Welcome to my portfolio!
Identity
Incorporating critical perspectives
As a designer, I am inspired by my environment. It confronts me with opportunities for improvement and motivates me to change my perspective. I am critical of my observations and myself. This can sometimes block me but also contrasts my enthusiastic experiments. It supports clear communication, well-argued decision-making, and avoiding problems and risks. It results in a humble attitude towards my work and myself. My critical and philosophical viewpoint helps me to be diplomatic, empathic and collaborative, to think out of the box, and to see people’s strengths.
I strive to work from within society for a more considerate and sustainable design.
These characteristics are valuable for a social designer/entrepreneur, as they allow for discovering value in other’s perspectives and work, supporting and amplifying it (Roundy & Lyons, 2022). Contact with stakeholders enriches the design through new perspectives, besides ensuring a fit with the context and helpingto address the underlying problem. By involving the context in the design process (participatory design), the design’s sustainability can increase due to considering its impact and implementation from the start (EcoSystem Investigation).
collaboration
Whether leading or following, I bring integrity to the team.
I find it important that my work aligns with my values and vision. This supports my intrinsic motivation for the project, increasing my persistence, involvement and feeling of responsibility. In teamwork with other designers, I often take a supportive leading role that attempts to involve and activate the whole team by integrating some structure and getting to know each other’s ambitions to create a common vision and find opportunities to contribute for each member. I find it very important to have a safe and open setting where people can work from integrity to ensure the mind is optimised for generating creative ideas. Deep Democracy inspires me as a method for keeping the whole team together in decision-making by including the wisdom of the minority in the decision of the majority (Kramer, 2019). Furthermore, I am often an endless stream of ideas, a maker, and involved in the social and sustainable aspects of the project. I like to work in a team since it ensures that there are more perspectives and ideas to influence the design, as well as a larger amount of expertise and hands to create something wonderful.
creative Processes
My processes are like weeds, persistently experimental and organically growing.
Experimenting and exploring often play a central role in my creative process. This can be with materials and crafting techniques (E-lement, Grimeoire, UnravelSpin, Droom), and similarly with research methods and design contexts (Sharing Non-Human Appreciation, Dirt Stories). In making I explore new opportunities by creating unusual combinations of existing materials and processing methods. I enjoy analysing my experiments or studies and looking for relevant or unexpected connections. These drive and inspire me, influencing the further process. My processes are often organically growing rather than structured, allowing for learning by doing. This process is visualised by documenting the experiments, which supports making quick design decisions by being able to look back, resulting in an intuitive and artistic approach. It tells a story and invites others to become part of it and learn along. However, the risk is getting lost in your world of experiments, not making choices or discovering you are imagining a connection that does not work. This emphasises the importance of a context that can provide input and urgency to avert indecision. The open-endedness of my process allows for influences from the context, which makes the roles of the designer and involved entities more equal (EcoSystem Investigation).
inspiration
My ideas are often inspired by all different art forms, nature, textures and (human) behaviour. Furthermore, I am inspired by imperfections in life, such as the things we consider trash. I challenge myself by exploring how to turn the unwanted into treasure. The topics of sustainability and inclusivity motivate my work, moreover, I strive for them in my personal life, as I believe it to be hypocritical not to practice what I preach (Figure 1).
Kramer, J. (2019). Deep democracy, de wijsheid van de minderheid (7th ed.). Management Impact. https://www.managementboek.nl/boek/9789462763685/deep-democracy-jitske-kramer
Roundy, P. T., & Lyons, T. S. (2022). Humility in social entrepreneurs and its implications for social impact entrepreneurial ecosystems. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 17, e00296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00296
Vision
hope
Our world is burdened with major challenges (e.g., climate crisis, unequal distributions and polarisingsocieties). Such challenges require people (especially designers) to look beyond their egos and have persistence in the long and arduous trajectory towards change. I can remain persistent because I keep seeing examples of how we can do things differently, and that inspires me to hold on to my ideals and inspire others with what I do in return. A dreamer can start realising a better future by searching for a connection with others.
My dream future
I dream of living connected, in harmony with (non)humans.
