Tim van der Heide started his study Industrial Design at the University of Twente in 2008 and finished in 2012. Tim was a member of Daedalus while studying. However, he was not an active member and did not participate in any committees. A year later, he began his Industrial Design master at the Technical University of Eindhoven where he graduated in 2014. For the last years he has worked in Shanghai as Design Technologist for a small design studio and eventually  at frog Design as Design Technologist in their Shanghai studio. After four and a half years living in China he moved back to the Netherlands in September 2020 to settle down in his own country.

Design Technologists mostly focus on the more technical aspect of the design process. An example of this is the production of prototypes and researching which technologies the client is already using in order to build an improved solution upon that.

For his bachelor assignment, Tim did a project together with Jaël Loermans (also an ID student) where they traveled all the way to Jayapura in Indonesia. The university was running a project in this location about solar energy on the roof of the local city hall. A new system was developed for photovoltaic (PV) solar energy on the Indonesian island of Papua. Due to Indonesia’s growth and rising prosperity, the demand for stable electricity has also increased and solar energy provided an answer. Their job was to design an informative installation for this new system. The project sadly ended earlier due to the fact that it was politically unstable around that time. All in all, it was a really good introduction to Indonesia and Asia overall. The following article might give a bit of context on what the bigger project was all about: https://www.utwente.nl/en/news/2014/5/340963/ut-involved-in-solar-energy-in-indonesia

Looking back at his study time in Enschede and Eindhoven, Tim sees that there are clear differences in how the study programmes are structured. Enschede has a more traditional way of following courses, whereas Eindhoven did not have set courses or exams. Everything in Eindhoven was left to be filled in by the student themselves. Having attended both universities gave him a good basis of technical courses and the design process in the overall discipline.

The nicest aspect of Industrial Design is for Tim the variety of courses and people who appealed to the study. There are a lot of technical courses, but there are also lots of ways to be creative. Tim thinks that this diversity is very important for a designer, to not only have course specific knowledge but also the ability to adapt to other disciplines.

During his masters, Tim had the chance to go back to Asia for his study. This time it was a project in the city of Taicang, close to Shanghai. Here he and his fellow students noticed how big the expat life actually is and that life as a foreigner is pretty decent. After this trip, Tim set the goal to find a job in Shanghai after he graduated.

After graduating, Tim applied for a job at a newly established design agency (Beach Creative) in Shanghai. They helped him with all the procedures like getting a visa and then he moved to China. Here he worked for three years at Beach Creative, where he worked on several diverse projects. From developing a candy floss machine to a telescope for children.

Now he is working for about a year for frog, a way bigger and international design consultancy. The work is a bit less “hands-on”, but it is amazing to work with big Chinese and international brands. The nice thing about a design consultancy is that the work is really diverse. Every project you design something for a completely different product and target group. His first project was for example a product for a make-up company, and Tim is currently doing a project for a car manufacturer.

Working and living in a different country is always difficult. What Tim really helped was that Shanghai is an international city. A lot of people say that Shanghai is the light variant of China, because it is so much different when compared to the rest of the country. You can live exactly the way you want. You can practise your Chinese with your Chinese neighbour and after that have a beer with people from all around the world. This made the step of moving to the other side of the world a lot easier.

His first year on the job felt a bit like being a first year student in a new study programme. A new city, a new job, new colleagues, but mostly the people around you who are open to meeting new people. This made the life of a foreigner living in a city like Shanghai really interesting. Almost no one is originally from Shanghai and this causes everyone to be a lot more open and make friends easier.

The most important thing Tim learned while studying Industrial Design is the big variation of courses. There are of course mechanical engineers, programmers, psychologists or artists, but what Industrial Design Engineering gives you, is that you can combine all these practises together. With certain basic knowledge you learn to understand others and to search if you need to learn something new. This grey, or better said colourful area, could lead to the feeling of thinking that you are not fantastic in everything. That’s why he thinks it is really important to discover what you find important.

What really helped Tim, is that besides his study, he was always building things. For example a drone, working with an Arduino, or his 3D printer gave him the chance to apply the theory he learned during his study. Besides learning a lot from these hobbies, it also helped a lot when applying for jobs to prove his practical skills.

Samra Sabljic is 24 years old and graduated in 2019. She studied Industrial Design Engineering for six years at the University of Twente. Currently she works for the Province of Utrecht, where she is doing a traineeship. As a trainee you have a regular job, enriched with a trainee-program. This way the focus is on learning and developing yourself more within the organization. For her, this is a great transition between the student and working life. Mainly because the trainees are seen as the innovators of the organization. She agreed to join for this interview as she did not know exactly what to do after her studies. She hopes by giving this interview she can provide some inspiration or give an example for current students.

Samra was really positive about her years as a student. The small scale of the study direction gave her a lot of flexibility during her student years. There are many possibilities for students, which enable you to gain a lot of experience in different fields. She was an active member of S.G. Daedalus and joined the Evaluation Committee and the Accom. As a chair of the Evacom she learned a lot about the educational system of the UT and about giving feedback in a positive way, she regularly wrote a piece for the InDepth. With the Accom she organized many fun activities like the ‘night in the red light’ party and the Valentine pub crawl!

