Professional identity and vision
Identity
From a young age people around me noticed that I have a very creative mind. This goes together with my tendency to be unique and original. An important value I hold for everything I make or design is uniqueness, I want to be the first person to do it and I want it to stand out, by creating a style in which my designs can be recognized from an aesthetic standpoint. I have a tendency to be too ambitious and I can overestimate my abilities, which gets me in trouble with time management but it does help with creating ideas that are outside the box. The design niche I am really interested in is physical product development and marketing, however I do not which user I want to attract to the products I design. I do have a tendency to quit projects when I get rather bored of them so I am not really interested in starting an entire business revolving around one product but more into working as a design agency. As a designer I like to be involved in every step of the designing progress, from idea to prototype or final product. Although this is quite a perfectionistic trait, I am very much open to feedback and it is necessary for others to point out flaws and concerns to me. I think that working in a team together with people who posses strengths that I lack can really intensify my vision on a design case. The strong sides that I bring to a team are mostly my endless creativity, powerful visualization and the ability to quickly learn hard skills. Durability is also very important to me. Not only in the physical quality of the product but also in the design. I want my designs to last forever or to at least be as close as possible to waste free.
Vision
I think that designers have the amazing ability to create. The creativity that they have been gifted combined with their technical insight can ameliorate the quality of life on earth. I am all for unique and original designs but it is essential that designers do not stray away from practical purposes and the application of technical knowledge and insight into their designs. I enjoy the design style of Dieter Rams and other modern designers of his time, since it is recognizable and timeless. Design should be timeless and the products designed should be too. A design does not need to be useful to every person that interacts with it but a designer does at least need to design for an intended user. I think that designers should strive towards ambition and should not be afraid of challenging their abilities, they should only limit themselves to their creativity. There is also a fast growing trend of consumerism. In my opinion designers should battle this by creating products and services that fulfill the users needs and not their desires. Besides those problems designers should also commit to creating from a sustainable point of view. Through durability, recyclability and timeless design the amount of resources used and trash created can be lowered. I personally would deal with sustainability by avoiding the use of fads, promoting refurbishment and recycling and fully fulfilling a user’s needs.