Past
Last semester I got a P verdict with my first solo project. I spend a lot of my time on organising the Dutch Juggling Convention instead of the project. Also my assessor gave me the advice that I should spend more time on the project, in order to reach its full potential. Focusing on my internship has been my main goal for the semester. The years before that, I had nice group projects with all P’s and in my B2.1 and E verdict. All the bachelor college courses have been successfully completed without any retakes.
My assessor advised me to get out of my comfort zone, compare myself more in a professional context. Also she found my vision and identity distant from myself as a person at that moment and saw a clear link with juggling. She advised to investigate this further how juggling had influenced me as a designer.
The goals of the internship was to get into the real world and think a step further than just a concept. I wanted to learn the practical challenges that arise when trying to put a product or service onto the market. Also I want to investigate for myself if this was something I wanted to do as a professional after the study.
Present
Although I found doing this internship a bit of a risk in the beginning, maybe too distant from the study, I am very glad with the result. I loved to work as a professional designer with experts around me to give feedback. Also seeing the world of pastry and how incredible amount of work and passion went into it was very inspiring. By doing this internship I know better where to go, I found hidden talents, expanded my skillset and got to know myself better.
Although it was an almost a mountain of work making a franchise store, I tried to keep focus. First I made a base and thought about all the small elements that require to realise the store. Than certain elements were picked and further developed. My coach says the following: “You did well, having so many tasks defined for yourself, managing these by prioritising tasks”. I am able to manage a lot of activities at once, but have to keep focus on what is important “You seem to be a very pro-active person to work with (one sentence is enough for you to go and get started) but tend to lose your focus by trying to do to many things at once.” I managed to complete all my goals in my internship and personal goals. Having less goals can help me to focus more on a goal and by this going more into depth. Reflecting more, will help me to keep focus for next semester.
Competencies
Self Directed & Continious Learning
During my internship I mainly had to work on my own which required an professional attitude towards my internship coach. Weekly I presented my progress on which we reflected in order for me to get to the next step. It meant that for a half year I was completely free to decide what I wanted to learn and develop. In order to work hard, I kept track of all my hours I made every day. It kept me motivated to work even through the weekends. Keeping track of these hours is something I will continue to do since it gives a clear indication if you are on track or behind. Looking at my goals, I never completed so many goals since the start of the study. That means I get to know myself better and what I’m able to learn within a given time. Also I took an closer look at what I want to do after my bachelor. For me this gave a better direction of where I wanted to be and by this what I still want to learn.
Design and Research Processes
By keeping track of the hours, I could investigate how I spend my time during a design process. My whole process showed me that doing research is something you keep doing the whole project long. Also the internship with its many tasks, had a clear opportunity to use a iterative process. First quick iterations were made for all the elements that are needed to realise a shop. Different elements took more iterations and were also for me as a designer more interesting to spend time on. Those elements where further developed but still the base stands. For this internship it took a lot of research since it was a really different context in which I positioned myself. Different books are read and a lot of trips are made so both theory and exploring myself are combined in the research of the internship. Talking to experts really showed its value. They give specific detailed information that is relevant for yourself. Talking with experts is something I haven’t done much in the past, since I like to stick to my own roots and connections. This experience has taught me to search more for people instead of only the internet as your resource.
Teamwork
In my internship, we were just with the two of us but yet we had great teamwork. As my internship already describes, he only had to provide a way of thinking linked to his own experience and based on that, I could create concepts and designs. Normally in a team you have to investigate together when you find something you don’t know. But my internship coach already had seen and done so much, it was easy to come up quick with an design. He always thinks how things can be improved, so together we looked at how we could redesign all the products and services in the shop, with the knowledge of what works well and doesn’t work well. Something completely different is the teamwork we did in the creative team of the EJC2016. First with the whole organisation we looked for an identity and vision of the convention which became really complicated quickly. After half a year and new person was introduced in the group with expertise in the marketing field. After hearing all our ideas and concepts it didn’t take much time to find the essence of what we meant. This reveals the value of an person with a fresh perspective in a group that is stuck.
