PAST
I came to the TU/e eager for knowledge on how to make products. But at industrial design you don't necessarily learn that, you learn how to make concepts. I found that difficult, because how could I make concepts if I did not no the technical possibilities that are out there? That resulted in me only taking exact subjects to build up knowlidge. But if I dont do enything whit that knowledge, it will fade. in my last year I took exploratory making and sensorial formgiving. And then it finally clicked that I need to learn by doing.
PRESENT
Today I take an approach of making in order to gain an understanding of how a structure or mechanism could work and feel. Making shows me very clearly what does, and what does not work. From there I am able to search more narrowed down. I kan now finally implement knowledge and I know better what knowledge I want to gather because with making I have a goal for it now.
I also learned 3D modeling and printing this year and that gave me so much freedom in exploring and translating my ideas into something apprehensible.
trougout my study I have seen my value in a multidisciplinary team. I can make an idea something that they can believe in and help the team coming from a vague idea to a finalized product/concept. I am successful if they are believing in me and starting to come up with solutions from their field of work. That means I made them see what I saw, and that they are open minded and can inspire me in their way.
FUTURE
In the future I want to professionalism my approach and discover were and in what companies I can fit.
I want to get more advanced in 3D printing techniques. and other making techniques such as lazer cutting. I do not want to feel limited by not being able to work with certain materials anymore. Traditional materials such as wood and metal are still materials I avoid.
I want to be able to prove that my ideas work trough mathematical analizations.
I would also be very interested to explore the merged field of design and biology such as Neri Oxman.
To make ideas work
For Project 1 we wanted to make clothing that adapt to the user. For example, when the user is too hot, we wanted the clothing to be able to ventilate. It seemed like an idea too far fetched but we were passionate about the idea and just went for it.
Our approach was very exploratory, we went to the textile market and all started to just make ideas for the mechanism. that approach resulted in really aesthetic patterns and movements but it took a while to find something that could be pulled open by one motor and than close back in again.
Instead of going with an arbitrary safe idea we went for something we wanted to work for.
More information?
To convey ideas in a multidisciplinary team
For the course Building a Modern Trebuchet we were assigned to create a trebuchet. The goal was to make it shoot as far as possible and you could also get extra points for creativity. I was the only industrial designer in this mechanical engineering team thus I could really take on the roll of the designer. In the ideation phase that became immediately clear. the whole team was reinventing the wheel by taking the exact measurements of a regular trebuchet and I came up with a frisbee version, a fly swatter version and a view others within that same line.
I thought that there was no real learning opportunity in making what already existed but they were not yet convinced. The next week I had created a cardboard model and a better visualization of the frisbee idea. The moment that they saw that that worked, they started to become enthusiastic and started to think along. We eventually choose to go for the more risky frisbee idea and that challenge made the group atmosphere really energetic because we all wanted it to work. One group member started to prototype with K'nex because of my cardboard models(). In the end we had a working trebuchet that we were al proud of.
The main contribution that I had in this project was the ideation and translating everyone's ideas into readable visualizations.
More information?
To build interactive prototypes
For the course Exploratory making we were assigned to create a many different cardboard models. The end model had to be a hot beverage machine that included rich interactions and was Arduino driven.
This course toughed me to work with cardboard and see the potential of cardboard. Working with cardboard and servo motors made me understand how many existing mechanisms work.
Eventually I created a coffee machine with interactions I have never seen before:
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You can change your coffee from an espresso size to an americano size to a latte size by just tangibly stretching the cup out.
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You can set the strength of the coffee bij turning the knob on top. The switch in it expresses the strength by becoming longer.
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The amount of sugar is expressed by a conveyor with cubes on it.
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If you are ready, touch the center point on top and like boiling water it wil visualize waves to show you it is in progress.