In this extract from Eye magazine, John L. Waters talks to typeface designer, teacher and well-pressed gentleman Gerard Unger. This section touches on the different approaches to teaching at the Rietveld Academy (The Netherlands) in contrast with the course that I took at Reading University here in the UK (albeit some years back).
JLW What is your main role [at Reading] as a teacher?
GU I wanted to combine these scholarly surroundings with the anarchistic atmosphere of the Rietveld Academy. Students at Reading have to write a lot of essays, pass a lot of examinations. The emphasis is on design that relies heavily on theory, which is information design.
So the pure kind of graphic design, with freedom to handle shapes, colours, themes, whatever, does not exist at Reading. It’s the other way round at the Rietveld. There is hardly any theory, which is a very Dutch thing, by the way. It’s not that my colleagues don’t know anything about theory and history, but they pick that up outside the classroom.
So I take parts of the Reading education to the Rietveld and vice versa. I gave a lecture I had prepared for Reading at the Rietveld and when I asked for questions, one student got up and said: 'It’s not a question, it’s more a command. Can we have more of these lectures.' A great compliment.
JLW Do you feel that your students leave these institutions prepared for the world of graphic design in the way that you were?
GU That is one of the great wonders of education in general. As soon as you turn these people out into the real world, it goes right! Students who have never been told that graphic design is problem-solving seem to find out with their first meeting with the client that it’s about solving problems. They have no difficulties finding that out and getting along with it.
