Dr Michail Oustamanolakis

I started as a graphic designer and spend several years freelancing and serving all sorts of clients. My desire to learn and pursuit for studies, lead me on a long journey in Europe. I studied design in Greece, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Shanghai, China, and in the process of doing this world tour, I got two masters in design. Eventually, landed in Hong Kong where I transformed into a UX designer. Seven years later, I found myself studying design again, this time at a doctorate level. Throughout my professional career, I have always been teaching design: organising workshops, educating clients, lecturing students, teaching corporate clients and so on… and finally, In late 2020, I moved to Manchester and joined MMU as a lecturer in web design, taking full-time responsibilities to educate future designers!

Words of wisdom

Here’s wise Homer Simpson:
The Internet? Is that thing still around?

Joke aside, here’s Buddha’s designerly wisdom: 
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

We, designers, have a responsibility to the world, as we are giving shape to the world, and we are deciding many experiences that fellow humans will feel and live. If we can think of a better world, we can also design a better world.

Academic and professional qualifications

• PhD in Design Education (Pending Defense - 2021)
  HK PolyU
• MFA in Business Design (2013)
  Gothenburg University, Sweden
  Tongji University, College of Design & Innovation, Shanghai, China
• MFA in Design (2010)
  Sandberg Institute Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• BFA in Graphic Design (2007)
  West Attica University, Athens, Greece

Languages

I am fluent in English and Greek. I used to understand some Finnish when I was living in Finland and I could speak some Dutch when I was living in the Netherlands, but I forgot them all. Also, in Shanghai, I was picking up Mandarin quite fast, which is surprisingly easy! Besides natural languages, I’ll teach you HTML and CSS. Maybe throw in a bit of Javascript in your learning mix too.

Personal website address

https://mikko.gr