I design for a better future. In my personal better future, we live in a peaceful, diverse, but also inclusive world. I imagine that we strive for circularity and apply more-than-human-centred design. Designers should recognise themselves as part of complex ecosystems and consider how their design and its materials interact with the world, especially non-humans. Not designing sustainably = having no future. We UNdesign: Sustainability becomes more inclusive through decreasing ownership of makers and users, aiming for more open-source and DIY or local repair/repurpose businesses. The role of the designers will concern thinking about how to make their products undoable or how to design for undoing products sustainably, as well as including people in the transition to a more sustainable society. This relates to Sustainism (Schwarz & Krabbendam, 2013).
creating social impact
If we encounter the unfamiliar with courage and curiosity, empathy could follow.
I want my designs to have a social impact. I think that engaged art (e.g., IN THE MIST OF IT ALL, ABOVE FRONT TEARS by Laure Prouvost (2024)) and critical design (e.g., the work of Viktor Papanek (2020)) can work as a mirror to society and can make people reflect. It can provoke people to switch perspectives and discuss these with others. Maybe instigate empathy and respect through decreasing unfamiliarity between people, others and practices. This idea resembles Contact Theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). I think involving people with interactive and tangible elements in design or involvement in a design’s development (participatory design) can allow for making connections. Be it with other people, nature or certain processes and systems that people did not understand or know before. These connections create a first step towards a change in perspective and behaviour.
transforming reality
Though we all have limited perspective, we can create the full picture together.
I want to create designs that make people aware of their behaviour and environment. Designs that make people reflect and change the way they live for the better. I think that this better could be the better future as described above. However, I am just one person in a big world, which I eventually can only truly see from my perspective. It is impossible to gain a full overview of the impact of my vision on everyone. Therefore, I think people should decide what this better represents for them, and how they can realise that better future alongside people around them. I see an intrinsic motivation for behaviour transition as the most sustainable. I imagine this being done by giving people autonomy in the transition. By designing together with people for their better future, I aim to increase their commitment and collaboratively contribute to a generally better future. I believe that everyone has personal dreams. These dreams require a world in which there is room for everyone, and non-humans are treated respectfully.
Papanek, V. (2020, October 17). Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design – Design Museum Den Bosch. Design Museum Den Bosch. Retrieved June 9, 2024, from https://designmuseum.nl/tentoonstelling/the-politics-of-design-victor-papanek/
Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5), 751–783. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.751
Prouvost, L. (2024, February 24). In the mist of it all, above front tears – Museum De Pont. Museum De Pont. Retrieved June 9, 2024, from https://depont.nl/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-24-februari-2024-18-augustus-2024 Schwarz, M., & Krabbendam, D. (2013). Sustainist Design Guide: How Sharing, Localism, Connectedness and Proportionality Are Creating a New Agenda for Social Design. BIS Publishers.
Master Projects
EcoSystem Investigation
Participatory design project with IVN Veldhoven-Eindhoven-Vessem, Nieuw Zwanenburg, Phood Farm and Brabants Landschap to enable Sharing Non-Human Appreciation with a wider public to support strengthening humanity’s nature-connectedness.
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation
Exploration on how to design for experiencing and sharing appreciation for nature beyond Stadsakkers to motivate sustainable behaviour.
Dirt Stories
Sensorial ethnographic probes for exploring the role of dirt in relation to appreciation and sustainability at a local food-growing community.
Element
Futuristic rainwear to bring people together and enjoy outside more in the rain.
Extracurricular Projects
MOVA: Open source Tools for More-than-human VALUES IN design education
As student assistant, I created a teaching activity around DIY sheets for the ecological probes in the Sharing Non-Human Appreciation project. I contributed to developing a new teaching activity utilising tangibility and embodiment to improve students understanding of abstract more-than-human concepts. This resulted in Experiencing the Web: A redesign activity that engages students in representing connected actors in an ecosystem and feeling how a design impacts it, to guide them in making improvements.
This work gave me more insight in the educational perspective and increased my consideration of attention spans, information overloads, etc. when designing. I deepened my understanding of more-than-human design and learned to make crochet patterns and other DIY materials.
Click here for more information: https://morethanhumandesign.eu
summer school eram: joyful & caring technology futures
I participated in the summer school joyful & caring technology futures, organized by Escola Universitària ERAM (University of Girona, Spain) as part of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP). It concerned human-nature interaction design: How can humans enjoy nature and how can we also care for it in that action?
The program involved a hike in the mountains of Rasos de Peguera to experience enjoying nature and gather inspiration, followed by processing data, ideation and looking from a more-than-human care perspective. My group developed RelatECO: An app with AI that allows for conversations with non-humans when taking a picture of them. These conversations include information to learn about the non-humans, questions for help (e.g. giving some water), or suggestions for richer interaction through senses. In this way, it allows for a joyful and caring human-nature interaction.