During her master she joined the Study Tour to Japan and South Korea, Ukiro. Prior to the trip  she did a case with Gazelle, for which she designed a bike. This added something to her growing portfolio, which, she states, is really important for finding a fitting master thesis. After the bachelor she went on to follow the master Human Technology Relations. She really enjoyed courses like Graphic Language of Products, Product life cycle and Design History. She finished her bachelor by working on her thesis with an architectural firm in Rotterdam. This is where her interest in public spaces started to grow.

During her masters the interest for designing things in public spaces evolved even more. After focusing elective courses towards sustainability and/ or the public space, she also wanted to do a master thesis related to such topics. After meeting someone working for the Municipality of Amsterdam at the Bedrijvendagen fair, she sent her portfolio and CV to different departments of that huge organization. She got lucky and they got an assignment for her! She worked on the project of the Waterlooplein; a complicated project with a long history. It was her first experience within such a state organization. Her goal was to design something that would satisfy all parties. After a long process of almost a year she managed to design a compromise. This experience she got during her master thesis confirmed her interest in public spaces and was the foundation for the job she currently executes.

After a long-overdue summer break she started to look for a job. It really takes time and practice to get a hang of writing the perfect application letter and selling yourself in the best way. She found out there aren’t that many applications regarding a link between architecture and industrial design. As soon as she found this specific traineeship application for the Province of Utrecht, she knew that it was a perfect fit. The application process was quite intense, which is something that you do not encounter while studying. From the 350 applicants only 15 were selected. A tip when looking for a job: prepare yourself for the different kinds of assessments you need to go through.

She really recommends doing a traineeship after your studies as it is a nice transition from student to working life. A traineeship most often takes between one and two years. One day a week she follows the traineeship program: courses and trainings to broaden her knowledge of the organization, while the rest of the week she has a regular job. Her area of work is the “Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie”. This is the largest national monument of the Netherlands. The cultural heritage was once a defense line, used to keep the enemy away by flooding in case of war. It spreads through 5 provinces, but the largest part extends straight through the middle of the Province of Utrecht. She focuses on tourism in this area and also on sustainability. Samra really enjoys her current job. She is learning a lot on the job, while developing her personal skills in the trainee program as well. The most important skill she learned during her studies and which she still uses today is “design thinking”. She considers this mindset to be really important and the key for innovation, especially in the public sector.

Lastly she wants to give everyone the advice to find something you really like during your studies. This is the time to do so, as you have the possibilities and time to explore almost everything you want. She really recommends getting extra experiences outside of your studies like a study tour, extracurricular courses, internships etc.

Jony Heerink started studying Industrial Design Engineering in 2004. At that time, the bachelor existed only for a couple of years. In her masters she stepped away from IDE and started teaching. Nowadays she is teaching O&O, (Onderzoeken en Ontwerpen) at a high school. In this course students work several weeks on a project to solve a technical problem for a client. Besides that, Jony works for the UT as a teacher educator. This is Maybe not something you would expect from an IDE’er? In this blog Jony tells about her student time, previous jobs and what she is doing right now.

During her bachelor, Jony was an active member of S.G. Daedalus. To give an example, once she joined the Prom committee to organise the yearly prom. Next to that, she could often be found in the association room for a cup of coffee or tea. At that time, the year layers weren’t as big as they are right now. Think of around sixty students per year.

In her third year, Jony started with the education minor. The course chosen for this minor was physics. To be able to choose this course certain pre-knowledge was needed. Because of the mathematics courses in the IDE bachelor this was possible. This minor programme connected well to her studies in relation to the difficulty of the courses.

For her bachelor assignment Jony did a project in Cambodia. It was about a solar light designed in Delft. Also, packaging and teaching material for the usage needed to be designed. Three people were involved in the assignment. They went to Cambodia where they could test their designs.

Thereafter she decided to do the master Science Education and Communication to become a physics teacher. IDE involved too much computer work for her. During her masters she also got to teach O&O and this is what she is actually teaching nowadays. The master programme was a bit more difficult, because the level of physics didn’t match with knowledge gained during the bachelor. However, currently this is not the case anymore. 

Even though Jony did another master, she said she learned a lot from IDE. Among other things, Jony learned to work together and think critically. This is something she wants to teach her pupils as well. She thinks it is important that students don’t just accept everything. They should be able to formulate their own opinion and think critically about what is said to them. Next to that, having conversations and asking good questions is something she has learned during her studies as well.

She notices that the mathematics and physics teachers don’t have design experience which they can use in the classes. This skill she has gained during her studies is helping her with teaching.

After her studies she applied for a job at a school. She has worked at several schools now. First, near the city she lived in. Later on she went searching for technasium schools nearby, in Harderwijk. Fun fact, she used to teach Alexander, the current Officer of Educational Affairs, when he was in highschool. Jony also got a job at the University of Twente. They were searching for someone who has experience with design processes.

