Alumni Q&A: Soetkin Van Landegem
Major: Visual Arts & Technology '18; Concentration: Graphic Design and Animation
After graduating from the Visual Arts and Technology program, alumna Soetkin Van Landegem jumped right into the fashion industry. She’s interning at Tapestry’s Kate Spade, creating three-dimensional concepts for storefronts and showrooms. Recently, we caught up with Landegem to see how everything is going and how her time within the College of Arts and Letters at Stevens prepared her for success.
What inspired you to apply for your internship?
Everything that I did throughout my past four years at Stevens led me to applying to Tapestry's Kate Spade.
From my first internship at Sloane Square, where I learned about marketing and graphic design; to my last internship at Anthropologie, where I was introduced to my love for fashion; and of course my major, where I learned that I both love and am good at digital art.
I knew I wanted to apply for a position that included all these things, and 3D concepts within the fashion industry was the perfect fit.
The fashion industry is fast paced. What’s your day to day look like?
At Kate Spade, I work with the creative marketing, 3D concepts department. This means I’m helping design and develop scenes for store windows, showrooms, and special events.
My main task is to model props used in these displays using Cinema 4D and SketchUp. Once modeled, I'm tasked to come up with various compositions until the design is approved by my boss. These are then sent over to other departments within the company to be executed.
How did Stevens prepare you to take all this on?
The visual arts and technology curriculum requires students to take a couple of core classes, which include animation, graphic design, video, and photography.
I don't think I would have ever thought I would like animation, and more importantly, that I would be any good at it. But because it was a requirement, I enrolled myself in the class. One of our first projects in that class was to 3D model a chair using the program Cinema 4D. This was one of the first times that I felt like I was good at something that I really loved doing. I knew I had to continue exploring this field. Luckily I did, because it’s lead me to my current job.
What led you to choosing Stevens?
Prior to college I knew I loved art, and I knew I was good with technology. At the time, I had barely ever intertwined the two.
When I started looking for schools I stumbled across Stevens and saw that they offered a program that combined my two passions: visual arts and technology. That and the fact the school is located a short bus ride away from New York City.
Last but not least, if you could give current Stevens students a bit of advice, what would it be?
Definitely to be open minded.