In this summer school, I learned more about the motivational use of playful elements, and developed my teamwork skills in working in interdisciplinary and multicultural groups. I stepped out of my comfortzone by embarking on this adventure alone, which boosted my confidence and widened my network.
Smaller Projects
Design for behavioural change: Cowlivia
In this course, I learned about different psychological theories and frameworks involving behaviour change and applying them in a design process. We created Cowlivia, an app to support people in their journey to eat less meat by providing guidance in planning to cook a vegetarian recipe.
Researching the future everyday: Future X
In this course, I learned about different approaches to create speculative designs and how to engage people in those stories (e.g. roleplay). I learned about the concept of prefigurative politics, which further inspired my work and my vision. It is an idea that gives hope: Starting to already act differently in the old system to inspire a transition into a better one.
The project Future X involved posing as a company that travels from 02038 to 02023 to recruit people to work for them. They present themselves as successful futuristic company, but keep a dark secret about why they need to recruit people from the past…
Unexpected material engagement: Grimeoire
In this course, I explored the relations we have with our natural waste and how we care for nature. I became familiar with feminist care ethics and material driven design processes. I learned to process natural waste to design care products, resulting in a witchcraft inspired design.
Learn how to make your own Grimeoire products: https://grimeoire.wordpress.com/
Matter of transformation: Inclusivitea: A Process of Intertwining Pragmatism and Design
In this course, I developed different tea sets based on pragmatism to learn about the theory of pragmatism and developing skills to turn abstract concepts into a design. I became more aware of the impact I can make with my designs.
Tea set inspired by William James’s Pragmatism’s chapter What Pragmatism Means.
This tea set allows for making tea in different ways all at the same place. When people experience these different definitions of what they consider tea, their definition can widen. Similarly James explains how truth (what we say about reality) develops.
Tea set inspired by William James’s Pragmatism’s chapter The One and The Many.
This iteration of the tea set includes a tablecloth with a pathway and tea stains for the different kinds of teas that can be made with it. It highlights the practical differences (pluralism) between the different kind of teas through labelling them with their making process, while the entire design eventually strives for bringing people from different perspectives to the one place.
Tea set inspired by William James’s Pragmatism’s chapter Pragmatism and Humanism.
This last iteration on the design allowed people to be creative and create their own tea path. The participants can express their paths through coloured crayons and spilling beeswax to keep certain places unstained (batik technique). This playful co-creation allows people to shape and share their tea ritual and enrich each participant’s perspective through a shared experience.
Constructive design research: material study for speculative flooded campus
In this course, I approached the research-through-design process from a material exploration perspective combined with a speculative scenario.
Development
Master
Throughout my master, I focused on acquiring the tools for realising my vision. In that process I refined my identity and vision.
My identity developed through incorporating critical perspectives beyond myself by situating my projects in a context continuously. After initial struggles, I found ways to merge experimenting and organically growing processes with working from a context and how these qualities support participation. Inspired by Deep Democracy, I improved my collaboration.
I situated my vision in the current world contrasting with my holistic perspective on sustainability, relating to Sustainism and More-Than-Human philosophies. I deepened fostering empathy through connection with Contact Theory and considered the psychological role of autonomy in intrinsic motivation for behaviour change.
To approach my vision, I developed the themes Making Change, Towards Sustainability, Context & Other Perspectives and Storytelling. These involve all expertise areas, but I mainly focused on Creativity & Aesthetics and User & Society. For further support, I followed the Design Leadership Entrepreneurship track.
Creativity & Aesthetics
I believe this area is about creative processes and how to navigate them to develop original ideas, and storytelling through form and interaction.
