The Dutch are taking over the automotive

31 ioNews
december 2009
‘The Dutch are taking
over the automotive
industry.’ (Stephen Bayley)
Advanced Automotive Design
NINE IDE graduates BACK IN DELFT
Left to right: Sarkis Benliyan (Mercedes-Benz), Cees de Bont (Dean
Awards
IDE), Elmer van Grondelle (IDE), Koos Eissen (IDE), Fedde Talsma
(Volvo), Lowie Vermeersch (Pininfarina), Kees Kornmann (IDE), Matthijs
van Dijk (IDE), Wouter Kets (Audi), Adrian van Hooydonk (BMW), Bart
Industrial design engineers
van Lotringen (DAF), Doeke de Walle (Pininfarina), Jan Jacobs (IDE),
Alexander Pothoven (Daimler), Bart Janssen Groesbeek (Ducati).
Made in Holland
exhibition at the Kunsthal Rotterdam
Number 946
the career of Pamela musch
2
8
10
11
4
Bachelor final
projects
Plakkies: over 26,000 pairs sold
1
io news
‘The IF Gold:
one evening of fame’
this region and we have never profited of
the proximity of the German market. We do
however still like our location: it’s quite
central if your clients are based all around
the Netherlands.’’
ER
B
M
NU
6
4
9
How big will DenHartogMusch
become?
,,Years and years we thought we were
doing something wrong, being an office
with two designers and a couple of interns.
We have learned however, that our small
size has advantages: a little ship is more
easily maneuvered into another direction
and less vulnerable in case of a storm. We
do however have the ambition to make
more of the ideas that are now archived
due to lack of time.’’
Pamela Musch (42)
After graduating at IDE in 1991,
Pamela Musch applied for a job
at Heineken before running into
designer Maarten den Hartog.
They started their own office
awards, is an office chair for BMA
Ergonomics. We are getting increasingly
involved in designs based on the
characteristics of the human body:
chairs, orthopeadic orthesis and so on.’’
me feel incredibly proud to stand on a
stage next to Sony and Apple. But that was
all: one evening of fame.’’
What was your graduation
project?
,,A modular armature, based on a design
concept made by a German. It was more of
a technology project than a design, but
that suited me: I consider technology to be
just as much interesting as creativity. I
chose IDE because of the combination of
these elements, not because I wanted to
become a designer or run a design office.’’
in Arnhem and got married.
DenHartogMusch has won several
prestigious design awards. ‘We
signed a business contract before
signing our marriage settlement’.
I saw a DenHartogMusch
design of a facade based on
light shining through algae.
,,It will not be build however, we got a
second prize: too strange, too innovative.
It would have been wonderful, a facade
based on light and growing algae,
surrounding the elevator to a subzero
bicycle storage in Amsterdam. The process
of growing algae was very suitable on that
location, next to the NEMO scientific
museum. We have even talked about
turning it into a public toilet, with algae
cleaning the sewage water. Imagine a kind
of brownish facade that gradually becomes
transparent. That would be fun.’’
But you have your own office
now, how come?
,,After graduating, I had lost interest in
industrial design engineering and applied
for a job at Heineken. Out of 120
candidates I made it to the top five, but
ended on the second place. Exit Heineken.
I was doing all kinds of jobs when I met
Maarten. He pulled me back into design.
After a couple of years, we were able to
start our own office.’’
Have the awards brought in
new clients?
,,No, I don’t think so. Clients appreciate
awards as a proof of quality, but they are
not bringing us a fortune. Receiving the IF
Gold means that a design is considered to
be the best of the fifty best designs. It’s
the most prestigious award, and it made
You based the office in Arnhem.
Why there?
,,We looked at a map and decided this was
where we wanted to live: a central location
surrounded by lots of trees. We also
thought it would be an advantage to be
this close to Germany. In the beginning it
turned out to be difficult to find clients in
Could you give examples of
your designs that we might
encounter in daily life?
,,One of our designs is a traffic light that
will replace most of the current fifty-yearolds. The ViaLina is a compact, modular
design using LED-lights. It was nominated
for the Dutch Design awards and was
granted the IF Gold in 2005. A more recent
design, which received a whole bunch of
2
What did you like about
IDE and how could IDE be
improved?
,,I would like to give the current students
a more realistic perspective of job
opportunities and the average salary. Not
everybody will become an Adrian van
Hooydonk and work at BMW. Even the R&D
department of a big manufacturer like
Brabantia, consists of only five to seven
people. Where will the other students end
up? What I have really liked during my
studies was the kind of pioneering
atmosphere in the field of sustainability,
with people like Han Brezet. Very inspiring
times.’’
Do you consider designers
to be the front people in
sustainability?
,,When I had recently graduated, clients
were not at all interested in sustainability.
Until they found out it could be profitable.
Manufacturers started introducing
sustainability merely out of commercial,
pragmatic motives. They didn’t need
designers for that and I believe they still
don’t. Our role is limited, showing visionary
and inspiring ideas: a beautiful thing to do!’’
www.denhartogmusch.nl
Our readers have asked if IO News could put
more focus on successful women. We will.
This edition, for a start, contains an interview
with IF Gold winner Pamela Musch, partner/
director at DenHartogMusch.
The past few months have been exciting
for our faculty. For the first time, we have
received two VENI grants by the Dutch
National Science foundation (NWO), an
acknowledgement of the quality of our
research.
Another record is the number of first year
students: 370! I am happy with our
popularity, although this large number is also
a logistic challenge. We do have some
concerns that a further increase might
jeopardize the quality of our education.
Remarkably, I noticed that among our fifty
new international Master students, ten Italian
students enrolled this semester. Ten
designers-to-be, who chose to leave the
Mekka of design, to graduate in Delft.
Finally, I would like to thank everybody
who visited our symposium Advanced
Automotive Design: a nice event with an
excellent media exposure. I would like to see
all of you again during our exhibition at the
Kunsthal Rotterdam: ‘Made in Holland’,
showing forty years of excellent design at IDE.
