Now that I’ve shown you my portfolio, my goals, what I’ve done and reflected on this it’s time to evaluate how the past months added up to my identity and growth as a designer. But I’ll start with a short summary of my past.

My Past

With some baggage from my Architecture studies I arrived at the Industrial Design department at the TU/e. I was immediately grasped by the way the educational model worked, how you could ‘design’ your own curriculum with your own focus points.

From the beginning I’ve enjoyed the user centered approach in my design process, a very inspiring way of tackling your projects. Other focus points have been technology, conceptual thinking, social interaction, graphic design and prototype building.

During my internship I’ve worked at the Fablab, a place where students and professionals can built their prototypes. I enjoyed this setting very much and could see myself working in an environment like that.

Next to the curriculum I’ve been a very active member of study association industrial design Lucid, accumulating in a year as a board member. I’ve organized study trips, multi day events, managed an association, had a lot of fun and more. These experiences have shaped my identity on a more practical, organizational and social level.

Growth

As stated before I feel that my knowledge and tool/skill set are getting to a point where I can master the complete design process individually; although I prefer to work in groups. The achievement of my learning goals has shaped and stream lined my design vision and design process. The focus on the gap in the middle (idea visualization and communication) during this semester has helped me to communicate my ideas better and find a good balance between reasoning and creating.

Identity

As with any remarks I’d make regarding to my identity as a designer I have to emphasize not only to you but also myself that this can be subject to change. This is just a reminder to myself that I’m still evolving every day and that my identity probably has some long roots and a firm trunk that form the basis. But the branches can be subject to change; they can change direction, split or even be trimmed to make way for other branches. In the following paragraph I will try to define my identity as I feel it is right now.

As said before projects with a strong social and/or cultural context suit me very well and I feel that intelligent and/or beautiful use of technology can transform this context both ways. I’m very intrigued by questions like ‘How do people interact with each other?’, ‘How do people interact with products?’ and ‘How do people interact with people through products?’ because to me these questions are about sharing. Giving a part of yourself to another entity and in return receive a piece of the other entity. In my opinion social interaction derives from the individuals need to share, share ideas, feelings, visions, information, music, and so on… So sharing is obligatory! This relates to my passion to organize events. The design|lab event I’ve initiated with some colleague students is a great example, on one hand it’s sharing (i.e. workshops, exhibition and lectures) and on the other hand there’s the amusement (i.e. music, drinks and dinners). Organizing events like these aids community building and social interaction. The urge to organize events like these is also a strong part of my identity as a designer.

I have to mention my passion for music, particularly house music, in this identity section. I’m a DJ that uses records to create an ambiance, again to share a feeling with others. This might not be directly related with design; but I design like I DJ and I DJ like I design. The same creative rules seem to apply in both fields.

To conclude this identity section I would like to picture what my ‘desired’ professional live would look like. One third industrial/media design; projects with technology integrated to transform society on a social and/or cultural level. One third organizing design related events; events that create sharing communities. And finally, music; transform the world with the wheels of steel (turntables) and spread unity around the world. Of course interactions between these three pillars are imaginable and because they all arise from me as a person these interactions are probably unavoidable!