Alumni Spotlight: Hannah Lord

Celebrating one of our outstanding GDD Students, Hannah Lord

It is with great admiration that I share a little bit about our fantastic former student, Hannah Lord, one of our most accomplished recent alumni, whose creativity, leadership, and dedication have left a lasting impact on the GDD community.

Hannah graduated in Spring 2025 and has already launched an impressive professional career, currently working with both Partners and Hawes and Phol Strategic Marketing. Her success reflects not only her exceptional design talent but also her commitment to collaboration, community-building, and research-driven creative practice.

During her time in the GDD program, Hannah became integral to the department’s culture and growth. She was the lead designer for the 2025 GDD Grad Show, Behind the Screens, helping shape the visual identity and experience of one of the program’s most ambitious year-end exhibitions. She also served as the founding President of the Graphic Design Student Association (GDSA), helping establish what has since become a thriving student-led community at UFV. Through her leadership, students found new opportunities for connection, advocacy, and professional development within the program.

Hannah’s academic achievements were equally remarkable. In 2025, she received both the Undergraduate Research Excellence Award for Graphic and Digital Design and the Dean’s Medal for Humanities in the College of Arts. Throughout her studies, she consistently earned a place on the Dean’s List from 2022 to 2024 and was awarded the Study Abroad Mobility Award for her work connected to a GD260 study abroad project.

Her passion for cultural exchange and experiential learning also led her to pursue several international opportunities, including the Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) program, where she completed a six-week internship in Kenya, and the UMAP Brunei Odyssey program in 2024. These experiences deeply informed her approach to storytelling, language, and design research.

Nationally, Hannah’s work has also been widely recognized. She received the prestigious Jim Rimmer Scholarship Award through Design Professionals of Canada in 2024, followed by an Honourable Mention in 2025. Her work was also celebrated at the Association of Registered Graphic Designers Student Awards, where she won the 2025 Award for Information Design and received an Honourable Mention in Placemaking Design for Behind the Screens, in collaboration with Lisa Vischer.

Hannah’s capstone project, Woven in Colour: Linguistic Reality of Colour, exemplifies the depth of research, craft, and conceptual thinking that defined her practice throughout her degree. Supervised by faculty member Eric Lee, the project explored how language shapes our perception of colour while emphasizing the urgency of language preservation through an interactive editorial experience rooted in linguistic anthropology.

Structured around Berlin and Kay’s theory of the evolution of colour terminology in language, the publication expanded visually as readers progressed through each chapter, moving from black and white to a twelve-colour palette that reflected the linguistic systems being explored. Paper weaving became a central interactive and symbolic element throughout the work, representing the interconnectedness of language, culture, and storytelling. Accompanied by a companion book with weaving instructions and pre-cut materials, the project invited audiences to engage in a tactile and reflective exploration of communication and perception.

Reflecting on her experience in the program, Hannah shared:

“As someone who struggled to decide on an area of study, I’m grateful to have found a discipline that allows me to integrate my varied interests and learning into each project. Studying abroad twice during my degree left me with invaluable experiences that deepened my love for culture, language, and storytelling—experiences that this project stems from.”

Our GDD community is incredibly proud of Hannah’s accomplishments and grateful for the energy, generosity, and leadership she brought to the program. Her achievements continue to inspire current and future students, and we are excited to see where her creative journey leads next.

Way to go, Hannah!

Hannah’s achievements while in GDD: