Hey, my name is
Koos
Houben
Industrial Design student
Koos Houben
Industrial Design student at TU/e
Hi, my name is Koos Houben, I am a 19 years old, second year student at Industrial Design at TU/e. I am a highly motivated and team-oriented designer with a passion for creating happy experiences. Within team environments, I balance open-mindedness with critical thinking and motivate the team to bring out the best. I am an active learner and active person, in my free time, I practice various sports and make electronic music. As an active learner, I embrace hands-on learning and spontaneous creativity, believing that every challenge is an opportunity for growth. My energy comes from inspiring those around me, fostering a positive atmosphere, and ensuring that projects not only succeed but also bring joy to others.
Professional identity
The one thing that motivates me most as a designer is bringing a smile to people’s face, providing an experience people will never forget, and letting everyone be how they want. Just like events and festivals, people connect, people escape their daily lives and enjoy the music or atmosphere. But experience design is way more than that, it is designing for users feelings and bringing them a positive experience.
I promote positive experiences because I look at life from an optimistic perspective. Every time you fall you stand up and learn something. I consider myself an adventurous person as I like to get out of my comfort zone. Being open minded to new challenges and making new connections. Trying out diverse ways of thinking to produce original ideas.
I am an active person and an Active learner, as I like to learn through making and doing. This hands-on mindset can be great for design, but it is not the best way for Design research processes. Another characteristic of me is my ambition to work hard on projects, hard work will always pay off, and when you reflect you can say you took everything out.
Where my ambition and attitude get the best from me, my communication skills do not flatter me, as I struggle to communicate my ideas with words. As a designer, there are a lot of ways in which I can express myself to still communicate the common thread from my chaotic mind, for example through visualizations like sketching and prototyping, but with presenting, I still struggle when the nerves take over, the only way of improving this is practice, which I will come back on in my goals.
Teamwork
I am a team player who can listen very well to other people’s ideas and perspectives; with this I am very balanced between being open-minded and critical. I can be very open-minded when working in a group, but sometimes I can be very critical. I prioritize firstly listening to the perspectives and thoughts of my teammates, their experiences can inspire me and ignite a spark of creativity, but I can also think realistically and give constructive
feedback when needed.
As I do not consider myself a natural leader, when I get assigned to be the leader in a group project, I am not afraid to take on this role as I am sufficient in taking initiative and dividing tasks between my team members. When I organize things, I always make sure that everything is done correctly to a certain extent. I also prefer to take minutes on a project as this makes me more aware of the process and next steps. Other roles in a team project could be assigned to me as well because I am flexible. I also motivate my team to fanatically take part in the project with an optimistic attitude. It is also very important to me that every team member can speak up and engage in meetings, striving towards a positive team atmosphere. Having a good atmosphere in a team is key for a good team performance.
Vision
My vision centers around designing experiences that bring people together, foster connections, and create lasting memories. Whether through experiential design, social design, or event organization, I aim to craft spaces and moments that allow people to escape, engage, and interact in meaningful ways. Public events, in particular, are powerful platforms for inclusivity and shared experiences, and I want to contribute to their impact. At the same time, I believe that experience-driven design should be responsible and sustainable, using innovative approaches to minimize environmental impact while maximizing social value.
Goals
I want to find an internship with an event organizing or decoration design company within the Netherlands for the third year of my bachelor (B3.1). Festivals provide unforgettable experiences, and I want to contribute to these amazing experiences for other people. To get to this internship I need to first complete “CBL project 3”, which is ongoing right now. Within this internship I want to go through the entire design process of a festival organization and decor design and learn to involve and manage different stakeholders.
Moreover, I would like to pursue my goal in improving presenting and communicating ideas, I tend to struggle with getting my thoughts to words, and this in combination with nerves will leave me stressed. The only way of improving on this is by taking an active approach, by practicing and taking on presentation opportunities, which I will keep doing in future courses and projects. Preparation is key for giving a good presentation and calming my nerves, but most of the time, the last-minute-deadlines leave less time for a good pitch preparation, which can be very frustrating. Also, I hope to improve my presenting skills through my internship.
Lastly, in year 3, I want to develop my technical skills, and I will do this through the courses of “Designing connected experiences” and “designing actuated systems,” two courses focused on the TR and MDC expertise areas, in which I have been lacking to improve this year. During my internship I want to develop some new technical skills, get familiar with new software programs and tools which can help me develop as a designer.