Thomas K Girard

Thomas K Girard
Born	Thomas K Girard (1980-12-30) December 30, 1980 Vancouver, BC, Canada
🏳️ Nationality	Canadian
🏳️ Citizenship	Canada
🏫 Education	Simon Fraser University Royal College of Art University of Oxford
💼 Occupation	Design Scholar
📆 Years active	2005 - present
🌐 Website	thomaskgirard.com

Thomas K Girard (born 30 December, 1980 in Vancouver, Canada) is a Canadian design scholar, user experience consultant, lecturer and speaker. He is best known for his TEDx talk at Emily Carr University of Art and Design on the theme “Greater than you.” Girard is an independent communications and industrial designer working on freelance projects and collaborating with artists globally alongside teaching students. He also worked as a staff user experience designer at computer maker Lenovo in Beijing, on early mobile and tablet products. Girard's diverse approach to arts is highly acclaimed in the designing industry.

In 2020, Girard was offered a place at the Royal College of Art, London for the academic year 2020-2021. He has been frequently seen as a panelist for UX India, ACL and Boma ECU on the topics of design, user experience and wearable technologies.

Girard has over a decade’s experience working on projects and is a four time recipient of the Emerging Scholar award. He has spoken at universities, and institutions across Canada and globally, including the talk and workshop on "Unique Ways of Making" for Oculus VR and AltspaceVR, "Unique Ways of Prototyping for Idea Validation" for Vancouver User Experience Research meet-up, "Unique Ways of Prototyping" by Sauder School of Business, "Vulnerability" by Penn State University and "Unique Ways of Making Things" by Culture Days.

Early life and education

Girard was born and brought up in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Communications Design at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and graduated in 2005. Girard applied for a master’s of arts program in liberal studies at the Simon Fraser University in 2019. Simultaneously Girard has been accepted at the Royal College of Art, London, where he is pursuing a degree in Information Experience Design, Experimental Design stream. Girard has been accepted to attend University of Oxford for a travel study where he will attend lectures equivalent to the Master of Arts coursework.

Career

After completing his graduation, Girard worked as an interface designer for a number of firms in Vancouver, Canada.

In 2003, Girard travelled to China, which played a major role in the shaping of his creative persona. Girard was inspired by China’s industrial revolution, which can be seen in his works. While living and working abroad, Girard was offered a job at Lenovo in Beijing, China. He worked as a staff user experience designer on some of the initial products launched by Lenovo.

In his time in China Girard was also offered a job as a Visual Communications Specialist at the University in Shanghai, where he exercised his learning at the Emily Carr University.

Girard actively participated in teaching jobs. He taught at his alma mater for four years, Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Girard, in addition to being a designer, is also a lecturer. He has taught Visual Communications in Delhi and Shanghai and was an Assistant Professor in Mumbai. In 2018, Girard was appointed as an assistant professor at the D.Y. Patil University in India.

Girard has recently announced the release of his second book titled "Emerging Scholar & Oxford".

Projects

Girard has been considered as a leader in human–computer interaction (HCI) and Experience design. Throughout his career, he has worked on a number of projects, some of them include:

• CECD-110-SU02 Basics of Communication Design
• CEIE-110-F001 Design Fundamentals
• CEIE-210-S001 (29182) Mobile Application Design
• CEIE-210-S001 Mobile Application Design
• DESN-200 Core Studio Design
• INTD-210-F002 Core Studio Interaction Design
• INTD-217-F001-2017 Core Studio Interaction Design
• INTD-316-F001-2017 Interaction Design : Principles
• INTD-400-F001-2017 Core Studio Interaction Design
• PDD-102 Elements of Design

Awards

Girard attended the Design Principles and Practices conference in Barcelona, Spain at ELISAVA as well, where he received an Emerging Scholar Award. He also attended the Arts in Society conference in Vancouver at Emily Carr University of Art and Design where he received an Emerging Scholar award. Other awards include:

• RBC Emerging Scholar, Royal Bank of Canada Foundation, Spur Festival for Art, Politics and Ideas
• Emerging Scholar, Common Ground Research Networks (Design Principles and Practices, Arts in Society)

Selected abstracts

Girard has created a number of abstracts that have been accepted by a number of major institutions. He had abstracts accepted in Perth and Mexico, as well as Lisbon, and Saint Petersburg, some of them include:

• Arts in Society Conference, Galway, Ireland
• Arts in Society Conference, Lisbon, Portugal
• Arts in Society Conference, Perth, Australia
• Design Principles and Practices Conference, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Books

• Girard, Thomas (24 May 2021). EMERGING SCHOLAR: GRATITUDE OF AN AWARD RECIPIENT: Girard, Thomas: 9798509580352: Amazon.com: Books. p. 82. ISBN 979-8509580352. Search this book on
• Emerging Scholar & Oxford

Licenses and certifications

Girard holds a number of certifications and licenses related to design principles and practices.

• 2021 Delegate, Design Principles and Practices Monterrey Mexico by Common Ground Research Networks
• 2021 Delegate, The Arts in Society Australia by Common Ground Research Networks
• 2020 Delegate, The Arts in Society Ireland by Common Ground Research Networks
• 2019 Emerging Scholar Awardee, Design Principles and Practices Saint Petersburg by Design Principles and Practices
• 2019: Emerging Scholar Awardee, The Arts in Society Lisbon by The Arts in Society
• 2018: Emerging Scholar Awardee, Design Principles and Practices Barcelona by Design Principles and Practices
• 2018: Emerging Scholar Awardee, The Arts in Society Vancouver by The Arts in Society
• 2014: RBC Emerging Scholar Awardee by Royal Bank of Canada Foundation
• 2022 Delegate, New Directions in the Humanities Greece by Common Ground Research Networks
• 2022 Delegate, Design Principles and Practices Australia by Common Ground Research Networks
• 2022 Delegate, Arts in Society Spain by Common Ground Research Networks
• 2021 Emerging Scholar Awardee, New Directions in the Humanities Spain by New Directions in the Humanities

Personal Life

Girard was born and raised in the Lower Mainland. Girard has always been passionate about learning. This is something he carried on from the Emily Carr University, where his mentor taught him to continue the quest of learning throughout his life.

External links

• Official website
• Personal website
• Thomas Girard at TEDxEmilyCarrU

This article "Thomas Girard" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Thomas Girard. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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