Bingo!
Column
preface
Recently I watched a presentation of a well-known designer,
and I got very confused. He was talking about “hacking
objects through critical reflection”, “using the disfunctionality
of products to reinvent design thinking” and “the use of
conceptual artefacts to stimulate situated social practices.”
The confusion was not because I couldn’t understand him.
prof.dr. Cees J.P.M. de Bont, dean
The confusion was about something else: I could not grasp whether he was using
those words because there was no other way to tell his story… or whether it was
camouflage for things he didn’t understand himself.
In the design scene, designers and researchers often tend to describe their
and others’ work in a language that is between technical jargon and street
vocabulary, so-called buzzwords. Nouns become verbs, verbs become adjectives,
etc. etc.; and they do not necessarily have to mean anything. It seems that
people think that if you achieve a certain buzzword density, the language starts to
do the thinking for you – and you can just sit back and relax.
The well-known designer forced us to create our own Design-Buzzword-Bingo
cards. Not very far from now we will distribute those cards among our students.
This is the explanation why soon you will hear people shout ‘Bingo!’ in the
hallways, lecture halls and at design offices where they work.
I just can’t wait until a design guru starts explaining about the “retro-fitting of
a user centred design experience”, and one of our students stands up and shouts
“BINGO!”
Agenda
www.io.tudelft.nl/events
19 December 2009 – 21 March 2010
Made in Holland
Exhibition in cooperation with the National
Archives at the Kunsthal Rotterdam.
Spring 2010
PhD day
Presenting an overview of the
PhD research of our faculty.
Thomas Visser
PhD candidate at the ID StudioLab
IDE receives
two VENI grants
IDE researchers Ruth Mugge and Maarten Wijntjes have each received a VENI grant by
the Dutch National Science foundation (NWO). Mugge’s subject of research is called “Form
versus Function’’. People use the look of a product to evaluate certain functional attributes
(e.g. quality, life span). An incorrect evaluation can have negative consequences for the use of
a product. Mugge’s research examines the design characteristics that bring about such functional
associations.
Wijntjes’ research is called “Natural 3d Shape Perception and Image Ambiguities’’.
People consider their perception as equal to the perception of others. With 3d prints and laser
projections, Wijntjes will investigate the forms which people observe. This knowledge can be
applied to design visualization and 3d television.
3
Made in Holland
Retrospective of IDE graduation
projects at the Kunsthal Rotterdam
The exhibition ‘Made in Holland’ at the Kunsthal Rotterdam shows a history of Dutch
innovations, including old patents found in the National Archives. Part of the exhibition
’73
Jan Jacobs
Office Furniture Program
Gispen KT (Garden Office)
13-02-1973
is a retrospective of IDE graduation projects. Jan Jacobs, Timo de Rijk and Carlita
Kooman spent hours and hours reading all 4,000 papers.
What are our
designs for the
world?
How do you make a selection
out of 4,000 projects?
Carlita: ,,We have read all graduation
papers. Our goal was to make a selection
of one hundred projects, preferably
projects that have resulted in mock-ups,
models and tangible products.’’
here? People being bored. Why are they
bored? Because we have designed products
that do the hard work for us. It’s a weird
assignment if you think of it.’’
Timo: ,,Army equipment
for example. Soldiers of
today are no longer hiding in
the bush, waiting for a communist
attack. Instead, they are send to
remote areas for peace-keeping missions.
This requires new concepts for uniforms
and other equipment. Other examples are
designs for the developing world. Most of
these designs are far more than just an
object, they are based on business models
that help stimulate local economies.’’
Could you share a personal
favorite?
Carlita: ,,My personal favorite is the New
York bicycle of Wytze van Mansum, a stateof-the-art bicycle based on the image of
the old Dutch ‘opoe-fiets’. Target group
analysis shows that the people of New York
recognize this bicycle as being typically
Dutch.’’
Timo: ,,I would say the redesign of Luud
Schimmelpennincks shared vehicle running
on a battery, the ‘Witkar’ by Robert Holslag.
Is the Jan Jacobs office desk
that we are sitting at part of the
exhibition?
Timo: ,,Sure! Jan Jacobs was our 6th
graduate, back in 1973. His desk has been
a very successful design. Very seventies
also, a modular and democratic desk: the
round shape prevents anyone from being
able to sit at the head of the table. We will
also exhibit some fresh concepts. For
example the ‘Elastop’, a desk designed by
Nienke Nijhof. Her desktop consists of
elastics, a very playful design concept,
based on our leisurely way of working
nowadays.
Carlita: ,,Design for a working
environment is one of the seven themes in
this exhibition. The others are design
solutions for the protection of our country
against water and other threaths, designs
for healthcare, mobility, communications,
leisure and a theme we have called
‘Holland and the world.’’
Any new insights after seeing
all these graduation projects?
Timo: ,,Interestingly, the graduation
projects of people who in a later stage
became successfull product designers,
were easily recognizable among the 4,000
different reports. Based on their creative
covers.’’
’03
Nienke Nijhof
’06
Elas-top: a workplace
Leonie Ideler
with space for intuition
Woodstove for India
28-08-2003
04-04-2006
Mobility sounds like cool
concept cars?
Task specific outfit for
Dutch combat soldiers
Timo: ,,Sure, the C,mm,n for example.
But mobility is a lot more, the ‘praatpaal’
for example, the improved design for the
SOS phone alongside highways. I think this
project represents the IDE approach very
well: not only improving the object, but the
whole system. We noticed by the way, that
mobility is by far the most popular theme,
although the Netherlands does not have
much automotive industry. Appearantly,
IDE is considered to be a good place for
studying automotive design.’’
09-06-2006
What can we expect of the
‘Leisure’ theme?
’78
Robert Holslag
Re-design Witkar
03-03-1978
’06
Nienke de Wilde
’09
Timo: ,,Designs for Disney World and for
the ‘Efteling’ for example. Leisure has
become an industry. I like the paradox of
this theme: engineers are problem solvers,
it’s in their DNA. But what is the problem
Wytse van Mansum
Design of a Commuter Bicycle
for Young Urban Women
28-08-2009
4
‘Made in Holland’,
19 December 2009 - 21 March 2010
www.kunsthal.nl
Number
Midiator wins
London PLASA
Innovation Award
4,000
The previous edition of IO News contained interviews
with IDE graduate numbers 4, 40 and 400. Number 4,000
graduated recently, on 4 September 2009. His name?
Arjan Koolstra (24)
Midiator, an IDE techno starter, has been granted the Innovation Award
during PLASA, the yearly international On Stage Lighting event in
London. Over 60 products were nominated for a total of eight awards.
,,Our technology and equipment enables
stage light directors to synchronize the
stage light with what is happening on stage
instead of having to spend a couple of
seconds on preparations’’, says Menno Pleij,
founder and director of Midiator.
The jury was charmed by the out-of-thebox approach of Midiator, making
equipment easier instead of more complex.
The judges felt that the new show
controller combines all the creative
elements of a show and enables them to
be under the control of one designer,
synchronizing visual and audio events
together via a simple user interface: ,,Like
a beautiful rug it ties the visual elements of
a room together.’’ Remarkably, the judges
chose not to award an Environmental
Award this year, as they felt there was no
product that offered a significant
environmental advantage.
Visitors of the Alphatent and Grolschtent
at ‘A Campingflight to Lowlands’ Paradise’
(21-23 August 2009) have already
encountered the effects of Midiator’s
technology and equipment: their product
was hired to help direct the stage lights
during Prodigy, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic
Monkeys and other bands. Midiator is part
of YES!, the starting businesses incubator
of TU Delft, providing techno starters with
practical help, strategic recommendations
and technical infrastructure for products
and process development.
What was your graduation project?
Creating a new business concept for Pearl Music Europe, a large manufacturer
of drums. My job was to create a concept that would strengthen the position
of the brand and improve distribution. I have performed analyses on product
category, company, competition and customers, among other things. The
analyses included a trip to the Frankfurter Musik Messe. The project resulted
in a new strategic concept: an educational program. The goal is to position
Pearl strongly in the global market: closer to the consumer by means of a
booklet, a website and an event.
You graduated a couple of months ago.
What did you do next?
I am currently looking for a job, preferably in market research or brand
positioning. Meanwhile I work at a musical instruments store in The Hague.
What part of your IDE education do you believe will
be most useful in your job?
I still have to see what it’s like in ‘the real world’, but I hope I will be able to
make good use of the Delft way of developing a fuzzy idea into an actual
concept or process. I have certainly enjoyed looking for new directions and
new markets for a brand.
www.midiator.eu
What, in your opinion, should be added to the IDE
education, or intensified?
The financial aspects of the design process are not really covered in the IDE
education. Many design exercises did not incorporate costs, although this is
of great influence in real projects. Maybe it is not academic enough to
incorporate that element in the curriculum, but I believe it could make
projects more realistic.
Menno Pleij (right) receiving the PLASA Innovation
Award of Adam Afriyie MP, Shadow Minister for
Innovation, Universities and Skills (middle).
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
I hope to be living in a nice house that I can call home, with a good job that
I enjoy every day. I am thinking of a market research or brand-positioning job
right now, but who knows, it could be totally different within ten years.
Which question has, to your own relief, not been asked
in this short interview?
Was it a tough job to become graduate number 4,000, get all this attention
and even invitations to give presentations?
My answer: Nope… I really liked it!
5
‘A car: only
ten euro per kilo’
Matthijs van Dijk inspired a new generation of car-designers
Matthijs van Dijk (44), managing
director at ‘KVD reframing and
design’ and professor Applied
Design, is a key player in
automotive design and research
at IDE. Van Dijk inspired a new
generation of car-designers,
such as Lowie Vermeersch
(Pininfarina) and Sarkis Benliyan
(Mercedes-Benz).
You did not graduate at IDE
but in mechanical engineering,
before starting a post-doc in
design. What made you switch?
,,I liked mechanical engineering a lot, but
not the working atmosphere typically
associated with it: a small R&D unit, usually
located in some grey, remote building in the
periphery of an industrial area. In it, ten to
twenty men, only men, work from nine to
five. Coming from an art oriented family,
this was not what I wanted.’’
Isn’t automotive design also
associated with men?
,,Unfortunately yes. It has nothing to do
with talent or ideas, but with the role
automotive designers nowadays have in
the industry and with the Umfeld of
automotive design. The skills nowadays
required to become a successful designer,
are more in the field of interest of men:
styling and visualization skills for example.
Most of the women work at the color and
trim department. But automotive design is
in principle not about the object but about
society. Women comprise 50% of society,
so one could imagine that fifty-fifty would
be the ideal distribution.’’
meaning that technology supports form
and form supports technology.’’
Could the electric car be the
solution?
,,We should not seek for the solution. It will
have to be more like Darwin’s ‘On the Origin
of Species’: a variety of solutions, any of
which could evolve into the perfect solution
for the time being. Designers should not
focus on object features, but on whether or
not the concept fits the context. Designers
should first consider the ‘meaning’ of their
concept, then how to give expression to it.
Electric propulsion is only one of the
technological means to do so.
What is your fascination with
automotive?
,,Automotive is the most complex design
domain, which is why I consider it to be
the most fascinating one. Automotive
design covers all kinds of perspectives:
socially, culturally, technologically and so
on. If you are able to design a car, you will
also be able to design a coffee-machine.
Another interesting factor is the macro
economic importance of the automotive
industry. For instance, over thirty percent
of the Germans is currently employed in
this industry. Our current society cannot
function without it.
