Professional Identity

Attitude

• I tend to prefer designing in a more researching and specific area than trying to make an entire product from the start. This is something valuable and defining for me as I see most designers behave differently.
• I want to be responsible for small details and finishes, bringing something from functional to thoughtful and original.
• I want to explore subjects with a multimodal approach, seeing how different media impact a design instead of honing in on one idea; mainly in the Digital Craftsmanship course.

Skills

• I want to expand my skillset into the physical making domain. I have started 3d printing and experimenting with that. I wish to apply the same curiosity to more different domains through offered workshops in the SeMa squad and Digital Craftsmanship.
• Auditory and somatosensory experiences mark a big part of my Aesthetics of Interaction prototype and I see capturing the details in those as yet another skill that I want to learn.

Knowledge

• This semester is very heavy in CA for me; it is the direction I want to move into with my designs and get the most knowledge from.
• I'm excited to work with advanced materials and diving deep into one subject for SeMa. I want to learn inside out how a material behaves and what it does and how we can explore that as designers.

Vision

Direction

Advanced materials - physicality - making - showcasing: all things I want to focus on this semester and bring back in my prototyping and portfolio.

Inspiration

• https://projects.id.tue.nl/id

Goals

Semester goals

G1: Exploring Media II

I want to use this semester to explore different media involved in making

• What are my possibilities regarding an advanced material and how to work with it?
• Pneumatics is a completely new subject to me which I am going to learn about and document.
• I will be crafting wearables in my hobby projects and Digital Craftsmanship course which will involve textiles and softer materials as well. How will this fit into my identity as a designer?

G2: Applying Media II

I want to use projects in this semester to apply media that I am already comfortable using into the design process and presentation.

• I will continue to use my camera to record high quality visual material for documentation. A camera lets me reflect on what I am photographing and how I wish to showcase it more than a phone.
• I want to continue experimenting with my own 3d-printer at home and see what I can do with TPU or more advanced (soft) materials, which I will learn about in the SeMa squad.

G3: Obsidian & Project Cells

I now know I want to use Obsidian for notetaking and I have figured out how to best write documentation and directly export it as pdf and share on canvas. I want to streamline this process even more; see how I can better and more efficiently take notes and create visuals or diagrams that fit in my format. I want to use Obsidian to manage all my projects; including but not limited to my university projects and courses. The point is to create project "cells" which all have their own to-do lists and requirements which I can work on whenever I need to / see fit myself.

G4: Quality Showcasing

I want to focus this semester on making prototypes and works that fit into and add to my portfolio as a designer. Focus will be put on creating pictures of experienceable and physical prototypes to create a visual narrative for my portfolio. How could I condense my research into a visual and explorative piece rather than a formal research paper everyone is used to?

Long-Term ambitions

This year I want to dig deeper into becoming a material-forward designer and gaining the ability and approach to working with advanced materials, which I see as something that will become very prevalent in the future design world. My goal is not necessarily to become a designer that makes products for users, but more a designer that takes a material or set of materials and explores what can be done with them, so other designers can take my research and create products with them.