Presentation University of Lincoln UK 18.1.2011

1. I’m a Maven
Presentation
University of Lincoln
18.1.2011

10. Final version (version 2011.1.15)
[•] 18.1.2011
[•] © Stephan Saaltink
[•] Thank you for your invitation.
[•] Once more I am very pleased to meet you all, and prepared a fifteen presentation.
[•] PREFACE
[•] ‘To describe the problem is part of the solution’, Karl Gerstner states in Designing
Programmes. (Please be aware of the subtitle: instead of solutions for problems
programmes for solutions.)
Alas rather late, [•] at the start of the new millennium in 2001, I discovered the
compact but influential title, at [•] TOTAL DESIGN the famous identity agency in
Amsterdam. [•] The book, first publicated in 1964, had not lost its impact.
[• ] ‘Ordening. Structuring. Programming. Simplifying complexity’ is my motto already
for quite sometime. [•] You might spot some evidence in the next three examples.
[•] First: a series of covers wrapping up [•] Louis Couperus (1863-1923), a quite
famous Dutch novelist of the late 19th and early 20th century.
[•] The design, [•] from 1981, [•] is infact not much more [•] then a color scheme. [•]
[•] Second: a magazine production – for number ten of 2007 – on the public
appearances and the body language of George Bush. [•] First my notes, [•] then some
selected studies [•] concerning sequence, [•] format and rythm.
[•] Third (last): a commission by Royal Dutch Post. [•] This is a very special stamp,
which is distributed [•] only in the beginning of december, just before X-mas.

11. [•] These early digital sketches, [•] are made with Degas, [•] the popular, much
cheaper rival of Mac Draw, [•] because I could not afford a Mac as a starter at that
time.
[•] So we mainly used Atari those first years . . . [•] Besides the (German) machine
was quite good, [•] especially because the ST was ‘open’ & all ports were easy to
program.
[•] The final sketches, however, are again just plain framed papercuts: [•] accurate and
effective.
[•] ANALYSIS
[•] Precision matters.
I am used to de-compoze and atomize, because Design is driven by [•] vertical, as well
as [•] horizontal thinking and practised by [•] deducting and combining.
I’m sorry. I do not want to offend you. Please accept next analysis as my personal
USP . . . By the way, already some time ago, on the streets, and in the fields, all
my beloved friends wore hats . . , high boots . . , and a gun on every hip . . .
[•] Of course, at the time, I was not aware of my very first USP . . .
[•] As a matter of fact, by now, I should admit, Sharon Keetons’ email, which
confirmed my pré-selection for the post of Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design and
contained a special request, did puzzle me for quite some time . . .
At this very moment, I am quite sure, nor me, nor any other external candidate, will be
able to answer your complicated question, and – this is important: [•] because it is a
Bolean equation – deliver some substantial arguments.
[•] Mainly because two of the three items in ‘What effective and continious contribution
will I make to the Schools Teaching & Research Agenda?’ are ‘unknown’ to me.
Regrettably, consequently, [•] I am unfamiliar to ‘the School’ and its ‘Agenda’,

12. [•] as it will be presumeably to most other candidates.
[•] Besides, is n’t the key subject missing? [•] Why did you leave ‘the Student’ out?
[•] Did n’t we all formulate competences as part of the Bologna-proces, [•] to define
our goals and a curriculum which is not depending on, but makes use of the specific
quality of staff?
[•] And finally: is it possible to introduce ‘effectiveness’ as a core value before the
actual launch of a contribution yet to be specified? [•] Is n’t the sequence something
like: Analyze-Develop-Programme-Implement-Check-Act? [•] And is n’t ‘effectiveness’
measured by objective tools?
[•] AGENDA
I assume the general agenda concerning design education will be the same in most parts
of Western Europe. When I left [•] Willem de Kooning Academy those issues were:
[•] Globalisation and internationalisation
[•] Students teamwork and multi-di-sci-pli-na-ri-ty
[•] Crossovers: beyond up-to-date technology driven education
[•] How to connect design theory and practise?
[•] Talent development and excellence
[•] And finally, as always: the link with the industry, and the link with the profession
It would be a privilige to contribute my expertise concerning, [•][•] internationalisation,
[•][•][•] or Cross Cultural Design, [•][•] or Multi-di-sci-pli-na-ri-ty, or [•][•] Design
Theory, at the University of Lincoln if required and wanted.
But apart from those generic issues I would like to add another much less known . . .
Although recently, now and then, a feature on ‘the brain’ [•] might appear in one of the
Science sections . . . (The translation of the heading is ‘Digital reality breeds
indifference’.)

