Evert Ypma is a designer, design researcher, and conceptual strategist working at the intersection of institutional leadership, public value and transformation. He collaborates with public institutions, scientific and educational organisations, cultural institutions and companies where strategy, governance and societal change converge.

His work is about reading organisational complexity, framing underlying questions and discerning priorities. He translates these into design strategies and actions enabling organisations to understand themselves, exercise responsibility and shape their futures. By doing so, he supports organisations being more legible, more accountable and better equipped for the changing conditions ahead.

Evert Ypma is interested in the point where institutions become brittle, and where design can open a more intelligent way forward – an approach which is grounded in a strong sense of agency. Across higher education, consultancy and independent practice, he has led pioneering programmes, teams and collaborations at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Zurich University of the Arts, Unbound Trajectories and precedent offices. His experience ranges from curriculum development and research environments to design-driven transformation projects. He moves fluently between making and thinking, operational detail and conceptual direction.

Leading for his work is a distinct understanding of design: design as a social, civic and intellectual practice giving form to the material and immaterial world around us. One that amalgamates critical insight, future scenarios and strategic deliberation. He engages with emerging questions, including civic trust, the design of public institutions, representation and image politics, agentic systems, and design for circular economy. Throughout his career, Evert Ypma has focused on the conditions that enable design and designers to achieve genuine social relevance.

Evert Ypma has studied design at the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, at the Academy Post-St. Joost Breda, and design and management at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northern-Switzerland.