Communication
Last semester I wasn’t satisfied with my report since it was only a couple of pages long on not well written. This semester I became quicker in writing, making it easier to put my thoughts on paper. Working together with an Frenchmen when talking English has been an interesting experience. I tried to speak more simple and when I used more difficult words I immediately explained them in the context. Every week I did a small presentation of the work I did showing sketches, prototypes and digital 3D models. Also talking to many different experts, helped me to better understand my positions as a designer. A new task will be to organise the Dutch Championships in juggling, here I will take a leader role which will be a new experience since I’m one of the youngest of the group.
Form and Senses
Within the internship, a lot of focus has been put on the form and senses of the shop but especially the coffee cup. It has both a functional yet aesthetic form where also attention has been paid to the holding of the cup. In the user test, feedback was received about how the coffee cup invites to hold more close to yourself, creating intimacy with the user. The warmth of the cup is used to trigger also warm feelings by the person. In the whole design we rethought why certain things look the way they look and made them different, yet recognisable. For all the different elements in the shop, a design has been made from either a sketch to a fully 3D printed model. A new technique in form giving has be learned with the program Solidworks. It had been a goal since the start of my study to make a full 3D render of this that I could present at the Demo-day. Using this program will be useful in the future since I considered it as a basic skill a product designer should have.
Ideas and Concepts
The way we worked in the internship was with an attitude that nothing was too crazy. We tried to forget why certain things are they way they are and come up with new ideas. After a sketch or prototype they could be validated in order to tests its functionality. You could say we were tinkering with existing products, a technique I haven’t used before. After every iteration we thought how we could make it more clever, easier and more eye-catching. Since my internship coach already had a lot of hands on experience, it was easy to work from that point and come up with clever concepts. Having an expert which brainstorms every week with you is an experience I won’t have anymore during the study, but in the professional work field. With this expertise is easier and faster to create concepts and make iterations. It gave me the confidence of my value as a designer for a client.
Designing Business Processes
Working in a store and creating a new store at the same time, gave a lot of practical information which normally people have access to. My internship coach shared everything from revenue, till problems with personal, new products and how he will invest his money to become bigger as a company. It was very valuable for me since after my study I want to start my own design company. Research has be done on competitors for the new store by which we better understood what we should do. A unique identity is shaped together with a 5 year-plan and of course the business model canvas. Instead of thinking about a product, the whole idea of this internship was to see how you bring it onto the market.
User Focus and Perspective
Although there wasn't much room in this internship to do a user test. Still a user test has been done for the coffee cups. What was interesting in the user test itself was to see if people would change their opinion if you give them more knowledge. I didn’t expect it to change but what I think that happens here is that because a user already had made a certain statment, they take too much proud for themselves to proof them they aren’t correct and by this changing their opinion. During the whole design of the shop, the user had the highest priority, what is also shown in the coffee cup design with the spoon on top. We thought about services and how to make them the best suitable for the customer. Also for the existing shop an catalogue and semi-web shop has been added to be more easier for the users to order products. In the unique service design for the shop you can read more about how we put our customer on the first place.
Social and Cultural Awareness
The trips to Belgian and France were a real eye-opener. Especially visiting France with 2 Frenchmen next to me showing the culture was an unforgettable experience. For the shop it was also important to know the social and cultural trends. People start to care more where the products come from that they buy. In our shop we show our relationships with our suppliers providing a fair product with educated people. The idea in the shop was to bring the French appreciation of food to the Netherlands. Also my goal of placing myself into different contexts has helped me to better understand how the world works. More of this can be read in my goals here below. Finding my future job forced me to better understand the trends in the job market. In what role as a designer am I interesting within a few years and is there and demand for this? Talking to different experts helped me to answer this question.
