Past

Throughout my childhood I have been a creative and curious person. I always wanted to try out new things and learn how products were made. Growing up in Eindhoven, yearly visits to Dutch Design Week and Glow were therefore a ritual sparking this curiosity. This led to me being broadly interested in a lot of different things, from arts, painting, and drawing, to robotics and vitality. My broad interest in various subjects also made me decide on a study in which I could explore these interests. This therefore made me decide on Industrial Design at TU/e, with its major focus on self-directed learning.

During my studies I quickly realized that I am in charge of my own learning process and that I got the freedom to explore my interests, strengths, and weaknesses. So, during my studies I took this opportunity choosing various different courses in order to explore my interests. This with the goal to explore my professional identity and vision, to find my interests and focus areas, and to develop myself as a designer.

During my first year I mainly focused on exploring my initial interest in sustainability. With my first project being in Sustainable Food, I developed a new interest in designing for behavioral change and educating people about social issues. I got to explore this new interest during my second project in the Wearable Senses squad. Here I also got the opportunity to develop my making skills. Along this, I also decided to explore my other initial interest in designing for sports and vitality. Therefore, I decided to follow the USE learning line Designing for Physical, Sports, and Vitality. Although I enjoyed these courses and I got to develop myself in different expertise areas, like math, data and computing, I realized designing for sports and vitality wasn’t one of my main interests anymore. On the contrary I realized that I did really enjoy the Wearable Senses squad, with its focus on first-person perspective design and making. Along that I also enjoyed the speculative design approach taken during Project 2. This led to me to choose courses, like Digital Craftmanship, Design for Debate, and Design for Sensorial Form.

After my second year I got a better understanding of my interests and I refined my vision. However, I felt the need to develop myself more professionally. Therefore, I decided to do a board year at Team IGNITE. Because this student team was still at the beginning of its existence, I got a lot of freedom to help building this team. Within my role as Internal Relations Manager, I developed myself not only professionally, but also personally. I developed a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, making me more confident as a designer.

In summary, my interests as a designer have changed over the past years. By exploring and challenging myself I developed new interests and gained more confidence as a designer. A critical social designer who wants to create experiences that start conversations and educate people about societal issues.