“Live in the now, to fully experience this moment”

How do you define yourself? As a designer, or as someone who creates experiences?

I am an explorer. This could be done designing, writing, carrying out research, or simply by living my life. There are several ways to explore, but the main element in this is experimentation. I am driven by several arguments and one of them is sustainability.

What is the outcome of your creative work?

The best time to explore in life is childhood. Until I was 10 years old, I was exploring many new areas. Of course I did not have the same mindset as someone who has been studying in school or at university. The years of studying shaped me and my way of doing discoveries. At the same time university blocked my freedom. When I became an entitled industrial designer I started to design objects I wanted to make myself. This was mainly done with self-study. This helped me to discover what kind of objects I wanted to make.

In the beginning it has been very much the idea of reuse and recycling. Using old materials to create new products. If you look at the way I design now it has made a major shift. The products are not just objects for the sake of being one, it is much more than that. The difference lies mainly in the way I design. Now it is more at the experience level, instead of the product level. This does not mean that I forgot about the product. It simply has become less important.

So, what task does sustainability play in your work?

I believe that sustainability fulfills a big role because it has to do with responsibility and the creation of meaning.

What is your creative process, how do you design?

There are many ways to design. Most of all there is a personal way of doing things. There are quite some differences between projects that I have been doing. Things pop up in moments when creativity comes to an eruption. It happens to me especially during moments of relaxation. For me it is about finding the equilibrium between a certain amount of pressure and a certain amount of relaxation.

It seems your design method starts by studying the properties of the materials. How does this process from material to application work?

In a regular design process, you would choose the material at the third or fourth stage of the process. In contradiction to this, I have been designing products starting with the material itself. But there is a problem when working with new materials. There are not many existing applications you can refer to. This means that you should first investigate the intrinsic properties of the material by experimenting; bending it, cutting it, burning it and all other sort of things one can do. The result from this process of experimentation is presented in a graph where all intrinsic properties are shown. The second step is to brainstorm by choosing specific properties which are unique for that material. This will lead to possible and feasible applications. The final product makes maximum use of the properties. This approach has been followed with the design of the aluminum ruler, Curva.

Tell us the history of the Curva, how did you end up with it?

The Curva was designed together with Eelco Rietveld, and it was conceived by accident; we were doing research in Rotterdam by visiting companies dealing with refuse and recycling. One of these companies was specialized in metals. We jumped into a container to search for useful materials. We realized that most refuse couldn’t be used because the shape is too complex. However, we discovered Luxaflex (aluminum Venetian blinds) and thought of new applications. With Luxaflex, you could both measure round surfaces and draw straight lines, so a ruler proved to be the right application.

Did Frozen follow the same process?

Frozen was designed after I had gained more knowledge of reuse projects. I was brainstorming about splitting the mountain of refuse into two categories; one with materials that could be reused easily because of simple shapes and the other with ‘unusable’ refuse due to complex shapes. When you look closely at the Frozen fruitbowl and the Curva ruler, you see a new application which has enough distance from what it used to be. These products are firstly purchased because of their aesthetic and functional qualities and secondly because of the reuse story behind it.

Now you have The Moment Company where you mainly focus on creating experiences. What is the drive behind this shift?

If you are interested in sustainability, you need to be aware of new developments. One of these developments is the theory of the experience economy. According to this theory the interest of people is moving from the physical level of an object to the experience level of it. This means that the attention in consumption is shifting. If people are more interested in gathering experiences instead of objects it would create great opportunities for sustainability. It would mean less products and more happiness. Apart from this I personally discovered the limitations of reuse. With The Moment Company I am looking for a larger impact.

Tell us about the Manuals for the sustainable experience. What is your aim with these?

I thought about a system to sell an experience using the interface of a manual based on 24 or less images. The manual explains how to reach a result, but the actual result can differ for every one of us. One of these manuals explains how you can use an old washing machine drum and turn it into a barbeque, connecting it with new materials. I think it is fascinating to stimulate consumers to make things by themselves. This creates conscious thinking. I think it is interesting for people to be a true Homo Ludens. To be a person who plays and hence lives the experience.

What keeps you busy now?

I think a lot about the question ‘what is a sustainable experience?’ and about how I can create an approach to reach this experience. I am carrying out research on these issues. Sustainability is mostly perceived as something lasting for long. So it is about time projected in the future. Some results of my quest point in a different direction. It points at the thin line between the future and the past. Having a sustainable experience is being able to live in the now, to fully experience this moment.

Given the choice; which object could you not live without?

Three years ago I decided not to buy any product during half a year. The only thing I allowed myself to buy were experiences; going to the movies, having a beer with friends, taking a class of yoga. This was quite hard because during these six months things broke down. The CD player did, so I started listening to the radio. My TV broke down so I spent more time on reading books. So actually, these problems created new opportunities. I am very fond of reading, so the object I couldn’t live without would be a book.

What is the best recognition you could get?

If any of my projects creates a fantastic experience for the user, I would be happy. The collection of these moments is my best recognition.