During my studies, I had the opportunity to do two internships in Amsterdam: 6 months at Philips and a pre-employment internship in an agency called Slimdesign. After graduation, I continued as a junior designer in this agency before going into the startup adventure, Zepcam. This second company specialises in the production of bodycams, particularly for the fire brigade and the police. The opportunity here was to extend my capabilities not only on the product but also on the brand identity and everything that comes with it. The packaging, the products and the UX of the products and services.

During my time at Zepcam, the desire to deal with 100% digital services was on my mind. Our society and our consumption patterns are changing so fast that I began to feel a gap between the industrial and digital worlds. I wanted to explore this facet of design. So for a while I decided to abandon the physical product and join the Mobiquity agency. I was able to work there on several applications and services for banks around the world. After more than a year and a half at Mobiquity, I had the opportunity to combine my different skills within the Philips design team in Amsterdam. Since April 2020, I have been able to use my experience of the last 5 years to design consumer electronics products. A goal that was important to me since my studies at RUBIKA !

BPI Mobile Application designed by Mobiquity. Credits : Guillaume Nunne, Stephan Takken, Mario Peuschers, Steve Jude and Elena Pavaletz

2) What is your job? What are your main missions ?

Since April 2020, I have been involved in product and service development at Philips Domestic Appliance. My department makes small household appliances, hoovers, air quality products, irons, hand steamers and coffee machines. Recently, I have been working mainly on the development of new products related to ironing. The main tasks are therefore to organise user tests, translate the information collected into drawings, and then in workshops, into different concepts. I then model them, test them again, improve them and then make them productive with the engineers.

3) What are your working and creative methods ?

This varies according to the project but nevertheless remains similar to what we learn at RUBIKA Design. I often start by getting in touch with the different members of a project to get information. Then I conduct investigations and collect all the information necessary to understand the user experience. I complete the whole thing with a trendy board, a workshop with the design team, creation of sketches and then prototypes. Finally I validate the results with users and I start a complete modeling on Rhinoceros 3D to finish with a visualization on Keyshot.

Another advantage of my work at Philips is that certain parts of the process are carried out by experts (user test - market research) and allow me to concentrate on creating links between the different needs and to spend more time dedicated to the design.

In any case, a newspaper article, a cup of coffee and a background music are for me the ritual in the face of any challenge! With the confinement, I notice that taking short walks outside or chatting with colleagues are also good ways to stay productive !
 

Sketch — Project « Door Bell » by Slim Design

4 ) What aspect do you prefer in your job ?

I really like the teamwork and the excitement around the user tests. We spend so much time on the development of our products that the first feedback from the tests is very rewarding. Both from a development point of view, but also from a human point of view. I have a lot of empathy for the users who have very different habits from ours. This often opens up perspectives that were unexpected! This is for me the best reward, far beyond the satisfaction of having made good drawings, models or 3D renderings.

5) What advice would you give to a student who intends to become a product designer ?

If a student is interested in the design profession, I would say first of all that it's a great world for combining science and art in general.
Design responds to specific needs and there is a whole range of more or less technical knowledge that comes into play. So we need the means to be able to express them!
I would naturally advise you to always be curious and to question as much as possible about what surrounds you. Why are things done this way? Why is an object made of a specific material? Why do people behave in such a way when faced with a product? The need to know these answers is, I think, one of the first qualities of a designer.

The second advice, but also a quality that I like the most, is to always be as emphatic as possible about the situations we face.

Understanding, or sometimes putting oneself physically in a situation allows the designer to produce the most appropriate answers for the users. Finally, if I had to finish this list, I would say that we must always work on our communication so that everyone understands our ideas. This includes in particular the use of English if we refer to the field of industry.

Zepcam 4 dock