Creativity & Aesthetics
Business & Entrepreneurship
User & Society
Math, Data & Computing
Technology & Realization
Past
In high school, I had a great interest in exact subjects like Physics and Chemistry. Moreover, I was extremely interested in how companies are managed and organized, and attentively followed subjects like Management and Organization. This had given me the motivation to combine my technical knowledge together with my entrepreneurial ambition. As a result, Industrial Design seemed the perfect opportunity to do precisely that.
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Looking back at the past four years, I can confidently say that the choice I made back then was the right one. I realize that my bachelor's studies truly shaped me into the person I am today and importantly, challenged me to explore my interests and passions. In hindsight, this has not been easy, and it was fraught with difficulties along the way. For example, I found myself drastically modifying my vision multiple times throughout my studies. During the first year, my first ever written vision concerned the exponential growth of technology in relation to our environment. I saw it as my duty to make humanity aware that we are part of a bigger natural system and question the need for technological developments. This vision changed significantly during my second and third year. Instead of concentrating on questioning technological developments, I had grown interested in societal and cultural issues, and aspired to address these problems through the business environment. To be more specific, I imagined marketing strategies as a way of raise awareness of these societal and cultural issues. However, my internship experiences clarified that this is tough as there are countless variables to consider when designing a successful marketing strategy, some of which did not go hand in hand with my vision. Consequently, I ended up redifining my vision again during this semester. As this happened during my FBP, I dedicated much time reflecting on my interests and shaped my final project towards these interests.
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Parallel to the development of my vision, in the past four years, I greatly expanded my skill set in all competence areas. In retrospect, I now understand how the projects and courses that I followed naturally unveiled the interests that I have today: To sketch a sustainable and collectively defined future for the clothing industry.
Final Bachelor Project
Throughout my entire bachelor's studies, I have been struggling to find a project that really encapsulated all my interests. Unquestionably, working in groups meant creating conformity with the team regarding the topic of the project, which has made me a very skilled designer that is qualified to work in multidisciplinary teams. Yet, it often felt there was not enough room to fully explore what designer I can and want to be. By nature, I am a curious person and love to immerse myself in the context of the project. I get great joy from learning new things and acquiring knowledge on new topics. Even though this is a good thing when working on a team project, I found difficulty in choosing the topic for my FBP as a result. In the end, I managed to compress all my interests into a final bachelor project that is strongly in line with what I believe and envision. To conclude my final showcase, I want to reflect on the two most significant development points.
Improved prototyping skills
I significantly enhanced my prototyping skills during my FBP and specifically focused my attention and energy on strengthening my competence in technology. As I described in my Technology and Realization development, I often found myself staying away from the technological side of things in my design project. Mostly because I did not have a great interest in the technological aspects of the product. Yet, during my FBP project, I found significance in making an interactive product to demonstrate its functionality. In fact, I discovered how important this is when making speculative design probes as it considerably improves the comprehensibility of the product and potentially enhances the quality of discussions. That being said, I really got involved in the technological aspects of my final prototype and found great joy in building the technological circuit and programming the necessary codes. On one hand, this had proved to me that the skills I learned during the courses Creative Programming, Creative Electronics, and Engineering Design were still available to me. On the other hand, it has given me a completely new perspective on this competence area and it encourages me to apply this competence during my master's projects whenever possible.
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Shaped my vision
Since I reimagined my vision last semester, I had the opportunity to critically rediscover and reconsider my interests by carefully reflecting on my bachelor's journey. It became evident that clothing has played a significant role throughout my studies, both in and outside the Department of Industrial Design. Kilojoule Network has been an ongoing project involving clothing, and my internship at Bonne Suits came forward out of my interest in fashion. That being said, honing in on the fashion industry during my FBP came naturally and clarified that this is the context I want to focus on. On top of that, I rediscovered my passion for our natural environment. As described earlier, my first ever written vision encapsulated the exponential growth of electronics in relation to our natural environment. Although I might not be interested in the technological side of that story anymore, I do feel great importance in addressing the environmental aspects again. This becomes clear in my new vision/mission as it advocates for a sustainable environment and cohesive society within the context of the fashion industry, encapsulating the importance of an environmental future.
Future Plan
While my bachelor's study is coming to an end, I feel like my journey as a designer is just getting off the ground. It offered the right environment to truly discover my identity and enabled me to investigate what my interests are. On top of that, the projects and courses empowered me to develop an extensive set of skills and challenged me to explore what skills I want to develop further. Having rediscovered my interests and reshaped my vision accordingly during the last semester, I feel truly motivated to continue my studies and start my master’s Industrial Design at Eindhoven University.
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During the master's phase, I want to focus my efforts on becoming grounded in Design Futuring and develop proficiency in using the supportive design tools that come with it. While Design Futuring can be used as a research method in itself, I wish to use Design Futuring as a tool to explore and define the nuanced future context for my design projects. That being said, the track that suits my current interests is the Research, Design, and Development track.
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Studies aside, I intend to further develop my competence in Business & Entrepreneurship and wish to devote my free to starting and growing a side business.