Any positive comments on the
automotive industry?
,,Sure! I am very impressed by the
economics of mass production, the
incredible value-for-money of a car. A brand
new Citroën C1 costs less than 10,000 euro.
For that money, one gets a thousand
kilograms of high-tech knowledge. An
object that has been tested on safety and
environmental issues and looks great: look
at the complexity and quality of the caststeel elements, the suspension or even a
single taillight. And the electronics will
never let you down. Cars are so perfect that
it has become normal to expect the engine
to be running every time you turn the
ignition key. All that, at a price of only ten
euro per kilo. It’s a miracle! One kilo of
coffee is almost as expensive as one kilo
of car.’
What is the solution to our
automotive challenges?
,,I don’t believe in a design strategy that
is only based on the improvement of our
current cars. To be able to adapt to a future
world, we will need bigger changes or even
paradigm shifts in what cars mean to us.
However, to come up with a new type of
car is not my job. My job as a researcher is
to create new knowledge on how to
improve the design and development
process of cars and is based on two
themes. One is how to predict if a certain
car concept will have ‘reason of existence’,
the other is how to design ‘coherence’,
6
You drive a 1977 Renault
Alpine. Old-fashioned fun?
,,The Alpine was made for speed ,
equipped with an overpowered, inefficient,
combustion engine. A car representing
yesterday’s thinking. Nevertheless, some
aspects of it are very up-to-date: it’s a
small, lightweight, aerodynamic, two-door
car that fits four persons. Equipped with an
ultra modern, efficient, small engine it
would easily drive 35 kilometers to the liter.
This car was made by hand and that makes
me question our current tooling used in
mass production as mentioned earlier. Are
they the most appropriate? We need to
manufacture huge amounts of cars before
the whole process becomes profitable.
I believe we need another business-model
and manufacturing process.’’
How did you experience the
Automotive congress?
,,I felt a touch of pride, seeing how
successful our graduates have become.
The three keynote speakers, Fedde Talsma,
Adrian van Hooydonk and Lowie
Vermeersch but also the new kids on the
block, such as Doeke de Walle, Wouter
Kets and Sarkis Benliyan. They are trying
to implement the IDE design approach and
to gradually transform the industry.’’
www.kvd.com
www.ide.tudelft.nl
‘I was probably the last
student who bought
a computer’
Microsoft senior UX designer Stephan Hoefnagels
IDE graduates find their
way in the international
job market. Stephan
Hoefnagels is senior UX
designer on the Microsoft
Windows team, one of
the key-designers behind
desktop features such
as the new taskbar, Aero
Snap and Aero Peek.
Where do you live?
You used to live and work
near the Microsoft campus in
Redmond. What is it like there?
,,I live in Manhattan. I travel to Seattle
regularly about once every month or two
to stay in touch with the team in person.
I used to live near Seattle, but I moved
together with my fiancé, who has finished
her medicine studies and is now a resident
doctor in a hospital in Manhattan. We have
looked for a house in the picturesque area
of Greenwich Village, but that turned out to
be incredibly expensive: the kind of do-ityourself small units that I remember of my
student years in Delft, at a price of 3,000
dollars a month. Been there, done that. We
decided to rent an apartment on the 24th
floor of a sky-scraper, in the heart of the
financial district. Few people want to live
there. Still expensive, but better value for
the buck.’’
,,Microsoft employs about 90,000 people
worldwide, 40,000 of whom work in
Redmond. It’s a huge campus: 135
Microsoft buildings and 1,5 million square
meters of office space. A nice city to live,
not as rainy as most people think. I
particularly like the fact that it’s only half
an hour driving to a snowboard area and
only five hours to Whistler, the location of
2010 Winter Olympics.’’
How many Delft graduates work
at your department?
,,It used to be eight. Currently, I am the
only one.’’
Have you been able to explore
the country, given the limited
amount of holidays in the US?
,,Microsoft is not very anal about holidays:
I am allowed to work as hard as I want, as
long as I reach my targets. Even start-ups,
who used to be notorious for their mad
working hours, are now beginning to
introduce a more relaxed work-life
balance.’’
What was your IDE graduation
project?
I graduated in 2003, on a project in
cooperation with HP Labsin Bristol,
supervised by Pieter Jan Stappers. It was
called ‘Designing for a Frictionless Mobile
Lifestyle’. The Masters program Design for
Interaction didn’t exist back then. Our
concept was a planning table: members of
a family could gather around the table and
plan their activities by moving pylons on a
map. The map gave force feedback: if a
certain activity would not fit the schedule,
it would be harder to put the pylon on that
spot. On the other hand, pressing a pylon
hard onto the map meant giving priority to
that activity.’’
‘Some people still
believe Microsoft
fires employees
who use an iPhone.’
What part of your IDE education
has been most useful regarding
your current job?
,,I work in teams with a variety of people
with different skills and backgrounds. I
think I profit most from the Delft way of
tackling problems by following a structured
design process. It’s a more useful approach
than diving into a problem head first.
Another advantage of IDE is that, although
I am a designer, I have been educated as
an engineer. Microsoft has an engineering
culture. Bill Gates was an engineer.’’
7
What, in your opinion, should
be added to the IDE education,
or intensified?
,,Presentation skills! Compared to other
schools, Delft graduates are not very
articulate. Another thing I missed, was
education on the importance of the look &
feel of a product and the way it animates.’’
Has it always been your dream
to work in the US?
,,It has been my desire to work in a foreign
country, not specifically the US. I did an
internship at Microsoft in 2001, graduated
in England in 2003, worked for Philips
Eindhoven for a year and then decided that
I liked foreign countries and working with
people with different roots.’’
Why user interface design,
why not coffee machines?
,,Product design is more focused on the
manufacturing process, I prefer design for
interaction because it’s 100% about
usability. Designing interfaces is what I like.
The fact that I design them for computers
is something that just happened. During
my studies, I was probably one of the last
students who bought a computer: I didn’t
own one until my second year.’’