I further developed my organically growing creative processes by widening the role of exploration and experiments. Besides material driven (E-lement (M1.1), Constructive Design Research (studio), Grimeoire (Unexpected Material Engagement)), this exploration can be context driven (Dirt Stories (M1.2), Sharing Non-Human Appreciation (M2.1), EcoSystem Investigation (M2.2)), and theory driven (Inclusivitea (Matter of Transformation), Cowlivia (Design for Behavioural Change).
material driven
context driven
I improved my storytelling through finding ways to visually support more complex designs to allow for intuitive aesthetic interactions. The attention to details in visual presentation contributes to a holistic and convincing image, which is especially important in speculative design (Future X (Researching the Future Everyday)).
visual support
design for storytelling
Grimeoire reflection 
Dirt Stories demoday setup with ethnography booklets 
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation gardening kneepad storytelling exercises 
EcoSystem Investigation demoday pitch © Twycer / http://www.twycer.nl
User & Society
For me, User & Society is about the designer’s perspective on and positioning in society and its challenges, about how their work is situated and its suitability ensured. I deepened my vision on society and my position in it as designer in the courses International Development and Sustainability, where I learned about the importance of including local perspectives to enable positive impact, and Matter of Transformation, where pragmatic and humanistic philosophies encouraged considering my position as designer.
I obtained a more holistic and more-than-human centred perspective through feminist care ethics (Unexpected Material Engagement), design-related literature and activities (Dirt Stories, Sharing Non-human Appreciation, EcoSystem Investigation, MOVA).
I broadened my skills for involving context in my design to improve its social sustainability (Identity), reaching from participation through surveys to expert involvement and sensory ethnography).
Business & Entrepreneurship
This area is about collaboration with stakeholders and managing those relations with an entrepreneurial attitude, the designer’s economical vision and the ability to analyse a context to spot opportunities. I developed my attitude through visiting multiple network events and involving parties in my design processes (Creating Corporate Entrepreneurship, Dirt Stories, Sharing Non-Human Appreciation, EcoSystem Investigation).
In collaboration with NGO’s and courses Creating Corporate Entrepreneurship and Researching the Future Everyday, I encountered how capitalism wants to continuously grow on a planet with limited resources and how value can be created beyond money, resulting in attempting approaching business post-capitalistically.
To see opportunities, it is important to analyse the current context and market (benchmark) and consider potential in detail, for which there are several tools. These help in communicating ideas to stakeholders and explore innovation, but require further validation, as they are simplifying reality.
Creating Corporate Entrepreneurship envisioning future opportunities based on trends 
Creating Corporate Entrepreneurship spotting an opportunity by linking two fields to gain a competitive advantage 
E-lement problem solution fit canvas to analyse design’s value 
EcoSystem Investigation customer journey adjusted to include different levels of users (participant and facilitator) 
EcoSystem Investigation tripple layered value proposition to analyse value for partners, planet and society 
EcoSystem Investigation Sustainable BMC for considering opportunities and impact
Technology & Realisation
For me, this area is about turning ideas into interactive and tangible prototypes to allow for communication and testing for further development. This involves lo-fi prototyping and quick prototyping by using available materials, machines and implementing ready-mades (recycling, reusing, repurposing).
E-lement using paper and wire to ideate on working mechanisms 
E-lement sketching to further communicate mechanism ideas 
Matter of Transformation including readymades to create a working prototype 
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation lasercutting for quick realization 
EcoSystem Investigation scale model for communicating concept 
EcoSystem Investigation model with recycled materials to test mechanism
When a concept turns into a prototype, the material and production details become relevant, and its sustainability can be considered. I broadened my knowledge and skills for “plastics”, raw organic material (or interaction with it), and textiles.
“plastics”
E-lement heatpress settings on cellophane origami structure (cellophane does not have a glassing temperature like actual plastics) 
E-lement using heatpress to mold cellophane between paper sheets 
E-lement vacuum molding plastic 
Constructive Design Research how different plastics and organic materials interact with dommelwater over time.
raw organic
Constructive Design Research sewing reed 
Unexpected Material Engagement grinding orange peel 
Unexpected Material Engagement leather from dried orange pulp 
Dirt Stories cloth probes to capture dirt and moisture in cotton 
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation capturing organic material in unraveled cotton 
EcoSystem Investigation capturing wet bark and lichen with paper 
Felting with wet seaweed for hat making
textiles
E-lement weaving tricot and copper wire 
Matter of Transformation batik with tea and beeswax 
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation sewing punch needle embroidery 
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation crochet with hemp 
MOVA crochet pattern 
MOVA DIY instruction 
EcoSystem Investigation sewing pattern 
EcoSystem Investigation try-out of pattern 
EcoSystem Investigation piped button hole 
EcoSystem Investigation attaching zipper
However, some design is digital. I can communicate such designs to developers, recognizing others’ strengths (Identity).
