DAE congratulates new BA Graduates

It’s the first day of February on a Friday afternoon, and all of Zbar’s floor-to-ceiling windows are illuminated by an unusually bright sunlight, uncommon considering the past cloudy and rainy days. An exceptional weather event serves as a metaphor for unusual conditions experienced by a generation of ten Bachelor students during their academic life: the restrictions and regulations of COVID-19, physical disconnection, and the context of the increasing climate crisis. Anomalous conditions appear to frame what is now the norm in the changing nature of the world, and therefore also on how the students approach design education, an element highlighted by Janneke Schreuder, Head of the Bachelor Programme.

Joseph Grima, Creative Director, opened the graduation ceremony also on behalf of Raf De Kenick, Director of Education, with a speech around the Academy’s ability to build strong and long-term relationships with its alumni outside the Witte Dame walls. Emphasising how their life beyond the institution and their practice will continue to nourish the network of connections that keep redefining what being a designer means. Altogether, a reflection on what it means to live together and the potential of creative exchanges remained permanent in the atmosphere of the day. Following him, each tutor had a moment to present each designer’s work with a warm selection of words that highlighted the particularities of their process.

Jeroen Van de Gruiter, tutor at The Morning Studio, highlighted his student Boye Leloorgl’s communicative potential and material sensitivity to layout and present each one of his projects. Tutor Michiel Alberts, when referring to Rients Dijkstoa described his interest in the subjective impact of emptiness, explored through his projects with voids, negative spaces, loneliness, and light in the space on tiny dark boxes, that ultimately pay attention to the beauty found in the mundane. On the other hand, Alberts emphasized the quest of Madison Van Gelder to have moments of intimacy through touch in her projects involving handshakes and hidden elements such as flowers.

Mieke Meijer of Studio Turn Around called all her students onto the stage, including Kynn Gong who worked on various types of open structures, Jakob Rieper who questioned the need for gear for performing outdoor activities, Tano Lops who persistently experimented with the flexibility of stone, and Zuika Owada, recognised for her investigative qualities.

The ceremony concluded with a collective toast between the BA graduates, their guests, and representatives from all across DAE’s community for the upcoming new stage and exciting developments of the graduates, who subsequently signed their diplomas and closed their student status. The new alumni will once again show their graduation projects during the Dutch Design Week at the end of October 2024.

DAE congratulates new BA Graduates

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