Born April 15, 1951 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mary Ann has been teaching graphic design since 1989, and is now a professor in the York Sheridan Joint Bachelor of Design Program. Before turning to teaching she founded Maruska Studios in Ottawa, and for ten years designed and art-directed communications pieces on issues in the arts, education, health and the environment. During this time she began her work with the GDC, serving in every executive role available at both the Chapter and National levels with the exception of treasurer and including National President. During her eight-year tenure on the National Council, she shepherded the launch of the Graphic Design Journal, GDC@40, and the National Secretariat. For several years during the 1990s she served as representative for the GDC with the National Design Alliance, a body uniting the various Canadian design disciplines—graphic, industrial, interior, architectural, and landscape—and subsequently served as chair of the publication working group for the Human Resource Development Canada design sector study: Shaping Canada’s Future By Design, published in 1997. In 1998 she was honored for her contribution to the design profession by being named a Fellow the GDC.

Ever the enthusiastic student, Mary Ann obtained her B.A. from York University in 1974 and a Master of Arts in Advertising Design from Syracuse University twenty years later. She applies her research into metacognition, graphic wit and creative problem solving towards the enhancement of both student and professional designers‚ conceptual processes through the workshops and courses she has developed. In 2003 Mary Ann began working towards a Doctor of Ministry Degree at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California. The Creation Spirituality movement seeks to integrate the wisdom of western spirituality and global indigenous cultures with the emerging scientific understanding of the universe and the passionate creativity of art. A major focus of this Doctoral program lies in the reinvention of work to serve the whole person and the whole Earth, and although it’s too early to say for sure, Mary Ann plans to be tackling the reinvention of art and design education.


Friedrich Peter
Fred was born in Dresden, (East) Germany in 1933. Leaving high school he apprenticed as a reproduction photographer, typesetter and graphic designer in the municipal workshop for the City of Dresden under a master lithographer for 3 years. In 1950 he was accepted at the Academy of Visual Arts in West Berlin (this was after acing the 3-day practical entrance exam for the graphic design school in Leipzig, but failing their political exam because he “wasn’t red enough”). Because he was from East Germany his tuition fees were waived and he received a stipend of 35DM a month. He spent 6 years at the Academy studying painting, lithography, lettering, typography and graphic design, with an additional year of post-graduate studies in lettering.

Every summer Fred would hitchhike around post-war Europe, where he saw how different countries came into their own culturally, artistically and creatively. Seeing this he resolved not to take a job in Germany when he graduated. In 1957 he and his new wife Christine had decided to emigrate to New Zealand until they found out about the landing requirements. The Canadian Consulate was just downstairs from the New Zealand office, and Fred recalls being enchanted by incredible posters of the Canadian Rockies. They immediately applied to come to Canada, and after being told in Halifax that they couldn’t settle in Jasper, they chose Vancouver.

Barely speaking any English, they both wandered from odd freelance job to another, until Christine was told to see Fred Amess at the Vancouver School of Art. She mentioned that her husband was also a designer and they both began teaching at VSA in 1958.

In addition to teaching, Fred did a huge variety of freelance projects including designing murals and exhibitions; typefaces (Vivaldi, Magnificat, Sanbika, Shinko); postage stamps (commemorating the National Anthem, Terry Fox, Canadian Constitution, and Multiculturalism); and coins and medals (Calgary Olympics). He has illustrated many books, designed banners, and continues to exhibit his paintings and practice his calligraphy (what he calls “letter paintings”) for his own personal expression, and for his church.

In 1974, Fred was among a group of designers from across Canada who had been befriended by Allan Fleming, Giles Talbot-Kelly and Laurie Lewis, and with funding assistance from the Federal Office of Design, attended the inaugural Regional Meeting and Founding Assembly in Ottawa on November 29, 1974. The attendees at this meeting were charged with seeking out designers in each of their regions with the hope of creating new Chapters. Bob Johnson and Fred Peter represented British Columbia at these meetings. With the help of Carl Chaplin, Bruce Dowad, Gerry Green, Jurgen Grohne, Milo Hicks, Ken McRae, John Terin and Mike Tieman, the “un-organized” group of art directors, illustrators and graphic designers they had been talking to for the previous six months formed the Visual Communications Society of BC (May 1975). By January 1976 they had changed their name to the Vancouver Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) and achieved Society status. GAG became an Associate organization to GDC in May 1976 and by November 1977 it had become a full-fledged Chapter and changed its name to GDC/BC.

