Identity
I see myself as a reliable, empathetic, and optimistic designer that is easy to work with, listens to others, and believes that everything is possible.
From a young age I have always been curious. Exploring the world and nature around me. Easily inspired by the things I see and experience, the people I meet and talk to, and other cultures.
My curiosity makes me a creative person. I easily come up with new ideas during brainstorm sessions and throughout the process. I believe there are no bad ideas and no idea is too crazy. I approach challenges with an open mind and a determination to explore unconventional solutions. I believe that everything is possible.
I am a team player who is easy to work with. Making sure that everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts, ideas, and feelings is very important to me. Respect for each other plays a major role for me. I believe you learn a lot from others. Their way of working, cultural views, and design ideas are important for me. By learning from others I broaden my skills and develop myself as a designer. During projects I believe it is important to have fun and enjoy the things I am working on. During projects I am usually the planner who keeps track of what we have done and what we still need to do. I am good at documenting the steps we have taken throughout the design process. This also ensures clarity and alignment within the team. Being an empathic person, I am able to understand my team members feelings and opinions. Nonetheless, I am well able to share my own constructive opinions and insights, contributing to successful and open team work.
I am a visionary and structured person, which makes it easy for me to prioritize the things that I need to do. Because of this I am well able to write short and long term goals and I know the importance of different tasks that need to be done. With my visionary mindset I am able to see how my design decisions and final designs will influence the future. So, while making design decisions I always think about how my choices will not only influence the project but also the future.
I am also a very visual person and I have a strong imagination. Being able to visualize my ideas immediately helps me a lot during the brainstorming and prototyping phases. Imagining how my designs could look like within the real setting helps during the design process.
I tackle problems with a hands-on user centered approach. Working with my hands and with materials helps me come up with new ideas and helps me become more creative. I create experiences that have a positive impact on the users and the world around them. Closely collaborating with the users and understanding their needs helps me creating meaningful experiences. With my empathic mindset I am well able to resonate and understand the users.
Vision
I see my role as a designer to be social critic. I want to create experiences that start conversations and educate people about societal issues.
I see myself as a critical social designer that wants to make people think about societal issues. Using design as a powerful tool to educate. Educating people about social issues, to create awareness, start a conversation, and help people form their opinion. Educating people through design to create understanding of each other’s views and opinions.
I vision my role to start conversations about taboos, stigma’s, and social issues. Combining psychology and design to cultivate empathy and understanding between people. Using design to evoke emotions, stimulate thought, and facilitate meaningful discussions. I aim to create interactive experiences that raise awareness about pressing social issues and encourage people to form informed opinions. In the end my vision is to spark a dialogue that leads to better understanding and empathy among individuals and communities.
I vision my designs as interactive experiences. Depending on the topic the form of these experiences differ, from workshops, toolkits and games to artworks. I aim to create dynamic and engaging experiences that serve as a platform for exploration and learning, encouraging dialogues among participants.
With my designs I want to advocate for social sustainability and have a positive impact. I envision a future where design is recognized as a powerful force for social change, influencing policy-making within municipalities and (political) institutes. Using design to create awareness for social issues I want to showcase the importance to the institutes. Followed by a collaboration with those institutes, I aim to integrate social sustainability into policy making. By advocating design initiatives that address social issues, I strive to create positive, lasting impacts that uplift individuals and communities.
With my designs I want to address serious topics and issues that can be difficult to discuss. I believe that using humour and satire can lower the threshold these topics may have. Through playful exploration and satire, I want to create experiences where individuals feel comfortable confronting challenging subjects. By infusing playfulness and humour into the experiences I want to encourage curiosity and spark the desire to learn and understand more deeply. This will foster empathy, provoke thought, and ultimately lead to meaningful conversations. Leading to greater awareness and understanding of important social issues.
Puck Verbeek 