I was born in the south of the Netherlands next to the Belgium border. After I graduated high school, I went to Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU) -which is an art academy- where I specialized myself in Product Design. During those four years I contributed one year as a member of the board of the student association C.S. Veritas. That particular year gave me insights of running a company on a large scale. Thereafter I did an internship at HEINEKEN Nederland where I developed an understanding in sales and marketing.
Right now I am a full time graduate student master in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology. The choice for this is based on three main arguments. First, being raised in a teachers family, I value the power of education enormously. My bachelor was fun and I learned a lot, but it didn’t challenge me at a high level. Since I am still quite young, I decided to challenge myself and enjoy as much education as possible with a study at University Masters level. Second, during my period at HEINEKEN I met a colleague who was responsible for the deployment of new products. A role that I admired and saw myself doing. This colleague advised me to conduct a design education program at Master level if I wanted to have his job one day. Lastly, the most substantive argument, I noticed during my bachelor’s degree that I am not a designer that designs “simple” products that people can buy at every corner of the street. I seek for profundity in design and I want to be challenged in more ways than only designing physical artifacts. I realized that for me, design is everywhere around us, and I wanted to be educated to understand how it works and especially, how to give it my own twist.
My slogan “I believe a designer is the translator of human needs, human desire and things that scientists can accomplish” did not change during the master. What has changed is the way I interpret “human needs and desire” as I learned how to research what that needs and desires are, and how to design for it. “Things that scientists can accomplish” also gained more body as I now understand how those scientists work, and I am able to understand and continue their work through design research.
To my delight, I increasingly hear debates in our society: I hear opinions on how society should treat personal data and protect privacy. I hear the need to prevent climate change supercharged by the youth. I hear relief when daily processes are automated by new tech. But on the other hand, to my sorrow, I see automated drones killing innocent human beings. I see how governments track every movement of their residents. I see people getting mentally hurt by hackers. Will the new technologies bring humanity further? This is where the designer should play a role.
I believe it is the responsibility of the designer to create the means for society and business decision makers to reflect upon the influence of (their) innovations and developments on the livability of the world. I believe by presenting (physical) concepts which enable imagining and experiencing future innovations, reflection can be facilitated. Now that products and services are becoming smarter and the world is getting more connected, the blend between digital and physical experiences is clearly noticeable. As I believe this development will accelerate in the upcoming years, it is time to provoke opinions now. These opinions will help designers, companies and lawmakers to steer technological development and its implementation into the desired direction.
I believe -inspired by McKinsey Design- that design should be used to shape every part of a company (incl. organizational structures, product and services) in order to differentiate from competitors. As McKinsey Design expressed; design should be addressed in the so-called “C-suite” of companies if they want to succeed. Doing so, design can influence the business model of a company and vice versa, resulting in new commercial structures that answer human desires and expectations.
Design should be used to create social and commercial impact simultaneously.
Click here to explore my full written Vision as part of my Personal Development Plan
I am a dreamer, a visionary designer that likes to challenge the status quo by sparking debate and reflection with the help of physical artifacts. I describe myself as an enthusiastic, optimistic, convincing and impulsive person.
Driven by incomprehension and dissatisfaction, I like to envision and design plausible future scenarios with physical artifacts. I use these artifacts to enable reflection on the envisioned scenarios to design a future in which all layers of society can thrive. Working directly with the materials, shapes and interactions inspires me a lot and gives me a lot of energy. It also enables me and others to reflect on the concept which I value highly. Therefore, I educated myself to create physical artifacts and to feel confident in all different workshops.
I tend to use a holistic approach to cope with complex challenges, and use different perspectives to design a solution. I find it interesting to unite various specific specialisms. Instead of working alone, I am more effective when I have company. I prefer to accomplish targets with and through people. With all the experts together, the chance of missing a detail in doing research, designing, testing and finalizing an idea will be nil.
I do not shy away from the commercial aspects of design. I learned that for me, creating social and commercial impact on society and the market is crucial. Using design to create this impact inspires me a lot. This way, desires and expectations of both the user of the product or service and the stakeholders of the company can be fulfilled.
Throughout the years, I reflected a lot on myself and conducted several personality tests. According to the test, I am a Communicator in the segment Influence (1). Another personality test classified me as a Campaigner with extraverted, intuitive, feeling, and prospecting personality traits (2). Reflecting on these tests, it helped me to gain insight into who I am and why I behave the way I do. Seeing myself in the proverbial mirror helped me to accept my pitfalls and to get the maximum out of my strengths.
Click here to explore my full written Identity as part of my Personal Development Plan
Click on the visual to enlarge the infographic that visualizes Wiebes Professional Identity.
Musk has the power to disrupt society and challenge the status quo. He is a dreamer that will end up in history books as one the greatest entrepreneurs from our era. Musk inspires me as he is able to turn his dreams into reality by attracting the right people for the right jobs. As an undergraduate in economics, he is now one of the most influential people on earth pursuing his dreams with the help of large numbers of motivated experts he needs to accomplish his dreams.
Ive is one of my favorite designers as he tends to use a holistic approach in his work. Together with his team he has accomplished to create designs for one of the biggest tech disruptors Apple. He started at Apple designing just one device; Apple’s first iPod. Ive inspires me as he developed himself as a true inspirational leader, manages the design teams and had a huge impact on the design process and results of all Apple’s touchpoints (products, websites, physical stores, Apple park, etc.).