At a certain point, combining these two jobs wasn’t possible anymore. One of the reasons for this was doing triathlon on top level. Therefore she quit teaching at the school in Harderwijk, but continued working at the University. She barely teaches physics anymore.

When looking back, Jony experienced her life as a student in a positive way. It was a great time. After her studies she started sporting more. She participated in triathlons on a high level until recently. She even participated in the European Championship! There are a lot of students who are training on top level as well. She wonders on what level she would be if she was sporting already more fanatically during her student time. However, then she would experience being a student completely different. No Thursday nights and hangover Friday mornings.

Her master was quite a challenge to finish, because it didn’t succeed her bachelor well. That’s why she is proud she finished it. She wants to say to the current students that you should do something you get a lot of energy from, but sometimes you just have to keep going, you will encounter struggles anyway.

Currently, it is easier to follow a Science Education and Communication Master, if you choose the right courses. As IDE’er you can now choose the design direction. It is also possible to do this as an extra master for 60EC, or 30EC when you finished the education minor.

Frank Brussel is a 32 year old Product Owner, who studied Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente and was once a member of S.G. Daedalus. He graduated in 2016 and started a job at ALTEN (an IT consultancy company), after he travelled for a few months in Asia. It might seem strange that he only graduated 3,5 years ago, considering his age, but this is because Frank studied Physics before. Being interested in his student life back then and his life right now, we decided to interview this Daedalus alumni!

We first asked Frank about his student life. Frank was an averagely active member at Daedalus. Since he studied Physics before, he had to finish his studies in five years in order to still receive his student grants. That is why he did not join many extracurricular committees. However, he did decide to get involved with the programme committee (Dutch: Opleidingscommissie). He found it important that the evaluations were interactive and based on contact with students. That is why, together with the committee, he set up the evaluations as we know them nowadays.

In retrospect, Frank is positive about his student life and about the study programme as it was back then. He mainly liked the personal contact and attention he received from teachers as well as fellow students. He has learned a lot from the study and still sees the advantages in his work now. Especially the design attitude is something he still applies in his work nowadays. Through the program he has learned to look differently at the world and all the products he encounters daily.

During his masters he chose to go on a more digital route. He followed the Management of Product Development master track, mainly because of the connection with management and because there was room to make his own program with his own interests. He combined a lot of Industrial Design, Creative Technology and Philosophy courses, but always chose subjects closely related to the digital world. This was mainly because of his affinity with computers and the design of interfaces.

For his master’s thesis Frank designed an interface to manage cybersecurity on navy ships at Thales in Hengelo. While working on his thesis, he got the chance to talk to a lot of different parties, such as several government organizations and naval specialists. He designed an interface and eventually made a full prototype. He worked hard in order to finish his thesis in three-quarters of a year, so he could still receive his student grants. Eventually he successfully graduated in time.

While Frank was working on his master thesis, he got in touch with a recruiter of ALTEN. Before he even graduated he already got a job at this company. However, he first decided to take advantage of his free time and decided to visit Asia. He went on a trip through Nepal, Vietnam and Myanmar. If you get the chance, he would advise everyone to travel after their studies, as this was the perfect time to do it. After starting working, the limited number of vacation days makes it more difficult to travel for a longer time.

After this journey, he started off at the software consultant company ALTEN. Because this is a consultancy company, Frank got into contact with a lot of different companies. This way, assignments varied from the interface for an industrial 3D printer printing metal, to software for the management of railway infrastructure and to the interface for software governing maintenance for manufacturing plants. He learned a lot about the creation of software during his time at ALTEN and this made him a better interface designer. Designing something which is good is one thing, the next is to also design something which can be created. Especially, because working in a company, there is always a limitation of resources and many features you want to develop.

For a few months now, he has been working at Horeko with the function product owner. This company makes software that hospitality companies (such as restaurants) use behind the scenes. It allows the users to manage their profitability, by efficiently scheduling employees and managing recipes and ingredients. Due to the coronavirus, this job has become a little more difficult. However, Frank is dedicated to introduce new features in the software which help the restaurants during the new measures. In this job he is responsible for leading three teams of software developers and testers, and a user experience designer.

During his jobs he has learned several things that were not taught to him while studying Industrial Design Engineering. Of course this is mainly technical knowledge about software that he did not acquire during his study. Aside from that, he also learned a lot more about supervisors and being a supervisor himself. In spite of all the project work of Industrial Design Engineering, that already gave him a lot of skills, he discovered a lot more about supervising and working together.

The most important thing he has learned after his study is self-consciousness. He describes this as things such as: how do you deal with yourself, how do you deal with feedback, who are you and what are your personal characteristics. Frank thinks that some of this is explored during the study, but eventually this is something that you have to do yourself and will encounter on your own just as he did.

Do you have any specific questions for him? Don’t hesitate to contact him, through the board or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankbrussel/