Our Team

TMU Profile

As a fashion educator, researcher and activist, I strive to intervene into the fashion system and redesign it to centre inclusion and decolonization – creating a future in which bodies that are currently stigmatized and excluded are instead valued and desired. As a teacher and supervisor, I work with students to confront, resist and transform the fashion system’s narrow ideas and ideals about the body as well as the hierarchical and exclusionary fashion design process. My research program centres the intersectional experiences of disabled, fat, trans, queer and gender nonconforming people and collaborates with them to co-design clothing and media. I also serve as co-Editor of Fashion Studies (with Alison Matthews David) and Director of the Creative School Centre for Fashion Diversity & Social Change. Before becoming faculty, I started the first inclusive modeling agency in the world; for this work, I was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Person’s Case for advancing gender equality in Canada.

TMU Profile

Caron Phinney is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s undergraduate fashion program, with a major in fashion design and a minor in production. She received an MA in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from Brighton University, UK. Caron’s fashion design career consists of 15 years of industry experience specializing in bridal design and 10 years of teaching students how to adapt 3D body scanning, computer-aided pattern making, and Gerber technology to become technically proficient and socially conscious designers.

Dave's Website (external link) 

Dave Kemp is a visual artist whose practice looks at the intersections and interactions between art, science and technology: particularly at how these fields shape our perception and understanding of the world. His artworks have been exhibited widely at venues such as at the McIntosh Gallery, The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Art Gallery of Mississauga, The Ontario Science Centre, York Quay Gallery, Interaccess, Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, and as part of the Switch video festival in Nenagh, Ireland. His works are also included in the permanent collections of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Canada Council Art Bank.

David's Website (external link) 

David is an omnivorous New Media artist, technologist and educator. His work explores the expressive potential of computation, both in software and hardware forms. His research interests include data visualization, generative art, interactive and responsive environments, digital fabrication, display technology for public spaces, electronic music interfaces and wireless sensor networks to name a few. He holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Concordia University and a Masters of Media Arts & Sciences from MIT.

TMU Profile

Donna Abdelrazik (Razik), MSc (Packaging Value Chain), is a design leader, educator, and technical packaging specialist with 20 years of experience in the CPG alcohol beverage sector and graphic arts industry. She has been teaching in Graphic Communications Management at The Creative School, Toronto, Canada, since 2017 supporting the packaging concentration courses and other foundation curricula. Donna focuses on the experiential learning journey for her students and incorporates industry challenges into her curriculum for students to research viable solutions. Her approach to pedagogy is inclusive and empathetic.

Previously, a senior leader in creative services at Molson Coors, she led the development and commercialization of packaging, print innovations such as the Coors Light thermochromic ink blue mountains, and graphic communications for the organization’s brand portfolios. She is an active member of PAC, a previous chair of the global packaging leadership executive committee, and a current judge in the International and Canadian packaging innovation category.

Jay's LinkedIn (external link) 

Jay teaches at the School of Graphic Communications Management, primarily within the areas of graphic design and production processes. He loves being able to assist students with their creative process, and help see their visions through from concept to completion. Students in Jay's courses have greatly enjoyed touring and collaborating with the Design + Technology LAB. In particular, students have extended their knowledge of wide format printing using the D+TL's Ricoh Flatbed UV printer and laser cutters to design items such as coasters and keychains, printed on unconventional materials such as wood and acrylic.

Jay typically teaches the following courses at TMU: GCM120, GCM121, GCM130, GCM220, GCM738

Jonathon's Website (external link) 

Jonathon R. Anderson is an Associate Professor of Interior Design and Director of the Design + Technology Lab. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Furniture Design from Savannah College of Art & Design and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Southern Illinois University. His work explores how industrial manufacturing and CNC technologies influence the design and making processes. As a result, the work is characterized by innovative and explorative methods that result in interconnected design, fine art, and technology solutions. From this non-traditional process emerges a provocative, complex design language that is visually communicated at varied scales and emphasizes corporeal and phenomenological experiences. To Jonathon, making is not only a practice, but a form of critical thinking.

Jay's Website (external link) 

Dr. Park is an Associate Professor and the Director of Sustainable Packaging Research Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). He also is affiliated with the Environmental Applied Science and Management program and Yeates School of Graduate Studies at TMU. His primary research focuses on developing sustainable packaging systems and design via structural analysis and optimization, life cycle assessment, and human factors analysis. Before joining the Creative School at TMU, he worked at Samsung Electronics Company and HP as a senior engineer, conducting packaging development and optimization projects for electronics products.

Jay typically teaches the following courses at TMU: GCM210, GCM240, GCM746, GCM808, GCM824

TMU Profile

Mark is an artist and technologist who has worked extensively in creative applications of software, hardware and networks. His work has been exhibited internationally across Asia, Europe and North America, and has been featured in major technology magazines such as Wired and Linux Journal.

In 2008, Mark founded Aesthetec Studio to design and develop interactive experiences for museums and science centres. Recent works by Aesthetec Studio include the new Telus Spark Science Centre in Calgary, Alberta (the first new Canadian science centre in 25 years), a major multi-touch + mobile exhibit for the new mining hall at the Royal Ontario Museum, an interactive retail display system for Coach at Macy’s New York, and most recently, the ‘Little Robot Friends’ – a collection of cute autonomous robots.

Shai's Website (external link) 

Shai Yeshayahu |yƏ'SH-ä-yƏ-hoo|, is the co-founder of VerS +, an international research and design practice responsive to how ancient, emerging, and local knowledge and data informs making. The collaborative has designed, fabricated and mounted several complex installations, curated exhibitions, and completed commissioned architectural projects. Shai holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture Technology (BSAT) from New York Institute of Technology and a MArch from Ohio State University, Knowlton School of Architecture. Before his appointment at SID Shai held an Assistant Professor position and the coordination responsibilities for the development and implementation of an Interdisciplinary Foundation Curriculum at UNLV School of Architecture. Before arriving at UNLV, he held a tenured position at SIUC where he founded and directed the Digital Fabrication Lab, df_Lab, and was leading an initiative to implement a digital culture across the university’s curriculum. The df_lab role was to act as a catalyst for applied interdisciplinary research and immersive learning opportunities in the area of digital fabrication. Its goal was to serve as a conduit between students, design professionals, and community stakeholders. Additionally, the Lab supported curricular components related to real time experimentation and rigorous examination of the logic behind design and making.

TMU Profile

Tanya White is an alumnus of the Ryerson School of Fashion and has worked in ready-to-wear, bridal, marine canvas and costume design in the GTA. Tanya recently completed a practice-based PhD at Glasgow School of Art with a fashion/textile specialization. Her thesis discusses the co-relation of religious and fashion iconography that idolizes an emaciated body in historical and contemporary media. This study is expressed in experimental cloth and soft wearable sculpture.