Your former colleague Tjeerd
Hoek privately owned a Mac
Book. How about you?
,,Some people still believe Microsoft fires
employees who use an iPhone. I use Linux,
MacOS and other OSes on and off as
needed. I like to keep informed on the user
interfaces of our competitors.’’
www.microsoft.com
Advanced Automotive Design
Top car designers
return to Delft nest
Nine key players in the automotive industry, all educated at IDE, lectured at the 40-year-anniversary
symposium ‘Advanced Automotive Design’. In a discussion moderated by tv-host and NRC columnist
Joris Luyendijk, they discussed the future of mobility and gave free-of-charge career advice to students.
A retrospective.
,,It’s a coming of age:
The audience
First-year student Eva van Dée is among
the first to arrive at the TU Delft
auditorium. A true petrol head? ,,No.
I don’t know yet if I want to graduate in
automotive design. But I’ve had a couple
of lectures on the subject and they were
interesting. The teacher heavily promoted
visiting this symposium.’’
Sitting in the front row, IDE alumnus
Thomas Albers hopes to learn about the
future of mobility. He is currently employed
at a company in car, truck and packaging.
,,I graduated on the design of a caravan,
at KIP caravans Hoogeveen. My caravan
could be folded into a kind of giant
lunchbox, improving the airstream.’’
Jim Schoorl has a special interest in
one of the key note speakers: Adrian van
Hooydonk. ,,I want to be here because
Adrian is. He is my idol. It’s that simple.
He does what I would like to do. I am not
very good at automotive design yet, but
I’m working on it.’’
outgrow your teacher.’’
(Sarkis Benliyan)
,,Figure out what you
want and go for it.’’
(Wouter Kets)
Lowie Vermeersch, Director of
Design Pininfarina
Bart van Lotringen, Alexander Pothoven, Adrian van Hooydonk and Doeke de Walle
,,Cars should be your passion. If it’s only money
you want: buy stocks.’’ (Alexander Pothoven)
Lowie Vermeersch and Adrian van Hooydonk
,,One of the most limiting conditions in car
design are laws. For example, we still have
to design our cars for crashes without a
seatbelt, because one single state in the
USA requires that by law. Every Ferrari is
15 centimeters too high because of that
single law. Why don’t we design our cars
not to crash, instead of designing them to
crash very well? Why don’t we redesign
mobility, instead of designing an object that
leads to more mobility. We should start by
redesigning laws. The future of car design
will therefore not be a revolution, it will be
as it always has been: evolution.’’
Fedde Talsma, Exterior Chief Designer Volvo
,,We are all thinking about downsizing vehicles, making them more fuel efficient. It made me
wonder: didn’t we have small, light vehicles already? The 2cv, the Beetle, Fiat 600. Since cars
started bumping into each other, we decided to make them safer: we added safety belts and
more weight. Then we added more equipment, more horsepower and developed a dress
code: more length and more width means a higher status. As soon as everybody had a long,
wide vehicle, we added height as a symbol of status. I wonder where the industry will go. If
software can help reduce safety measures, we can light vehicles again. I’m not afraid of the
regulations. I like that puzzle, I would feel hopeless without restrictions. But I do have a
question: will consumers ever be able to return to less horse power, less length, width and
height? Those are addictive features. People will not easily return to small cars. Let me put it
this way: despite all our current technology, we still use paper and despite the quality of our
printers, people still make paintings.’’
8
Adrian van Hooydonk, Design Director BMW Group
What is their ride?
,,I like the optimism of science fiction: the engineering features, the shiny shoes. We didn’t
grow up with this kind of optimism. We feel faced with limitations. But we try to get around
those. At BMW, we have set a speed record with a hydrogen car, developed an electric Mini
and came up with ‘efficient dynamics’. However, our designers believed something was still
missing. We therefore designed a concept-car. It has batteries and a small 3 cylinder diesel
engine in the back: a zero-emission car in the city, able to accellerate to 250 km/h on the
Autobahn, exhausting 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer. But how to design a super sports car
without the supercar vocabulary, such as fat tires? Our concept-car shows a new vocabulary:
operated with normal power, the front is open, once electric, the front closes and a radiated
blue light. The aerodynamics, the air flow, are shown on the outside.’’
How about all electric cars? ,,Despite all our technology blabla, people will keep buying
cars for emotional reasons: to impress their neighbours. In general, I disagree with the
current focus on the exhaust: the exhaust could gradually become zero, but how will the
electricity be made? By browncoal power plants in Poland, nucear energy in France? And
how much energy does it take to produce that car, and get rid of it?’’
,,Become your own critic
and be aware that it’s not
a nine-to-five-job, but a
five-to-nine job.’’
(Adrian van Hooydonk)
,,Choose your own
direction’’ (Doeke de Walle)
,,The most important
thing: doing it’’
(Lowie Vermeersch)
,,If you need advice,
you’re already lost’’
(Bart Janssen Groesbeek)
Joris Luyendijk (moderator)
,,I am a trained anthropologist’’, says Joris
Luyendijk. ,,I feel somewhat of an intruder,
moderating a discussion with only beta
people, whom I hated in highschool, for
being so much better in science.’’ Luyendijk
is impressed by the large number of IDEgraduates holding key-positions in the
automotive industry. ,,I wish journalism
would produce that many journalists for
El país and Le Monde.’’
In the afternoon, when he is kicking
back, Luyendijk recaptures the day. ,,I was
amazed by the presentations of these men.
Since we are at Delft University of
Technology, I expected more nerdy clothing
and manners. These men are all dressed in
razor-sharp designer suits and they’re
skilled speakers too.’’ The discussion
brought no surprising insights to Luyendijk.
,,These men all act on executive levels.
People that are high up the tree cannot be
expected to express revolutionary opinions
in public.’’
Stephen Bayley
The whole symposium can still be viewed
via www.io.tudelft.nl/mobilityevent.
