About
Erik Asia
Sessional Instructor, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 2024 - Present
Erik Asia is a Filipino industrial designer and educator specializing in cognitive ergonomics and digital fabrication. He holds a Master of Design (Interaction) from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Industrial Design) from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
As an educator, Erik teaches freehand drawing and drafting, applied ergonomics, and industrial design project development. His professional experience spans applying design principles to product assessments, providing digital fabrication services, and designing interactive educational systems and classroom kits.
His design and research practices surround his interests in affordance-based design, discursive design, human factors and ergonomics, digital fabrication, and designing for education. Through this work, Erik seeks to develop a conscious awareness of our physical interactions and engagements with the world, highlight designed objects as cultural and social artefacts for discourse, and create tangible learning tools that emphasize embodied cognition principles in design pedagogy.
Education
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Master of Design (Interaction), 2024
University of the Philippines Diliman
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Industrial Design), 2022
Work Experience
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Sessional Instructor, 08/2024 - PRESENT
Genome British Columbia
Product Development Designer, 01/2025 - 06/2025
A&K Robotics
Experimental Interaction Designer, 05/2024 - 06/2024
Animate Materials Workshop at ECUAD
Industrial Design Research Assistant, 06/2023 - 10/2023
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Research Assistant (Conducting Creative Research), 01/2023 - 08/2023
UPD Humanitarian Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Design (HEED) Research Group
Industrial Designer & Researcher, 07/2020 - 12/2021
Honours + Awards
Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD)
AICAD Post-graduate Teaching Fellowship Nominee, 2024
Design Center of the Philippines
Bakong Circular Design Challenge Finalist, 2021
James Dyson Awards
Philippine National Winner, 2020
Project: reBIRTH
Alfredo M. Yao Intellectual Property Awards
Finalist, 2020
Publications
Asia, . E. D. (2024). The In Between (Cognitive Ergonomics Evaluation in Public Spaces: A Cultural-Affordance-Based Approach) [Thesis; Electronic]. Emily Carr University of Art and Design. https://doi.org/10.35010/ecuad:18444
Asia, E. (2024). The In-Between (Cognitive Ergonomics Evaluation in Public Spaces: A Cultural- Affordance-Based Approach). In S. Mroke (Ed.), From & Beyond Design: A Collection of Design Research Explorations (pp. 36-41). Occasional Press.
Asia, E. (2022). WHITESPACE: A Minimal and Interactive Wall-mounted Time Visualization Tool for Self-Directed Learners that Emphasizes a Healthy Work-Life Balance through Time Blocking [Unpublished undergraduate thesis]. University of the Philippines Diliman.
Conferences
Asia, E., Klassen, L., Webb, H. (2024, April 30 – May 2). Reaching for Tools: Gaps in Awareness of Research Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research in Art and Design Scholarship [Poster presentation]. CAREB-ACCER 2024 Virtual Conference, Canada. https://tinyurl.com/53jusrzn
Exhibitions
The Show, graduate exhibition (in-person & online), 2024
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
The Exit Project (ExP), graduate exhibition (online), 2022
University of the Philippines Diliman
Silaw, 2022
University of the Philippines Diliman
IDiD! Industrial Design Year-End Exhibition, 2019
University of the Philippines Diliman