Elif Ayiter is a graphic designer, artist and design instructor, living and working in Istanbul, Turkey. After graduating from the School of Applied Fine Arts in Istanbul with a BFA she obtained a Special Advanced Diploma in Art and Design from the University of London, Goldsmiths College. She went to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship where she got her MFA from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.

Elif worked extensively as a graphic designer both in New York and Istanbul, in both freelance and art directorial capacities. She has exhibited her art work in Turkey with Urart and Nev Galleries from 1989 to 1999.

Since 1993 she has worked fulltime as a design faculty member at Bilkent University, Ankara (1993-1997), Bilgi University (1998-2001) and Sabancı University (2001-present). Currently she is embarking on research concerning issues in contemporary graphic design education, with a special emphasis on generative design software and is in the process of applying to PhD programmes with this focus.

She is fluent in English and German along with her native tongue, Turkish. Elif’s interests are all things digital, crime fiction and animals, of which she has an entourage of 11 cats and 2 terrapins.