About

I am a designer who wants to connect people and institutions, to work on positive impact in society, together, for the long-term. I do this through analytical thinking, strategic design and empathic design. 

I use methods like co-creation and focus group discussions to integrate people’s thoughts, behaviors and opinions into my work. For example, during my M2.1 I interviewed women on the question of what they need to feel empowered. This led to me organizing a low threshold workshop on gender inequality. 

I enjoy doing projects that let me think about a strategy to achieve a certain goal within society in the long term. In my M2.1, this meant that I thought about how my project could be part of creating a community for women to feel empowered in the FabCafe community.

In a team setting, I take on the role of the planner often and I am able to keep an overview in a team. I am committed and ambitious to put ideas into action. For example, in my FMP, I was able to put ideas of last year into action this year. 

Other skills I have are graphic designing and sketching, which I use for visualizing my ideas. I do this quickly in tools like Miro or Illustrator, or with pencil and paper. I am also skilled in using other Adobe programs and Davinci Resolve for video editing. I have gained experience in marketing, on social media and WordPress websites, through my M2.1 and through organizing different events as part of my extracurricular activities. 
Outside of my studies, I’ve done different activities to contribute to society and to broaden my skill set. For example, I’ve gained knowledge in the workings of the local government through lobbying for student housing. Also, I have experience with intercultural teams through my M2.1.

In today’s political climate of The Netherlands, policy making has moved more towards the local governments [1]. At the same time, the Eindhoven region is changing rapidly, as can be seen in the developments within the university but also with the increasing growth of the industry, mainly the Brainport region [2]. This creates a decision making environment where various interests are at stake. However, youth are often not included in the process. 

I believe designers play an essential role between youth and institutions in the city, to connect them and to enable them to move forward together, towards a future-proof city that fits the wishes of the current youth; because they will be living in the city of the future. As a designer, I contribute to this through bringing in an analytical perspective on the challenges in the city and designing the strategy to tackle these challenges, through an inclusive design process. For example, in my FMP I created a platform where youth and city leaders can connect with each other and design the city of the future. 

I feel a strong sense of urgency for contributing to a sustainable future through my work. When it comes to sustainability and social equality, including gender equality, I believe design can play the role to trigger people to make a small change, which leads to a bigger change on a societal level. In this way, I see a twofold role for designers: sparking small changes and designing the strategy that creates societal change. 

I want to design strategies and implementation tools for people from different backgrounds to come to connect and design the city of the future, together. These strategies should be designed in a way that all people can become part of the community in a low threshold way. For example, through my M2.1 I created an environment where people engaged with each other and discussed their views on gender inequality. This discussion was facilitated through sparking their thoughts with a documentary on gender inequality and through designing a low-threshold way of participating in the discussion.

[1] Chavannes, M. (2022). Steeds meer taken, steeds minder macht: hoe de gemeente wordt klemgezet door kabinet en Kamer. De Correspondent. Retrieved 01-05-2023 from https://decorrespondent.nl/13179/steeds-meer-taken-steeds-minder-macht-hoe-de-gemeente-wordt-klemgezet-door-kabinet-en-kamer/8c28e6fa-9126-0844-2d71-f855bf0bddfc
[2] Brainport Eindhoven (2022). Strategische Agenda Brainport. Retrieved 01-05-2023 from https://brainporteindhoven.com/nl/ontdek/strategie/strategische-agenda-brainport