13. [•] After visiting the Shanghai International Fashion Culture Festival in 2010 and
listening to a stunning lecture titled: What guides the designer’ hand? Inside the
ultimate design studio: the brain by Art Historian John Onians [•], I am prudently
concluding every design programme might need some tuning, re-introducing the manual
experiment to equalize subjects like ‘concepting’, ‘design thinking’ and ‘strategy’.
[• ] Recent neuroscientific insights seem to confirm not only the eye and the hand need
training, also the designers brain needs manual feed to keep in optimum condition.
[• ] The key concept to grasp is that of neural plasticity.
I quote: [• ] ‘Another is that the laying down of those memories is associated with
structural changes in the brain. [• ] We have always known that previous experience is
important for artistic success, but we never knew exactly why. [•] Now we know that it
is because each experience we have actually changes our brain’s structure, leaving us
with better resources for dealing with that particular experience if we have it again.’
And: [•] ‘Each trained artist or designer acquires over time a brain whose structure helps
him or her to perform the particular tasks he or she is engaged in. [•] The process by
which this happens is one that only recently has been understood. [. . .]
[•] By concentrating on a particular activity we re-design the area of the brain that we
use for it. [. . .] [•] Of course those neurally based motor skills will then influence his
own work, [•] and they will do so without him being conscious of it.
[•] This is one of the most important insights yielded by neuroscience.
[•] In a field like art or design you can have lots of bright ideas, [•] but if you don’t
have the required motor skills with pencil or mouse your work will not be a success.’
[•] EDUCATION
[•][•] Although actualizing assignments, [•][•] and keeping all information up to date,
[•][•] is always required in education . . . Helping students to connect, linking them
with the actual ánd the past – [•] be aware: this is Bolean once more – seems to be
another main task . . . I’d like stick to [•] Put importance to the history and tradition.

14. [•] In The Tipping Point – an excellent study, and wonderful guide, which should be read
by every design-student – Malcolm Gladwell is introducing three kind of people who
matter in a social epidemic.
[•] Connectors: ‘people with a special gift for bringing the world together’, and ‘who
know everyone’. [•] Mavens – the word comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who
accumulates knowledge – ‘information brokers, sharing and trading what they know’.
Mavens are data banks. They provide the message.’ [•] ‘Connectors are social glue:
they spread it. [•] But there is also a select group of people – Salesman – with the
skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing [. . .].’
[•] Although it is not the task of a teacher to start, nor spread an epidemic, I am quite
sure something of a Connector or/and a Maven is in us all. Or to put it in Gladwells
words: ‘To be a Maven is to be a teacher.’
[•] ME
[• ] Luckely, as you may spot, I am listed in ‘Dutch Graphic Design. A century of
innovation’ [•] which was published in 2006.
[•] An early example of my work, presented on page 378, is from 1991.
[•] The same bookcover for ‘The Shock of the New’ by Robert Hughes is on the next
slide, [•] but now surrounded by some of my designs out of the same period, [•] which
seems to be exactly twenty years ago!
[•] My recent portfolio is available via www.slideshare.net/swsaaltink
[•] My recent main task as vice can be listed . . .
[•] My educational specialities also . . .
[•] On special request I might even present The Very Best Of . . .
[•] When possible, in spare time, I am studying LOGO – a LISP-dialect – producing

15. simple pen-up-pen-down Turtle Graphics . . . So, at the end of this presentation, I’d like
to quote Harold Abelson – [•] a mathematician and professor of Computer Science at
MIT – who is stating in the Preface of ‘Turtle Geometry’:
[•] ‘It is our hope that these powerfull but simple tools for creating and exploring richly
interactive environments will dissolve the barriers to the production of knowledge as the
printing press dissolved barriers to its transmission.’
[•] ‘This hope is more than our wish for students to experience the joy of discovery and
the give and take between investigator and investigation that typifies scientific research.
[•] Like Piaget, Dewey, and Montessori, we are convinced that personal involvement
and agency are essential to truly effective education.’
Finally – time to stop – did I succeed in my intention to give you an impression of my
potentials regarding design education . . ?
And – at least as important – did I deliver an inspiring presentation . . ?
[•] Thank you!
[•] Any questions?