects in the field of textile materials, wearables and architecture. She is currently leading the European project Transitions (Erasmus+) at Elisava Research and is part of the teaching team.

Manuela Valtchanova (manuelavaltchanova.com) is an architect (TUM, Munich / University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia, 2015), PhD (Department of History and Theory of Art, University of Barcelona), researcher at Elisava Research (Design for City Making) since 2018 and Associate Professor for the Undergraduate Degree in Design and Innovation and the Master of Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces (MEATS) at Elisava. Her work area is built on the critical transaction between politics, space and intersubjectivity and in her PhD investigation she explores the idea of Architecture of Action or the socio-spatial practices of critical intervention in the hypermodern city. As part of the Elisava Research team Valtchanova develops projects that deal with ephemeral architecture, operative mapping and social cohesion. She has been visiting professor and guest lecturer at universities worldwide and published both specialised articles and book chapters, mainly addressing expanded design strategies based on transformative urbanism, collaborative spaces and temporary interventions in public space.

Ott Kagovere (ottkagovere.com) is an independent graphic designer who lives and works in Tallinn. He designs books, exhibitions and identities for cultural institutions and publishers. His recent collaborators include Rab-Rab Press, The Trojan Horse Collective and Foto Tallinn. Kagovere is also involved in publishing through projects like Dear Friend (in collaboration with Sandra Nuut) and OPA! publishing. He has a special interest in interdisciplinary practices, ranging from design to literature and theory to performativity. He is also an educator; since 2022, he has been the Head of Graphic Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Kagovere occasionally writes about design for the likes of Sirp, Müürileht and Vikerkaar.

Kert Viiart is a graphic designer and visual artist based in Tallinn. He graduated in 2020 from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague with a degree from the Master Non Linear Narrative. In his artistic practice he is currently analysing the problematics of posthumous conditions and the age of plastic, seeking to explore the impact of the use and display of plastic both as a material / tool and as an artefact in the methodologies of archaeology. Since 2014, Viiart has been a visiting lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts where since 2022 he is Associate Professor in the Graphic Design Department.

Hrefna Sigurðardóttir (hrefna-sigurdardottir.net) is a graphic designer and teacher based in Reykjavík. She graduated with a BA in graphic design from the Iceland University of the Arts (IUA) and received an MFA in graphic design from Yale School of Art in 2018. Sigurðardóttir is Assistant Professor and former Programme Director in graphic design at the IUA.

Marteinn Sindri Jónsson is a philosopher and adjunct lecturer in the departments of design, architecture and fine art at the Iceland University of the Arts. He has produced extensively for Iceland National Broadcasting (RÚV) and long been active across artistic and cultural fields in his native Iceland through practice, collaborations, publishing and research. Currently, he is completing his doctoral studies as Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow within the EU Horizon 2020-funded FEINART project at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. His thesis, titled ‘Infrastructures of the Public Sphere: Socially Engaged Art and Curatorial Practice in the New “New Germany”’, adapts a recent analysis of the New “New Europe” and foregrounds the widespread perception that Europe’s post-war welfare states are currently in multiple crises of infrastructure.

Björg Stefánsdóttir has been the Head of the International Office at Iceland University of the Arts (IUA) since 2021. Previously, she served as the director of the Icelandic Art Center, where she promoted Icelandic contemporary art internationally and was responsible for the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for four consecutive exhibitions. Stefánsdóttir studied textiles at IUA in its early years and subsequently completed a master’s in museology, with a focus on mindfulness and slow looking within museums.

Aparajita Dutta, Head of International Affairs, University of the Arts The Hague, has been working in the field of internationalisation since 1999, always asking the question of how the quality of education and internationalisation are intertwined. Since 2011, she has been engaged in art education, responsible mainly for internationalisation strategy, implementation and international projects. From 2013 to 2018 she was the Chair of the CUMULUS Association – X-Files Internationalisation Working Group. In 2013 she created Netherlands Art and Design Academies International Relations Group. In 2018 she initiated the Platform Internationalisation ELIA. In November 2018, she started a PhD track on Internationalisation in Fine Arts and Design Higher Education at Leiden University. Since 2011 she has been involved in EU projects.