Integrating Technology
Together with an physics student I spoke about the warmth storage in the cup, which turned out that my idea of it was not possible. At the end of the design we looked together at the thermodynamics of the cup in order to see how quickly it cools down. Such an simple question is very hard to solve even for the physics student. We came to an conclusion and a graph that showed the temperature decrease over an given time. Also talking about the limitations of porcelain with different experts helped me to see what was possible and wasn’t possible with the form.
Descriptive and Mathematical Modelling
Creating the coffee cup and plate in Solidworks has taken some time in order to create a model of the cup in the program. It is made for engineers which means that everything is very precise. Advanced knowledge about math comes in handy when creating the cup since all the positions of elements are based on mathematical relations. The volume of coffee that the cup could take had to be calculated in order to see if it was too big or small. This was done using the model in Solidworks. For the background of my showcase I used the physical model of my project last semester and made it digital using only CSS3. It makes the movement look natural yet mathematical. The translation from physical to digital was harder than thought but is a good way to make natural elements digital which can be used in the future.
Reflection PDP Goals
Goal 1 | Focus on project
Although I did spend exactly 8 hours a day 5 days a week, I did work around 40 hours and sometimes even more per week. I don’t have a 9 till 5 attitude and my way of working is more dynamic. I focus on a task, finish it and move on to the next task. Finishing one task can take up all night without a problem for me. The investigation about my analysis of my logbook can be found here.
Goal 2 | Getting out of my comfort zone
I am very glad that I had the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone a lot this semester. From Dutch Design week till trips to conference about food and even trip to Belgian and France to see how the shops there were very interesting. I understand the value of getting out of my comfort zone more and will try to search for more expertise input in upcoming projects. At the FabLab it wasn’t possible anymore to work together unfortunately. Luckily I could talk to Shapeways at the DDW which fulfilled basically the same purpose.
Goal 3 | Improve my vision
Spending many hours on Kickstarter I could link my vision to products design. I wanted to get the best out of people and help them with this but didn’t know how I could do this other than providing a service as an expert for people. When I saw a mini photo studio with which you can make professional photo’s with just your smartphone I knew that this could be something I would like to design. I want to create products that give people the opportunity to use services or techniques that are otherwise too expensive to buy or too complex to use and make them available for them. But then I came across the term social design and found an article about it by Satu Miettinen, Researcher at University of Art and Design Helsinki. It matched exactly with what I was trying to say myself but couldn’t find the right words for. Since it was only a recent discovery, I still have to dive deeper into this for me new field of design.
Goal 4 | Explore visual identity
Still I am very satisfied about how my visual identity suits me. Using the findings of how juggling has influenced me as a designer, I tried to find connections. With my website I want to give people the feeling that they are experiencing how I am. The moving balls on the background resemble all the activities I do and keep them moving with smaller fast moving tasks and bigger tasks that take more time. Also it requires a clear focus of the viewer of the website to read the texts.
Goal 5 | Get better at writing reflections
At first I tried to keep up with reflections but I took too much time making them. Already one week of progress took 3 A4 to write down everything. This wasn’t going to work. I did make a Mid-term reflection which was discussed with the coach in order to see if I was on track with my goals. The book about understanding design didn’t continue reflections of designers but reflections on being a designer so it couldn’t be used for the goal set. Instead I did some research about what a good reflection should be and how to keep yourself continue to write reflection more regular. On article that I found can be useful and the tips explained will be used in the next semester.
Future
Next semester I want to focus on one product for my project that fits my identity and vision. With this product I want to get more into electronics and do many user tests if plausible. I has to look like a finished product with a hi-fi prototype which is well presentable to other professional designers. Since it is my final bachelor project, it really has to fit me personally and should be something I enjoy working for. Picking a project with this close connection to my vision and identity will make sure it will fit me. Also I want to reflect more regularly so I keep focus on my goals within the project. I want to reflect more regularly so I keep focus on my goals within the project. Future investigation has to be done in the field of social design, finding examples of designers and projects that I find interesting. More concrete goals can be read in my draft PDP.