The first (1976) Executive of GAG consisted of Carl Chaplin (President), Mike Tieman (Membership & Education), Grant Ball (Education), Fred Peter (GDC Rep) and Murray Tonkin (Communication). Membership in that first year consisted of 32 professionals and 18 students.

Fred has a unique story behind his love of typography. As a child he would accompany his mother when she visited wounded soldiers. She would ask Fred to write out bible verses to leave behind for some of them. When he took the admission test at the Academy in Berlin he met a war veteran in his 30s who took the entrance exam with Fred, wearing a small cross lapel pin which was quite demonstrative at this time. Fred asked why he wanted to study lettering. “To put the Word of God into the most direct graphic form.” To this day Fred shares the same view.

Fred was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1974, and is listed in Who’s Who in American Art (1975), Creative Canada (1981), and Canadian Who’s Who (since 1981).

At his retirement party from ECIAD in May 1998, Fred was presented with an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his contributions in the early years of the GDC National, and his immeasurable influence as a design educator during his 40 years of teaching. He now resides in North Vancouver with his wife Christine, where he continues to paint and explore his visual world.


Robert L. Peters
Robert was born on May 26, 1954 in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada to devout Mennonite missionary parents, the middle of three sons to survive infancy. His pacifist father, John Jacob Peters, was born in post-revolutionary Russia in 1920 (during the Russian Civil War amongst the White Army, Bolsheviks, and Makhnovist anarchists), narrowly escaping as a refugee émigré along with his nuclear family in 1926. During the Second World War, John served Canada as a voluntary conscientious objector. Robert’s mother, Amanda Marie Peters, (nee Reimer—a direct descendent of the conservative intellectual Klaas Reimer) was born in Manitoba in 1926 by dint of an earlier Russian Mennonite immigration to the Canadian prairies in 1874.

Robert’s family moved to Europe in 1957, where he grew up as a third culture kid, schooled bilingually in Frankfurt, Germany and Basel, Switzerland. Following a one-year foundation program in art (Basel), he graduated from Black Forest Academy in Lörrach, and then attended a year of religious studies at Capernwray Hall (Carnforth, Lancashire) in the United Kingdom. He subsequently volunteered with Operation Palmbranch, an African relief mission based in Bavaria, Germany.

Robert immigrated to Winnipeg, Canada in 1974, where he worked as an artist and freelance illustrator, married Beverly Guay Pauls (a Canadian he had met while studying in England), and studied design (a two-year Graphic Design diploma from Red River College, and a certificate in Design Management from the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Administrative Studies). In 1976, while still in school, he co-founded the design studio Circle Graphics (now Circle Design Incorporated).

Under Robert’s direction (he remains active as the firm’s principal), Winnipeg-based Circle has helped hundreds of clients worldwide conceive effective strategies, implement distinctive corporate identities and brands, and deploy targeted information and communication tools. This work has been widely recognized and cited, has received more than 60 awards for design excellence, and may be found in numerous permanent collections.

Robert first became actively involved with design associations in the late 1970s through his development and co-authorship of the pro forma guide document re: conditions of engagement for designers published by the multidisciplinary Manitoba Chapter of the Association of Canadian Industrial Designers (ACID/M). He served on the executive of ACID/M for several years, and was elected president in 1984.

In the late 1980s, Robert was among a handful of Manitoban designers who orchestrated the formation of a provincial chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada. He became GDC Manitoba’s founding president (1990 to 1992), assisted in the formation of GDC chapters in Saskatchewan and Victoria, and served on the GDC National council until 1999. In 1998, he compiled the ‘Sample Contract and Standard Terms and Conditions’ for the GDC, a document which became the Pro Forma Agreement for designers across Canada. Since 2003 he has also served on the GDC’s national Ethics Committee.

Robert has also been involved in design education for several decades. From 1984 to 1986, Robert taught Creative Communications at Red River College in Winnipeg. Between 1988 and 1990 he was a sessional Graphic Design instructor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba; from 1990 to 1993 he was an Assistant Professor and Chair of Graphic Design at the School of Art. Since the early 1990s he has been a frequent guest lecturer on graphic design and visual communication at schools in North America, Asia, and Europe. Between 2004 and 2006, Robert was a regular guest lecturer at the ICIS Centre (International Centre for Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability) in Hornbaek, Denmark.

