Past
When I was in primary school, I always dreamed to be an artist. I loved to spend my time by making drawings. During my youth, I always was a bit of a dreamer and always exploring my surrounding to satisfy my curiosity. Later, when I went to high school, I was introduced to the subject “technique”, where I learned to appreciate working with my hands and creating practical things. An example of this is when we were taught to make a rolling wooden animal with a part that moved when it was moved. I really liked this combination of creativity and practical thinking. During high school, I already noticed that my interests varied widely, both in school and in my free time. I loved playing tennis or soccer, working on all kinds of creative projects, playing in the high school theater, and later helping backstage with the lighting for those same theater plays.
When it was time for my high school end project (Profielwerkstuk), I created an origami chair in collaboration with a friend of mine. I thoroughly enjoyed the different phases of the process of making this chair, making me realize that design was something I was interested in learning more about. It was through this same friend that I discovered the study of Industrial Design. Immediately, I was intrigued by the study and felt drawn to this focus on innovation.
Digital prototype of Project 2 called “CareRing”, an app made for caregivers of dementia. Made in collaboration with: Eva Veldhorst, Pien Boekholtz and Martje Meijers
This was my end project for high school, an origami chair made of cardboard and fabric. Made together with: Roos Boerstoel
Ever since the start of the study, I have been combining by interests of creativity and creating practical solutions in the context of either health or vitality. In the end of the first year, during the course USE Basics, I worked on the case from Hable (a company that had made a Bluetooth device that visually impaired people can use to control and type on their phone) about creating a more inclusive social media app for visually impaired people. This is what sparked my curiosity about design for inclusivity purposes. Just after finishing Project 2, which was a project about peer support among dementia caregivers, I started working as a designer at Hable.
During my two years of working at Hable I learned a lot about working in a team, designing with a clear budget limit, unexpected but important stakeholders and most importantly, how to design inclusively for people with a visual impairment. In parallel to my work at Hable, I tried applying my knowledge and skills from my work into my projects as much as possible, while further developing as a designer during my projects and courses until I eventually got started on my Final Bachelor Project: “Scents of Belonging”.
Working on my Profielwerkstuk was a big influence in me wanting to become a designer