What is your position at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences?
I am a professor of design fundamentals in the Digital Media Production (DMP) programme.

What are your responsibilities?
I teach first-year students in their first two semesters and, together with my colleagues, prepare them for the programme. In general, first-year students have very different levels of knowledge when it comes to design: some come straight from school, others have already studied something else or even completed training in the media sector. The aim is to bring everyone to the same level as far as possible and lay the foundations for later elective modules.
In addition, I sometimes teach courses in the higher semesters in the areas of graphic storytelling, editorial design and corporate design.

What has your career path been like so far?
After school, I trained as an offset printer, then studied graphic design at the University of the Arts (HfK) in Bremen and graduated with a degree. Immediately afterwards, I started teaching there at the HfK for the first time (illustration), later at the University of Bremen in the International Women's Studies programme (web design), and since 2018 I have been a lecturer in various subjects in the field of cross-media publishing in our DMP programme here at the University of Bremerhaven. Andreas Teufel brought me to Bremerhaven as a lecturer to work with the students on the analogue part of the production of our university magazines. In addition to teaching, I have been self-employed as the managing director of Blaukontor für Gestaltung GmbH for almost 30 years. There, our team designs and programmes websites, creates corporate designs, curates and coordinates exhibitions, and designs magazines, some of which we also publish in-house at Speicher Verlag.

Now you have gone from being a lecturer to a professor in the Digital Media Production programme – how did that happen?
The Digital Media Production programme is in high demand – we always have far more applicants than places available. The rectorate wanted us to accept more students, so in return, a new half-time professorship was advertised, which I applied for. Although I was already known, I naturally went through the official procedure like all the other applicants and submitted a learning and teaching concept in addition to the actual application. I documented my work with the students extensively, and I think that may have gone down quite well: I was then invited – like a few others – to give a trial lecture and a specialist presentation. And the committee really grilled me in the subsequent interview (laughs) ... yes, and a few long months later, I didn't know what the status was the whole time, I actually got the job. But it was so late that I couldn't sign my employment contract until the day before the semester started. But I'm very happy that it worked out, and it's good that it's a part-time position, because I'm still working at my agency and many of the tasks there fit in well with my student projects. And I also have students who do their practical semester with us at the agency.
It's great that Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences supports lecturers on their way to becoming professors and offers excellent support opportunities for part-time lecturers and newly appointed staff during their initial phase.

What is different now that you are a professor and no longer a lecturer?
The stress factor is different now! As a lecturer, you have a little more freedom, even if you always do more than you are ultimately paid for: extra consultations and supervising and assessing bachelor's theses as a second examiner. Now, as a professor, I will of course also be the first examiner. I notice that the pressure is a little higher now, because as a professor you have a different responsibility and position within the university. Now I'm employed at the university in the state of Bremen for half of my professional life, which is a different beat than before. But the influence I now have on teaching is interesting, e.g. what I want to pass on to the students and how. And as a professor, I will now organise this year's DMP Day with a team (on 12 June) for the first time.

What is particularly important to you when working with students?
In graphic and communication design, we are naturally increasingly confronted with artificial intelligence. We notice this in the agency too – some clients say: Let's just run it through the AI... This presents an additional, new challenge: How can I, as a designer, create things that AI cannot? How can I be unique? What AI currently visualises in the field of illustration is often rather an aesthetic mishmash – even though it is constantly improving and, admittedly, you sometimes have to look closely to see it. But of course, AI can complement and should be an aid, especially in research. My aim is to show students as many forms of presentation and solutions as possible. And sometimes it's also good for the DMP programme to incorporate a few analogue processes on the way to the digital result. Of course, the main tool is and remains the computer. But can I also manage to sketch an idea beforehand, to put it on paper in analogue form?

What do you like about Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences?
I like that it's quite small and friendly, has a beautiful campus and an excellent location by the water. I was born in Friesland, and when I teach in Building C, I like to walk up to the dyke during the break and look out over the Weser estuary and the sea. 

What is your favourite place on campus?
I like to hang out at the StuCa student café or, when it's warm, right outside it, drinking coffee. I don't spend much time inside, as it's supposed to be a place for students. Otherwise, I like the design lab in Building T, where I've often taught in recent years.

Do you have a personal motto?
I like to quote my own professor, Bernd Bexte, with whom I studied illustration: ‘You don't have to be good at drawing – you have to know what a good drawing looks like.’ This can be adapted to many areas of media design: we often try to act as ‘universal geniuses’, but we can't always do everything ourselves. But it is extremely important to engage with things and try out as much as possible so that you can later distinguish the successful from the less successful. Design is primarily subject to functionality and should not be primarily ‘beautiful’. That's why the somewhat overused motto ‘form follows function’ still fits well.

Extra: Together to a professorship with "BeProf@BHV"
As part of the BeProf@BHV project, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences is strengthening its long-term recruitment, retention and qualification of talent with a particular focus on the career path to a professorship at a university of applied sciences. The aim is to strengthen Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences as an attractive employer and to expand its position in the competition for qualified personnel. To this end, various measures for recruiting, training and retaining staff are being implemented, including the expansion of employer branding, new models for professorships, the promotion of doctorates and targeted offers for lecturers. The project is part of the BMFTR's federal-state programme ‘FH-Personal’ and will be funded from 2021 to 2027.

Translated with DeepL.