,,Deliver quality;
a combination of what
,,The moment you think
you’re there, you’re lost.’’
(Bart van Lotringen)
Obviously, car designers tend to drive
the cars they co-designed: Fedde Talsma
drives a Volvo, Adrian van Hooydonk a
BMW. Ducati designer Bart Janssen
Groesbeek is passionate about motor­
cycles and obviously rides a Ducati.
But how about Sarkis Benliyan?
He graduated on a design for the BMW
motorcycle department, continued his
studies at the Royal College of Art (RCA)
in London, where he was granted the
Giugiaro award for innovation. He
currently works in the interior design
team at Mercedes-Benz. What would he
drive? A state-of-the-art Smart? ,,I drive
a 1986 Mercedes-Benz 190E’’, says
Benliyan. ,,It was my first car and I still
drive her. Only our best mechanics are
allowed to touch her!’’
Another big question mark is Doeke
de Walle, who won the Auto Telegraaf
Design competition and received a
second prize at the moto-AutoRai 73
Design Competition. Being a Senior
Transportation Designer at Pininfarina,
it must be hard to buy your own design:
who can afford a Ferrari or Maserati?
What would be his drive? ,,A Toyota
Yaris 1.4 diesel.’’
Wouter Kets, interior designer at
Audi, chose not to buy an Audi. Instead,
he drives a car that will never be able to
intoxicate his thoughts on automotive
design: ,,A Landrover, probably the only
car that hasn’t been designed, only
engineered.’’
Bart van Lotringen graduated at IDE
in 1987 and received a Master’s degree
at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in
London. Van Lotringen is Design Director
at DAF, winning the Paccar Innovation
Award in 2007. Does he use a DAF truck
to commute? ,,My first car was a flaming
red Triumph Spitfire. After that, I have
driven a range of family cars and MPV’s.
I am 45. It fits my identity.’’
And columnist on ‘new journalism
and electric cars’ Joris Luyendijk?
Does he drive a microwave on wheels?
,,A Toyota Avensis wagon. It is a car
able to transport me from A to B.
That’s enough.’’
Doeke de Walle, Sarkis Benliyan, Wouter Kets, Fedde Talsma, Bart Janssen Groesbeek, Lowie Vermeersch,
Adrian van Hooydonk, Bart van Lotringen and Alexander Pothoven
you want and what
you’re asked to do’’
(Fedde Talsma)
Stephen Bayley (critic)
,,A car is a terrible, frightening, destructive thing’’, says Bayley, who believes three big issues
will define the future of automotive design. First, according to Bayley, the death of the heat
engine. ,,The crazy logic of the petrol engine, that dirty sexy power unit, will not survive.
Maybe we will have electric cars instead. We will save the world by making it a duller place:
it’s unlikely that electric will ever lead to Aston Martin shapes.’’
Secondly, Bayley sees a fading of the national identity of both the car and its designer:
,,A Porsche used to be designed by the Germans in an obviously German style. But style has
become global: the Toyota Yaris for example, is not obviously Japanese. It was designed in
Belgium, by a Greek.’’
And third issue? ,,The Dutch taking over the industry. Look at the number of Dutch
key players in the industry: totally disproportionate. However, will that change the industry?
I don’t think so. The future of cars is not in Europe, but in China. They will develop cars like
Gillette raisor blades: consumers will buy the battery, the car will be disposable. It will speak
no language, it will be no authentic design statement. A microwave oven on wheels, with
artificial noise.’’
Wouter Kets and Fedde Talsma
9
‘Jy lijk mooi in jou
amperbroekkie en Plakkies’
(You look nice in your panties and Plakkies)
Bachelor final project sells 26,000 pairs
IDE students end their Bachelor with a final project in cooperation with
a company or institution. The BSc final project is an example of IDE’s
strategy of knowledge transfer. Some of the projects become actual products,
such as Plakkies: a sustainable flip-flop designed by Michel Boerigter in
cooperation with KidsRights and Jan Jansen. Over 26,000 pairs
have been sold this season.
Plakkies
Plakkies are slippers with soles made of car
tires. In South Africa, car tires are dumped
as landfill or illegally incinerated, with a
devastating impact on the environment.
Plakkies are made by ‘The Ubuntu
Company’, a factory set up with the Dutch
NGO KidsRights. The goal of the factory is
to provide employment in the Townships of
Durban. In this area, approximately 70% of
the population is without a job and 30% of
the people is HIV infected. This factory
provides employment for 70 local
inhabitants. Each employee gets a salary
that is sufficient for supplying for his or her
family. The profit made of the sales is
reinvested into local children aid projects of
KidsRights.
The patterns on Plakkies have been
designed by South African textile designer
Anabella Hilda Loubser in cooperation with
township kids. The drawings of the kids
were the inspiration for the design. The
production of Plakkies is based on using as
‘Met daai Plakkies
gaan jy ‘n slag
slaan by die
skoner geslag’
(With your Plakkies you will
become a big hit with women)
in the townships of Johannesburg.
They were thinking about a sustainable
plug-socket. We calculated the feasability
of this idea and suggested a broader
approach: the design of a simple product,
to be sold in Western shops, manufactured
with simple tools, by local, uneducated
people. This challenge resulted in a range
of product concepts, one of which was
Plakkies, designed by Michel Boerigter.’’
Plakkies sold over 26,000 pairs in 130
stores, but it is not the only successful
product that started as a BSc final project.
In 2008, when the programm was
introduced, Michel Holper designed a
respiration mask. Nauta: ,,Delft University
of Technology granted Holper the Ufd
Imtech award for excellent BSc-projects,
the product itself is now being improved
in cooperation with the Erasmus MC Sophia
Childrens Hospital in Rotterdam.’’
many local resources as possible. All the
leather is original African, as well as the
tires used for the soles. The cork footbeds
are imported from Portugal, which enables
The Ubuntu Company to guarantee quality
and comfort. In the near future, Plakkies
aims to replace the Portugese cork with
African resources.
knowledge transfer? ,,Not at IDE.
