Alynne de Haan

Industrial design bachelor portfolio


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IDENTITY


Alynne de Haan

Student Industrial Design
at the Eindhoven University of Technology

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I am Alynne and I am a 23-year-old student at the faculty of Industrial Design. When I was 18 years old, I spent 6 months of my time in South Africa working with primates at C.A.R.E. the Centre of Animal Rehabilitation and Education. In my time in Africa I learned how important it is to be kind to our earth. This time in Africa sparked my interest in conservation. When I came back to the Netherlands I thought long and hard what study would get me to my goal of making a difference in everyday -life. Industrial Design seemed like the perfect fit.
As a designer I am good at organizing and planning, I bring structure in almost everything. I tend to plan everything, meaning that I think everything through very well. Sometimes this is a pitfall for me, because I also tend to overthink things. This causes me to linger when having to make a final decision on something, because I’ve already thought of everything that could go wrong. The planning also means that I need to work on my flexibility when plans have to be changed. I’ve spent most of my life drawing reality as a hobby, which now means that I am graphically strong when sketching or organizing work. I am also a very user focused designer, because I believe everything starts with one individual. I like doing literature research and looking for facts. This gives me the feeling I am doing things for good reasons. I have many international friends, therefore, I spent most of my time speaking English and this benefits me in my English writing skills. When it comes to group work, I usually stand up as a leader figure of a group, although I can also follow if necessary. I think I’m good at communicating with others and working within a team.

VISION


Over the years I got a great interest for making the world a better place. I see design as a tool to change things for the better. In Africa I learned that a story always has two sides. The big problem of the conservation and protection of the species that roam our earth is quite complex. In Africa we wanted to save the primates that we worked with, and it was easy to say that whoever is hunting them was bad. But can we really blame a person for hunting bush meat when the person has nothing else to feed his five children with? Or should we look at the underlying and individual problems? This realization made me aware that every bigger problem starts with a smaller problem. Over the years I have seen a lot of people around me collapse under the pressure of life. Burnouts, depression, or anxiety among young people seem to get more and more common. These life experiences even if they were not always easy, have caused me to be a designer that strives to help the individual. I would like to use design and technology to make the world a little bit better, even if it’s just a single person’s day. Because change starts with one. I’m interested in designing products or tools that the user could use to help themselves. Mainly as a prevention of physical and mental health problems. Helping the younger and working generation with a more satisfying life and a more stable fundament for when they get older. This could be tools that the individual could use alone, but also services that bring people together and this way help the individual. I believe that with design we can prevent a lot of harm, so we do not have to cure it. As we say in Dutch, “Voorkomen is beter dan genezen.” I see these products to be able to fit in everyday life, without high thresholds for using them. More research should be done in how to implement helping features into these products. They should be fun to use and not have a negative stigma.

PAST


PRESENT


FUTURE


Next year I will start a master at the same department of Industrial Design at the TU/e. I’m interested to explore my current vision as a designer further, within likeminded design squads. For my M1.1 project my preferences go to the squad Play and Learn or Vitality. I feel these project squads have very interesting topics regarding helping the individual and social inclusion. In my second year of my master, I’m hoping to do an internship in the Netherlands to learn more about helping the individual in Dutch society. Although I have not been abroad within my studies, I think an opportunity closer to home would be better suited regarding my current vision.

CONTACT


If you have questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.