Math, Data & Computing
For me this area is mostly about processing unique and qualitative data. In my master’s I encountered new types of data and explored with analysis and visualisation. My designs incorporate limited math and computation, since they are more conceptual and often situated in nature.
unique data
Constructive Design Research annotating experiments involving algae growth on plastic 
Unexpected Material Engagement analysing experiments 
Dirt Stories comparing use of probes 
Dirt Stories reflecting on unique data aspects 
Dirt Stories visual themes 
Sharing Non-Human Appreciation graph with prototype qualities 
EcoSystem Investigation reflecting on non-human traces
Bachelor
Identity
Comparing my identity at the start of my studies with my current version: An obvious change is that the content of my current identity is more specified and elaborate. At the start of my studies, I was in the background in teamwork. In my second year, I learned to organise and lead, but this resulted in having too much responsibility, which blocked my creativity. I found a balance when making more lo-fi prototypes again, which resulted in preferring to approach a design process through making and experimenting. I learned to use my intuition and to ensure smooth teamwork.
Vision
When comparing my first and current vision, I can still see that there is a common core: An urge to improve society. Over the years it was polished, sustainability became more important and specified. Also the notion that designers cannot have a full overview of their designs’ impact was added. I became aware the difficulty it can be to change behaviour. As designer you can have a vision, but that is a limited perspective a, and therefore it is unethical to expect behaviour change based solely on your vision. This illustrates the importance of involving other people in a design process.
Areas of Expertise
User & Society
This area of expertise is about the connection between people and design. How design could be fit for a specific user and how it could be adapted to large cultures and societies. I developed the most in this area over the past few years. Driven by my vision, I did many related projects and courses. In User Centred Design, I learned to base my design decisions on user studies. In the courses Design <> Research, User Evaluation Methods and Project 3 (UNA), I learned and applied to doing proper user studies and I discovered that I am a good interviewer. In the courses Socio-Cultural Sensitivity, Intercultural Design, Design for Debate and ID Green, I learned about societal aspects. What to take into account when designing for another culture and about the existence of theories like Hofstede’s 6 cultural dimensions. I became aware of biodesign and circularity, and applied the latter in UnravelSpin. Furthermore, I learned how to provoke people with design and about my ethical boundaries. To better understand people and their behaviour I followed Introduction Psychology & Technology, but also volunteered in the project Social Heroes, where I stepped out of my bubble and experienced a reality check.
Creativity & Aesthetics
This area of expertise is about form giving, design processes and using your creativity. I developed my experience and knowledge in doing design processes in almost every course, but mostly in From Idea to Design and the projects. In Trends & Forecasting, I learned about benchmarking, trends and recognising the visual language of designers. I also started to develop my own visual language. I mostly did this in Aesthetics of Interaction, Perspectives on Aesthetics and my FBP(UnravelSpin). These courses also helped me develop an eye for aesthetics, which is e.g. important in photography & filming. I developed my ability to visually explore my ideas in Exploratory Sketching. Learning to work with Adobe programs was essential for communication.
Business & Entrepreneurship
This area of expertise is about selling a design and doing market research, but also about service and what happens to your design when it can no longer be used. I developed it throughout the USE learning line New Product Marketing & Development, where I learned about marketing strategies, market research and how to apply the knowledge provided. I learned more about all kinds of canvasses with business strategies in Design Innovation Methods, and applied the knowledge in ID Green and my FBP(UnravelSpin). I also learned about intellectual property and how to protect your designs in Intellectual Property Rights for New Ventures.
Technology & Realization
This area of expertise is about bringing a concept to reality. In the courses Creative Programming & Electronics, I developed basic skills, which now allow me to communicate about these technical aspects of my designs. This was useful in Engineering design, where I was the only person familiar with the use of electronics. My development in digital realisation skills relate mostly to the use of Adobe programs (Xd). I learned to use skills like origami for lo-fi prototyping and further developed my skills in soft things, especially sewing, spinning and knitting, but also unravelling.
Math, Data & Computing
This area of expertise is about using data and models within your design and design process. I learned about math in Calculus, but also applied it when making the formula for UnravelSpin. I mostly developed skills in data acquisition in Design Research, User Evaluation Methods, Making Sense of Sensors, and in the projects. I learned to process quantitative data in Python and R in the courses Data Analytics, Making Sense of Sensors and Marketing Research and Design Methods. In User Evaluation Methods I learned to use standardized questionnaires and the functions for analysis in Excel related.
Luna Snelder 