Compared to other faculties at Delft
University of Technology, we license less
patents: IDE research is hard to protect by
patents. Licensing patents however is not
the only way of knowledge transfer. We
have a range of activities: research by
contract, educational projects, marketing
the results of our research and educational
activities, workshops and masterclasses for
professionals and so on. We also publish
books on research methods.’’
V
Habru V by Johan Land
The third mission
IDE Valorisation Manager Bart Ahsmann
considers the Plakkies an excellent example
of knowledge transfer. ,,Opinions differ on
what knowledge transfer means’’, says
Ahsmann. ,,But it is generally accepted to
be the third mission of a university, next to
education and research. It is meant to
share knowledge and make it applicable.’’
Ahsmann considers knowledge transfer as
a necessary strategy in closing the gap
between the availability of knowledge and
the use of it. ,,If we want businesses and
institutions to be innovative, we need to
transfer our knowledge to them. Bachelor
projects, such as the project with
KidsRights that resulted in Plakkies, are
very interesting to small cap businesses.
Contrary to multinationals, small caps
usually don’t have time to wait for the
results of a four year PhD-research.’’
Is licensing patents a key strategy in
“S”pace by Marijn Goemans
Bachelor final projects
,,The Bachelor final project is the last
before entering the Master programme,’’
says Kees Nauta, who organizes the
projects. ,,Students choose one of six
companies and work for 420 hours fulltime
on a design that could be interesting for
that company. The participating companies
are usually small businesses, but can be of
any kind; we have worked with companies
in child’s bicycle seats, wellness, street
furniture, tea distribution, pottery, medical
devices and so on,’’ says Nauta.
www.plakkies.co.za
,,KidsRights wanted to conduct a project
10
Interested in Bachelor final projects?
Contact:
Kees Kornmann
+31 (0)15 27 83017
c.m.kornmann@tudelft.nl
Kees Nauta
+31 (0)15 27 83016
c.l.nauta@tudelft.nl
The faculty of IDE offers several
educational programs in which students
execute a project in cooperation with a
company: next to the Bachelor final
projects, also individual graduation
projects and group projects on new
business development and optimizing
existing products. Whether or not a
project suits your company, depends
on your needs and our schedule.
Interested?
Contact: adviesteam-io@tudelft.nl
Awards for industrial
design engineers!
Artificial moonlight, a sustainable business plan: Delft
Eva Nieuwenhuis
wins ‘Rijkswaterstaat’
competition
industrial design engineers are winning awards. In the past
months, students and staff have once again received prizes.
Here’s an overview of some of the winners. Check out the
hottest awards on w
­ ww.ide.tudelft.­nl. Did you win an award
yourself? Send us an email: io@tudelft.nl.
1st prize Sustainable
Business Game
Sharon Goh, student at IDE (Strategic
Product Design) has won the Sustainable
Business Game with her product concept
ECOL: a composting device to be used in a
kitchen. ECOL neutralizes odors and turns
waste into compost within a week. The jury
liked both the product and the business
plan and granted Goh with € 1,000 for the
development of the idea into a business.
Hokwerda Award
June 2009, IDE graduate Jurjen van
Boheemen received the Hokwerda
Award for his design of a lamp for
dentists. Van Boheemen, who graduated
under the supervision of Johan
Molenbroek and Armagan Albayrak, was
granted € 17,000. His design is a radical
improvement of the current lamp: the
beam of light can be placed parallel to
the view of the dentist, resulting in
more light around the mouth of the
client. The intensity of the light is
continuously adjusted to the luminance,
resulting in less contrast.
IDE first-year-student Eva Nieuwenhuis is
one of seven winners in a student
competition organized by ‘Rijkswaterstaat’
(Directorate General for Public Works and
Water Management). Entrants were asked
to suggest a text for a road-sign.
Nieuwenhuis suggested ‘Matig uw
snelheid! Smalle doorgang’. ,,A sign that
would be very applicable in our student
‘MoonLight’ wins
CIFIAL design award
house, where it’s very crowded’’,
according to Nieuwenhuis, who received
her text on a real sign, made of steel. ,,I
will place the sign in the communal living
room of my student house.’’ The kind of
wall that already contains a couple of
traffic signs that ‘fell of the truck’? ,,No,
it’ll be the first sign.’’
IDE students present at
Intel Developer Forum
The design ‘MoonLight’, an Integral Design
Project at IDE, has won the CIFIAL ‘Feel
The Planet Earth Design Competition
Award. The project was executed by
Doortje van de Wouw, Ana Maria Alvarez,
Loucas Papantoniou and Stephanie Wirth,
who designed a safe, low-energy light
using high efficiency LED, a solar panel and
pen-lite batteries. MoonLight aims to
replace the dangerous kerosene lights that
are commonly used in the remote regions
of Cambodia and present a fire risk to
straw and wooden houses. The award
comes with a prize of € 12,500, which will
be donated to Kamworks in Cambodia, the
company producing the MoonLight. Last
year, MoonLight received the Toon van Tuijl
Design prize 2008.
IDE Design for Interaction students have
presented at the Intel Developer Forum
in San Francisco. Five other international
design schools participated in the event.
The IDE projects, named ‘KeyPing’ and
‘Tate’, made a big impact: strong
concepts for interactive products,
supported by working prototypes.
‘Tate’ was developed by Casper van
Huisstede, Bruno Scheele and Jasper
Hartong, based on a design brief of
Booreiland. Tate supports kids who
switch from middle to high school by
translating the easy communication they
find on online social networks, into the
www.kamworks.com
www.toonvantuijldesignprijs.nl
11
physical world. The concept consists of a
personal social creature, Tate, that will
mutate with every other Tate that the
kids will meet in real life; a visual
representation of their social network.
