Ilka van Steen
Open invitation to talk about the Fundamentals of design with coordinator Ilka
→  What is your role at the Academy?
I am the coordinator of the Fundamentals programme and also a general coordinator next to Janneke Schreuder (Head of BA). That is one and half days a week Fundamentals, and one day a week General.
→  You organise Fundamentals for all the bachelor students? 
Yes, year one, year two and year three. Design, production, contextual, and it has about 450 students and 37 tutors.
→  You have a background studying Art History. What brings you to a design school?
I have a BA in Art History and a law degree from Utrecht University (UU) and a MA Art History from Amsterdam University (UvA). My first job was an art curator at a corporate collection, it was a private bank. I did really like working there at first, working with artists and collecting, and honestly it was also a bit out of, ‘wow, I have a job as a curator!’ I worked there for four years. And then from there, I went to be an art historian in a high-end design gallery - more on the commercial side of design: Mid-century modern from all over the world, big design names such as Danish Hans Wegner, Brazilian Lina Bo Bardi and Italian BBPR amongst many others. Both jobs taught me a lot about the design and art world, and how to navigate it. Then I moved to Eindhoven, because of love actually. And it was when I saw a vacancy at Design Academy Eindhoven.
The vacancy was for a Creative Publisher, a communication job. I thought I would give it a try, since communication was part of my previous jobs. But it was still sort of a leap. I knew from my commercial experience that I preferred to work in a non-profit organisation. And I wanted to work somewhere that does not have profit making as one of the primary goals. And from my experience I knew I wanted to work in public service, such as a museum, education or something like this. And I knew DAE well, I’ve been to almost every Graduation Show in the last 15 years. So, that’s how I ended up here.
"Educational or cultural institutes will never not be chaotic, because that’s just the nature of it. We are always experimenting and being at the forefront of social transformation."
→  You joined the Academy as the Creative Publisher at a turbulent time, and have since transitioned into education. What are some of the challenges working with the ever changing nature of education, and society at large? And how do you navigate them as an educator?
I think that’s actually for me one of the most exciting parts of working here. Design academies and other art schools for that matter are places where things are happening before it’s happening anywhere else in society, and that means it’s more chaotic and more people are also more direct about all these topics. That’s why I’m here.
Educational or cultural institutes will never not be chaotic, because that’s just the nature of it. We are always experimenting and being at the forefront of social transformation. That is the part I love. But it could also be tough at times. Like with COVID, that was tough. Black Lives Matter. For the communication team, it was incredibly tough. There were also the educational renewal and transition in the bachelor as well. It was hard, but as long as we believe in what we do then I would be like, “it’s tough, but let’s find a way”.
“One of the core ideas of the Fundamentals is that we teach students how to have the strength and clarity to find out what you want as a designer and how to do it.”
→  What do you see as the core of the Fundamentals programme?
Yeah, so the Fundamentals Programme is one of the main core differences between the old programme and the programme now. Before you had different programmes in year one and two and you had the departments. The fundamentals is different, it goes from year one to year three and is connected in both content, tutors and learning outcomes. In the programme, there are three learning lines (design, production, contextual), with three tutors representing these lines (Kay Schuttel, Liesbeth Fit and Kim Haagen). One of the core ideas of Fundamentals is that we teach students how to have the strength and clarity to find out what you want as a designer and how to do it. To be able to get to this point, the Fundamentals tutors offer you a range of tools, to be able to do this, tangible and non-tangible.
“I’m always open to speaking with students, I understand I’m not so visible, so maybe this interview makes me more visible, which would be really nice.”
→ Are there any other questions you hear students ask about Fundamentals? How do you decide what goes into the programming?
We had quite a big survey last year with students, and before we even started with Fundamentals we had a yearlong developing programme with all the tutors from year one to year three. We worked together with all the tutors that are now teaching in the Fundamentals, we redeveloped the programme based on what we thought should be at the foundation of a design education, taking into account the expertise of the tutors.
In the evaluation after the new programme ran for one year, we had quite some negative feedback on year three. It was intended as a programme where you learned to actually bring your design into the world with really practical things, such as billing, positioning. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out in that first year, hence that was the programme that we worked on improving first.
The programme now has really been completely redeveloped. We had a think tank, external experts combined with DAE tutors. We now have a completely new programme with new lecturers and new outcomes. My plan for this year is to look at the Fundamentals as a whole together with the spokespersons for all the lines: design, production and contextual. Right now I’m trying to plan how to involve students in this, because to be really honest, the transition took up so much time and headspace that it is only now that we are ready to think about, ‘ok how can we improve from here?’
For instance, it could be that some tools could be added to the Fundamental Programme. I’m not sure if that’s true, but let’s talk about it. And I would like to really talk to students, because the surveys are only one one way to find out, it would be nice to have a project group. Not many students come to me. It is difficult with my position because I’m really different as a coordinator from the studio coordinators. They have around 20 students each and I have 450. My coordinator position is therefore a little more abstract perhaps, which is why the students don’t really know how to find me.
I’m very open to input from students about the Fundamentals and we should build it together, make it better every year. My vision actually for the Fundamentals, which I think is still not there yet, is truly a cohesive programme that runs from year one to year three with three lines that come together in year three. A programme in which both students and tutors alike know precisely how their previous course is connected to the next and vice versa. Last thing I really like to press is that I’m always open to speaking with students, I understand I’m not so visible, so maybe this interview makes me more visible, which would be really nice.