Belfast Design Week is made possible by the community of creatives willing to share their knowledge, networks and spaces, extending the hand of friendship and lending their support in so many countless big - and small - ways.
Here are some of the people making things happen at BDW26!
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Christine James
Belfast Design Week / Blick Shared Studios
Christine is the founder and CEO of Blick Shared Studios which provides workspace, services and support for creatives in Belfast. Blick is an independent, non-profit social enterprise with 3 creative studio spaces that was set up in 2007.Christine is the Co-Founder/Director of Belfast Design Week.
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Karishma Kusurkar
Belfast Design Week / Karishma’s World / Venture Folk
Karishma is a multidisciplinary designer whose work spans a broad range of disciplines, from fashion and farming to placemaking and museums. Her interests include developing the creative economy, building sustainable businesses and facilitating accessible knowledge sharing.
Karishma is the Co-Founder/Director of Belfast Design Week and Venture Folk.
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Gerry Scullion
Humana Design / This is HCD Podcast
Gerry Scullion is a service design practitioner, trainer, and host of the This is HCD podcast.
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Rachel Dietkus
Social Workers Who Design
Rachael Dietkus is a social worker, designer, and founder of Social Workers Who Design. She works at the intersection of trauma, care, public service, and technology, helping teams build more ethical, humane systems. Her practice brings social work values into design, research, and civic innovation through strategy, teaching, and facilitation.
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Dima Kiselev
Belfast Design / Kiselev Global
Product and experience designer with over 20 years of experience delivering high-impact digital products across global markets.
Founder of the Belfast Design Community, event organiser, and advocate for continuous learning. Combines design, strategy, and performance optimisation to create measurable business outcomes and intuitive user experiences. Driven by curiosity.
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Ashwin Chacko
Illustrators North
Ashwin Chacko is a positively playful award-winning, author-illustrator and motivational speaker on a mission to champion creativity and shape culture through talks, books, videos and workshops.
He specialises in positive visual storytelling, helping audiences connect through bold illustration, expressive characters, and designs that captures the social interactions driving culture.
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Clive McFarland
Illustrators North
Clive McFarland is a children’s author and illustrator from Omagh, Northern Ireland. He creates graphic, character-led picture books with clear visual storytelling and strong read-aloud rhythm.
His work focuses on simple, emotionally resonant ideas, combining expressive illustration with carefully shaped text to create engaging, distinctive books for young readers.
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Illustrators North
Illustrators North is a professional organization founded by award-winning illustrators Ashwin Chacko and Clive McFarland with the vision to build a community of thriving illustrators in Northern Ireland, via events and meet-ups and more!
Season
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Season ✦
“The seasons remind us that thriving requires rhythm, not relentless output. We can’t work at full throttle forever. As humans, we need time to process and reflect on the world we live in. Revisiting how we work, so it becomes more human, is not a luxury. It is the work.”
“A shift in perspective, where small changes open up new creative directions.”
“Season makes me think about rhythm, change, and the conditions needed for things to flourish. Much like the seasons, not every moment is meant for pushing forward; some seasons ask us to listen more closely, rest, grieve, tend, rebuild, or repair. For me, season is a reminder that care, like design, depends on learning how to respond to what this moment truly needs from us.”
“A chapter in the story of your life to pause, reflect, and begin again with fresh energy.”