‘KeyPing’, developed by Robert Leufkens,
Mariska Rooth and Tristan Weevers,
consists of an interactive board with
various magnetic ThinKeys attached to
it. The system can be personalized
according to the user’s preferences.
The system is intended for the
communication of elderly with difficulties
in maintaining and controlling social
relationships.
IO-ALUMNI …
because, BECAUSE,
BECAUSE!
Why join the IDE Alumni Association IO-ALUMNI? Dennis Luijer,
member of the board of IO-ALUMNI will give you some good reasons.
BECAUSE! graduates, students
and faculty are now looking for
a story… together
Join the IO-ALUMNI and help uncover the heritage of the 4,000+ IDE
graduates. Why? Because...
Because… it all happens
between your graduation and
the moment your mind ends…
How many people do you know? With how
many do you actually take action to start
something you like doing? I have been
asking myself this question, because of my
desire to connect people who want to be
useful in their own way, but who lack the
connections to make their desire grow into
something real. For me this has been one
of the reasons to join the Alumni
Association. I wanted to connect and meet
people with similar backgrounds. See if
they too wanted to make a difference doing
the stuff they love doing... and having a
couple of drinks along the way. This all
starts from the moment you graduate. In
my opinion it will go on until your mind
stops making you do stuff.
BECAUSE … you are already
part of something MYTHICAL!
Our faculty supports its own Alumni
Association, which is coordinated by three
successful alumni: Deborah Nas (Sunidee),
Martijn Arts (Total Active Media) and
Dennis Luijer (JAM). The Alumni
IO News is a publication of the
faculty of Industrial Design
Engineering of the Delft University
of Technology (TU Delft). It is
published twice a year and will be
sent to all professional contacts
free of charge.
Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Industrial Design
Engineering
Marketing & Communication
Landbergstraat 15
2628 CE Delft
The Netherlands
Telephone +31(0)15 27 89166
Email
io@tudelft.nl
Website
www.ide.tudelft.nl
Design
Haagsblauw, The Hague
Photography
Sam Rentmeester/FMAX
Hans Stakelbeek/FMAX
Printed by
DeltaHage, The Hague
Print
4500
For this story to be truthful, it has to
originate from those 4,000 unique
perspectives. They carry out what they
have learned and are living proof of the
faculties’ standards. To help the emerging
story along, the Alumni Association has
taken the role of CENTRAL STATION for all
of its graduates and students. Destinations
of this central point: sharing experiences,
exchanging leads, starting businesses or
just hanging out! During ‘trips’ to those
destinations IO-ALUMNI will collect our
shared story, piece by piece.
We are searching ambassadors and
gathering momentum to start up alumnicells in different cities in Holland. FUN and
USEFUL destinations for YOU, a growing
story for us all!
Association has teamed up with study
association i.d., two student assistants
(Renee van Dalen and Timme Hovinga) and
our IDE dean (Cees de Bont) to expose the
opportunities for IDE and its alumni.
IO-ALUMNI now looks beyond just
organizing and encouraging social events.
Nothing has been set in stone yet, but a
story is emerging…
The present Alumni Association lacks a
heritage and counts too few committed
members to offer potential graduates a
valuable network. There seems to be no
real reason why anyone should join. This
perspective can be flipped, by looking at
our heritage: there is a future for our
Alumni Association, because we share a
well respected, connected and successful
40 years of IDE! A unique and welldocumented heritage that has resulted in
4,000+ engineers working around the
globe, doing amazing things!
In order for our alumni to create some
leverage and acknowledgement by global
peers and markets, we need to share more
of what we have done over the past 40
years. Our track record speaks for itself,
but we need more people to tell about it!
The board of IDE alumni has formulated a
Final editors
Michel Heesen, Angeline Westbroek
story to be able to do that. The goal of this
tale is to magnetize both graduates and
students to join its new main objective:
connecting all 4,000+ engineers and
creating a central point to connect to and
DO stuff together!
Have you heard about that new alumni
group? No… but I hear it’s MYTHICAL!
interpretation and participation in its
destination to connect the 4,000+
engineers on and offline. Please join to
help make the story your own!
… the central station, of this ‘mythical’
TRIBE is fed daily by young interconnected
insights and reinforced over time by a
legacy of field experience. Acknowledging
that industrial designers of new and old are
pushing the design process and its frames
to its absolute boundaries!
Sounds magnetic?
Add or destroy what you like at your local
IO-ALUMNI event or check www.ioalumni.nl
for the development of the story!
Dennis Luijer
Member of the board of IO-ALUMNI and
story coordinator
What if…
… you were part of a mythical group of
Masters & Bachelors? An influential group
of skilled interconnected kick-ass
individuals, so fantastic, that the mere
mention of YOU being a unique partner in
their combined awesomeness, opens up
doors to insightful opportunity and full
impact initiative…?
… the organization of this tribe of alumni is
totally transparent, giving room for
Contributors
Arjan Koolstra, Bart Ahsmann,
Carlita Kooman, Cees de Bont,
Dennis Luijer, Kees Nauta,
Matthijs van Dijk, Pamela Musch,
Stephan Hoefnagels, Thomas
Visser, Timo de Rijk and Marketing
& Communication IDE.
IO-ALUMNI drinks
12 January 2010- Eindhoven
3 February 2010- Delft
Creating successful products
people love to use
Our mission is to contribute to the knowledge, skills, methods and
professional attitude in the field of integrated product development.
Interested in receiving
IO News twice a year to keep
you up-to-date? Send us an
email or give us a call!
Telephone +31(0)15 27 89166
Email
io@tudelft.nl
We aim to achieve this through education and research at an
internationally recognized scientific level. We study, innovate and
improve the development of durable products and their related
services for people, on the basis of the balanced interest of users,
industry, society and environment.
IO News is published on our
­website. Visit www.ide.tudelft.nl
and download IO News in
PDF-format.
12