top of page
Deze site is ontworpen met de
.com
website builder. Maak je website vandaag nog.Nu beginnen

Let's stop packaging waste together

 

I'm so proud of one of my recent collaborations at work! I work for Conimex, a brand that helps Dutch people explore Asian food. We have a lot of packaged products, and I wanted to know how to make this portfolio more sustainable. So I partnered with design students from the University of Twente, and gave them a brief: 

 

How might we get our food products to people without creating waste?

  1. Recycle: How can the portfolio be 100% recycle-ready and using >25% post-consumer recycled materials?

  2. Rethink: Design a new 100% circular concept for Conimex.

Let's help our friends cast an informed vote

 

During the 2017 Dutch national elections my sister and I started a new project (whoohoo!).

In 2016 Ellen lived the USA during Trump elections, and I lived in the UK during Brexit. That made an impression.

​

We were confronted with how little we knew about politics. So we decided to step-up our knowledge and share it with our friends via 1-minute videos and small action-posts on our Facebook page "Lex and Ellen <3 Democracy". Our goal: Help all our friends, and their friends cast an informed vote.

I'm proud of this project - we got such enthusiastic responses from our community and there were even some teachers who used our videos at school, how cool!

Let's teach teens about design (and find a solution for phones during exams!)

​​
My fiancé is a physics teacher and wanted to teach his class more about the design process. I helped him write a design brief: Create a design solution for how to store phones during exams. It was close to the teen's reality, and made them think about all the different requirements and multiple stakeholders involved (teachers, phone owners, the school as budget holder). They had to interview all the stakeholders and test a prototype. I also gave them a workshop about prototyping, as you can see in the pictures!

​

​

Let's pitch how to manufacture bamboo bicycles in Bangladesh (and win a trip there!!!)

​​
With two friends I entered a social entrepreneurship competition called the "1% Student Battle". Our case was set out by the Pani Foundation, who wanted to create bicycles from local bamboo and local labour in their 'Learn Work Play' building in Rajarhat, Bangladesh. In one month we raised money through crowdfunding, won the pitch and a trip to go there to kick-start our solution!

​

​

​

Let's 'Create the future' of social robots

​​
Will we have social robots in in 2040? In this University course, the objective was to design a social robot for consumers in 2040. The first part of the course focussed on analysing trends and creating future scenarios. The second part focussed on the final design. 

 

​In a group of four, we decided to create a social robot for Pixar Animation Studios for cinema's in 2040. Our motivation: To create funloving social robots that we can't wait to meet ourselves.

Let's design some (n)ice cream!

​​
I am a Ben & Jerry's fan. During my Masters education, I followed a packaging design course and had to develop a new product & packaging proposition. I chose Ben & Jerry's as my brand! Here's the concept:

​

Don't split the bill, split the ice cream! Going Dutch Waffles - with chunky Dutch Stroopwafels and gooey caramel swirls. We have yet to come across people who don't LOVE these creamy sweet, thin, gooey caramel waffles from the Netherlands! In a packaging size that's perfect to share for two.

​

​

​

Let's make something beautiful.

​​
Some of my paintings make me proud, and you can see them here. These are two of my acryl paintings and the silk-screen print that you can also see in the background of this website.

 

Let's write a cabaret show in 5 weeks (absolutely bonkers)​​

 

I love performance and story-telling. Professionally I grasp opportunities to practice public speaking and storytelling, and privately I've done dancing, singing, acting and teaching presentation skills to students.

 

One of my performing highlights as a student was when I co-wrote and performed a comedy show with Bart and Nica. Here are some pictures from this Christmas cabaret show, called 'Punt', meaning 'Point' or 'Period' in Dutch. It was a punt (;)) at the million dollar redesign of our University's logo - resulting in the University name with a period behind it...

Let's move to Phnom Penh (and do a bit of design work on the side…)​​

For my bachelor graduation assignment, I lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for four months to work for Kamworks, a solar energy social entrepreneurship company that focusses on rural areas without grid connected electricity.

 

In this project, the objective was to expand their market by launching a new on-grid, plug-and-play product range in addition to their off-grid products. For this I conducted market analysis and designed a first concept of a range of urban back-up systems.

 

Let's write a book on Asian fashion history...​​

​

I can't help it. I am fascinated by fashion. In my third year of University I got to spend 70 course hours on anything I wanted. I probably made double those hours, and wrote a little book on fashion history of Japan and China.

 

I actually had several copies printed and bound with a silk cover. I loved working with Jeroen from the University print shop. He was so excited with my highly demanding glossy paper complicated requests after printing scientific reports all day. And later the book binding expert was absolutely clueless as to why I was so insistent on having white silk for the cover (so unpractical). Silk is a very symbolic material in Chinese fashion history.

​

Click here to view the full (unpublished) book, 'History of Fashion - China & Japan'.

bottom of page