Niels Schrader (minddesign.info) is a concept-driven information designer with a fascination for numbers and data. He is founder of the Amsterdam-based design studio Mind Design and head of the Master Non Linear Narrative at Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Next to his design practice Schrader writes regularly for Grafikmagazin and Open! Platform for Art, Culture & the Public Domain. In his role as an educator Schrader focusses on social, political and environmental processes driven and influenced by digital technologies. In this context, he has initiated a number of large-scale research projects with partners from outside the academic environment. These institutions include governmental and non-governmental organisations like the Dutch Parliament, National Archives, National Library of the Netherlands, Free Press Unlimited, Greenpeace, Hivos and Amnesty International. Together with Jorinde Seijdel he published in 2024 Acid Clouds: Mapping Data Centre Topologies (nai010 Publishers).

Alice Twemlow (alicetwemlow.com) is a design historian with more than 25 years of experience in art and design education and research accrued in the US, UK, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. She also has 8+ years’ experience in the supervision and assessment of academic and creative practice research, at PhD, post-doc and faculty levels. Twemlow is a research professor at the Royal Academy of Art and holds the Wim Crouwel Chair of the History of Graphic Design & Visual Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Before moving to Amsterdam, Twemlow co-founded and directed the MA in Design Research, Writing & Criticism at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her monograph, Sifting the Trash: A History of Design Criticism, was published by MIT Press in 2017.

Femke de Haan works at the international office of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. She coordinates Erasmus exchanges for incoming and outgoing students, Erasmus internships and international projects.

Peter Hall (peterahall.com) is Reader in Graphic Design at CCW, University of the Arts London. His research focusses on mapping and visualisation as critical and participatory practices. His recent book Critical Visualization (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), co-written with Patricio Dávila, sets out a critical framework for understanding and making data visualisation. Previous works include the book Else / Where: Mapping – New Cartographies of Networks and Territories (edited with Janet Abrams, University of Minnesota, 2006) and book chapters on generative design criticism and uses of failure. Hall has held academic positions at Central Saint Martins (2015–21), Griffith University in Australia (2012–15), the University of Texas at Austin (2007–12) and Yale School of Art (2000–07). He is co-founder of DesignInquiry, a non-profit educational organisation devoted to researching design issues in intensive team-based gatherings, based in Maine.

Sakis Kyratzis has studied and taught both linguistic and visual communication and has a BA in both. He has an MA and PhD in Linguistics. He is currently Senior Lecturer on the BA Graphic Design Communication at Chelsea College of Arts and an Associate Lecturer on the BA Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins. In parallel to his experience in academia, Kyratzis has worked for a number of years as a Visual Communications Manager at the architecture practice SimpsonHaugh. As a freelance designer, he has worked mainly in the cultural sector. His clients have included theatre directors and designers, artists, choreographers, photographers, jewellers, charities and universities. His research interests lie in critical design, language, design education, the environment, spatial design and sexuality.

Laura Knight (laurahknight.com) is a designer, educator and researcher recently appointed to lead the MA Communicating Complexity at Central Saint Martins. Knight brings experience as an Educational Developer focussed on embedding climate justice across all University of the Arts London curricula and as an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Circular Design developing visual methodologies and literacies for sustainability and systems research.

Sigitas Gužauskas is a visual communication designer and educator at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and a member of the Lithuanian Design Association. He specialises in exhibition design and infographics, with a particular focus on the creative visualisation of information and data. His research interests centre on information design, specifically exploring images that serve an explanatory function. He regularly participates in both local and international exhibitions.

Audrius Klimas is Head of the Graphic Design Department with long experience as a graphic designer and as a teacher at Vilnius Academy of Arts where he was a rector from 2011 to 2019. He leads the doctoral committee of design and was a founder of the Lithuanian Association of Graphic Designers. Klimas works in the field of branding identities, editorial and book design and published the book Lithuanian Trademarks: History, Function, Classification (2009). He collaborates with cultural institutions like the Lithuanian Artists’ Association, National Museum: Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and more. In 2022 he received the ICoD (International Council of Design) Achievement Award.