The DAE community would like to congratulate Gert Staal as the winner of the Jan Lucassen Award 2018! Gert Staal (1956) is a tutor in our MA Information Design department. Staal studied Dutch and art history at the Univerisity of Amsterdam, and is currently working as researcher and publicist within the domains of design, architecture and urban design.
The Jan Lucassen Prize aims to honour the teacher who is demonstrably a dual talent, who knows how to develop content and didactics in the interest of the students of Design Academy. The motivations from the DAE community to nominate Gert were warmhearted, consistent and plentiful. Gert’s students observed that he is a devoted and patient tutor who is always willing to help and guide each student. As one student stated, "Knowledge, patience and devotion are words that come to mind thinking of Gert”.
Additionally, Gert has shown an ability to not only inspire those who were lucky enough to be his students, but also to take a genuine interest in them as individuals. One student’s comment sums up this widespread opinion; “We are always respected by him and it leads us to be confident. So, I believe that this is a great chance to express our respect to Gert Staal.”
Aside from his work in the Information Design department at DAE, he has been the head of SOURCE, the former theoretical programme for all Master departments. Staal also works as a journalist for various newspapers. He was deputy director of the Vormgevings Instituut (Design Institute), chief editor of Items, a Dutch design magazine, and until recently he was a member of the Raad voor Cultuur (Counsel Culture), an advisory board of the Dutch government. Staal has also been working as a teacher at AKV St. Joost in Breda, and has contributed to various research, education, and communication projects. In addition, he frequently programmes seminars on design, and has acted as chairman at design conferences.
We would also like to congratulate those who made it to the shortlist: Robert Adolfson, Vic Cautereels, Alexandre Humbert and Roos Leddy
The Jan Lucassen Award
The Jan Lucassen Award honours previous Executive Board chairman Jan Lucassen (1937) who passed away in 2017. From 1983, he spent 15 years as an executive board member at the Design Academy Eindhoven. During his directorship, the programme – then known as the Eindhoven Academy of Industrial Design – developed into a top international institute, synonymous with Dutch Design. Under his leadership, the school radically renewed, moved to a new location and laid the foundations for the ongoing and immensely popular Dutch Design Week. The jury of the Jan Lucassen Prize assesses nominations from students, and distils a shortlist of five candidates from them. Through a digital voting procedure, the entire academy community is then invited to vote, and the candidate with the most votes ultimately wins the prize consisting of an amount of € 2,000.