Following the 1991 Icograda World Design Congress in Montreal (at which he conducted creative workshops), Robert was designated as the GDC’s official delegate and liaison, representing Canada to the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda), at Icograda General Assemblies in Glasgow, Oporto (Portugal), Punta del Este (Uruguay), and Sydney between 1992 and 1999. Robert served on the Icograda board from 1999 to 2005 (as President from 2001 to 2003). Significant achievements during his six years on the Icograda board include: development of the NGO’s first web presence by means of a content-rich portal, rejuvenation of the network ‘Friends of Icograda’, conception and launch of both the Icograda Design Education Network (inaugurated on 27 April 2003, Icograda’s 40th anniversary, in Brno, Czech Republic), and the Icograda Design Media Network (launched on 31 January 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey), co-organization of Icograda congresses in Seoul (‘Oullim’ 2000), Johannesburg, South Africa (‘Continental Shift’ 2001), and Nagoya, Japan (‘VISUALOGUE’ 2003—with some 3700 delegates from 49 countries in attendance, the world’s largest ever congress of graphic designers). Robert also served as official liaison between Icograda and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 2001 to 2005.

From 1994 to 1997 Robert served as a member of The Design Sector Steering Committee, Human Resources Development Canada, and contributed to the strategic 1996 document prepared for the committee by Price Waterhouse: 'Shaping Canada’s Future by Design.' Robert has been a regular foreign feature contributor to Communication Arts magazine since 1995, and has written in-depth articles on design in Russia, Japan, Brazil, China, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, as well as reports on design congresses in Portugal, Uruguay, Australia, Korea, and Denmark.

From 2002 to 2006 Robert served as editor of the GDC’s ‘Graphic Design Journal.’ He has also written numerous design articles, reviews, and opinion pieces for numerous international publications including HOW, Applied Arts, Print, the AIGA Journal, NOC (Japan), Package & Design (China), and Who’s Who In Graphic Design (Switzerland). During his two-year presidency of Icograda (2001 to 2003), Robert wrote quarterly editorials for the international journal ‘BoardMessage.’

Robert has traveled extensively (more than 50 countries) and continues to be active globally in professional development and as a frequent design juror, policy advisor, guest lecturer, and author. He is passionate about design’s role in making tomorrow’s world a better place—by shaping culture, building respect for diversity, and furthering understanding among people everywhere.

Robert joined the board of the international humanitarian organization Design for the World (DW) in 2000 and was appointed as a Vice President in 2002; in 2004 he was named an Honorary Member of the Brno Biennale Association; and he was a member of the founding executive of the International Design Alliance (IDA) from 2003 to 2005. Robert now serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Design Innovation Institute (Dii), and is a member of the editorial advisory group of ‘Geez’ magazine.

In 2006, Robert was the recipient of the (University of Hartford) Hartford Art School’s Georgette and Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair in Visual Arts. As a part of this assignment he taught a studio course in the Visual Communication Design Department entitled “Cause an Effect” consisting of topical modules relating to globalism and cross-cultural issues. One of the student projects arising from this engagement was the “Migrant Immigrant eXchange 2006” (MIX06) cultural exchange project undertaken along with students of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia with the aim of encouraging contemporary discourse between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous designers/collaborators in Australia and the USA (in recognition and respect of both First Nation and Aboriginal culture). Later in 2006, Robert spent four weeks in Melbourne as Designer in Residence at Monash University, with a focus being the preparation and launch of the traveling exhibition “MIX06: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward.” In 2007, Robert served as External Moderator to graduating students at the Wanganui School of Design in Wanganui, New Zealand.

In 2005, Robert authored the book ‘Worldwide Identity: Inspired Design from Forty Countries’ (ISBN 1-59253-187-3) published by Rockport in partnership with Icograda, and compiled and designed at Circle. The book showcases over 300 identities from 40 Icograda member countries around the globe, and has been called “a stimulating source of inspiration, reflection, and learning—an international snapshot of excellence in identity design.”

In addition to his ongoing work as a design strategist, practitioner, and consultant, Robert has been actively involved in design deontology, education, writing, speaking, organization, and professional advocacy throughout his career. In 1998 the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada named him a Fellow in recognition for his work in professional development and international design advancement.

Since 1982 Robert has lived in an ultra-low-energy, passive solar house that he designed and built on a wooded acreage in Eastern Manitoba. A lifelong conservationist and nature lover, Robert is also an avid rock climber and mountaineer (a certified Climbing Instructor with the Alpine Club of Canada), marathoner, canoeist, and outdoorsman. Robert separated in 1999 (after a 25-year marriage) and divorced in 2001. More biographical information about Robert L. Peters can be found at www.robertlpeters.com