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Hi, my name is Sam! With my designs I aim to guide transformation and exchange perspectives through a hands-on and open approach. I have a fascination for the past perspective, and the role of the past in the design process.

I DESIGN FOR ...

MSc Graduation Project

Internship at cocosmos

MSc Research Project

MSc Group Project



As a Bachelor Student I ...

BSc Graduation Project

Social Design Intern

I was introduced to the Social Design world through my Bachelor Internship at Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken. Here I experienced how design can be used to make impact in different aspects of society. This shifted my interest from product-oriented design to a more service and a more social domain of design practice. Following this internship, I worked on facilitating Transformative Practices (TP) as my Final Bachelor Project. This is where I got entangled with TP and the community around it. My Bachelors thesis investigated ways of supporting the TP community in collaboration and sharing of knowledge.

Learn about my Identity as a designer and my Vision on design.

Identity.


Open approach

I approach the design process with an open mindset. I try to embed myself in the context and question my assumptions: What do I know about the context, and can I trust this knowledge? How does my perspective influence the way I position myself towards the issue at hand and the beings involved? By reflecting on these questions throughout the process I stay aware of my position and continuously address new assumptions.

Highly iterative

In my design process I go through many quick iterations. This high pace iterative process allows me to reflect on my designs and evaluate quickly whether my process is going in the right direction. These many iterations help me to explore the design space and uncover new directions and design possibilities.

Merging perspectives

I design with the beings involved, and not for them. I do not decide for them what the right problem, direction or solution is. In my process I aim to bring together multiple perspectives and create an understanding between the perspectives that are embedded in the context. I create tools to embody these perspectives and make them experienceable for others, and so facilitate the merging of perspectives.

Guiding transformation

The process of transformation is a complex one; it involves many stakeholders and interests. I embrace complexity and try to navigate it through my open approach. I explore the past and present to inform myself on the possibilities for the future to explore and guide the directions of transformation towards the future. To navigate this complexity, I create experienceable futures, and use these as a tool to shape transformation in collaboration with everyone involved.

The past perspective

In my process I question the fundamental assumptions which affect my designs. Since we perceive our surroundings with reference to our past experiences, I believe it is important that we dedicate time to understanding the historical perspective of the context we are working on. As a designer, I ask whether the values that are portrayed as truth contribute to achieving the core needs and desires of the entity we attach them to, or whether they have been assigned as socially desirable values. Through doing this I explore the tension between respecting values and core beliefs that are rooted in history and how the system attempts to operationalize them.

Vision.


Design has the power to imagine the future and build an example of this future; this imagination is embedded in the history of the designer, the experiences that have shaped their values and core beliefs over time, and the present they are living in. This power can guide transformation to new ways of living and existence and make this process of transformation tangible. The practice of design is slowly becoming embedded in every facet of life: moving from products towards services and from services to governance and policy making.

The practice of design needs to be aware of the past: I believe that through exploring the past we can learn about the consequences of our present-day design decisions. Being aware of the past, that exists as an intersection of experiences and perspectives, creates awareness of the power we have as designers to change the direction of transformation and build interventions that have a long-lasting impact.

We live in a world in which polarization seems to be ever present. Design is a means to counter this and bring people with different backgrounds closer together through taking a dialogical approach; one that is not based on finding consensus but on creating possibilities of coexistence for different perspectives. Design is a universal language spoken by anyone who likes to change things for the better. I believe the future for designers is to use this language and collaborate to shape society and industry with sustainability, sociability, and quality of life as the foundations for future generations.

© Coded by Sam van der Horst - 2022. All Rights Reserved