I develop products that make a difference for people, planet and profit. I help companies and organizations with their innovation funnel. Creating a roadmap to the positive impact they can make with their products and services. With successive innovations on the roadmap, I provide support and guidance through the actual design, development and implementation processes. I work with their design team on the ideation and initial design of their new product. If they don't have a design team, I and other designers on our Makers Team can develop products from start to finish. Yes, I love designing in a verb sense. Creating something new and something beautiful gives me a lot of energy. Especially when you get to do it as a team. Understanding the users of products, coming up with smart solutions, making beautiful drawings and many prototypes are part of it. I have more than 30 years of experience in product development. Fresh from TU Delft / Industrial Design I started as a designer at General Electric in Pittsfield MA, USA. I worked on innovations for residential construction in the USA. It gave me my first experience as a designer but also a lot of insight into how American society and business works.

With the ambition to set up a design agency, I returned to the Netherlands and started FLEX/design together with Jeroen Verbrugge. Under our leadership, FLEX grew into one of the leading product development agencies in Europe with 30+ design professionals. We developed both breakthrough and incremental innovations for leading brands worldwide. LEGO, Sara Lee, Unilever, Tefal, Post NL, Tennant, Albert Heijn or Hero are just some of the regular clients for whom we developed products and structural packaging. As one of the first design agencies, we integrated insight research and into our product development processes. Our proprietary research methods helped clients successfully define their innovation funnel. I am proud of all the design awards we have won over the years (Dutch Design Award, Red Dot, iF best of 10, ID, GIO best of category, Pentaward, Dieline, NL Packaging award) and that some of our products are in museums around the world (MoMa NY, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam). But above all, I am proud of the fact that many of our products have enriched people's lives: led them to healthy lifestyles, made society more circular, helped them in old age, reduced workloads and brought joy to life.

The best experience you can have as a designer is to bring a product to market yourself. Only then do you really see how difficult some problems can be, how practical issues can influence decisions, and how time and budget constraints affect your process. That's why I joined LOCOletter. Together with Remon de Zeeuw, we brought the idea for an innovative chocolate letter to life. LOCOletter has been successfully sold and marketed during the Dutch holidays in retail and B2B for 3 years now. It is of great value to let young designers benefit from my specific experience. At FLEX/design, I saw it as my job to guide young designers in their first project experiences and inspire them to great design. I tried to do the same as a teacher at the Design Academy and in guest lectureships at various Design Schools.

Over the years I have been a board member of several foundations and organizations as a connector to the creative industry.
Since 2013, I have been a member of Generous Minds. In 2018 I made the difficult choice to sell my shares in FLEX/design to Jeroen who has been my partner since 1988 and dedicate myself fully to Generous Minds. This gives me the freedom to devote all my energy to those projects and those clients that I believe make the biggest positive impact. Because many of the 'Minds have different backgrounds, I can learn new things and add a new kind of value to the projects I work on as a designer.
In 1993, I developed a product for Sociale Werkvoorziening Rotterdam. This is an organization that employs people with physical and/or mental challenges that make it difficult for them to find regular jobs. At FLEX, we created a small product that solved the problem of excess electrical cables (from lamps, appliances, lap top computers, headphones). The CableTurtle, as this consumer product is called, has been sold more than half a million times annually since 1993. It has provided a solid revenue stream and permanent jobs. A design icon, it has received many design awards and is part of the permanent collection at MoMa in NY. It is one of the best examples of how design adds value, both socially and commercially.

Seepje is another example of the power of design. Minds' generous packaging design has helped this great brand penetrate the market and be recognized in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the UK for what they stand for. With commercial success, Seepje is contributing to less plastic pollution, a low carbon footprint and opportunities for women in Nepal. For more on this case, check out my post on Seepje.

Design and 'design thinking' is a very powerful tool to solve wicked problems. For Post NL, Jacco de Haan and myself (together with engineers from FLEX/design) developed a solution to enable automatic mail processing in the sorting centers. This complex problem was solved through a process of creative problem solving, co-creation with Post NL operators, many prototypes and tests and of course solid engineering. A solid solution was implemented in 2017 and has been part of the daily mail sorting process at Post NL ever since. No letter in the Netherlands is delivered without having gone through our solution.
I am proud of all the design awards we have won over the years (Dutch Design Award, Red Dot, iF best of 10, ID, GIO best of category, Pentaward, Dieline, NL Packaging award) and that some of our products are in museums around the world (MoMa NY, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam). But most of all, I am proud of the fact that many of our products have enriched people's lives in a big way: led them to healthy lifestyles, made society more circular, helped them in old age, reduced workloads and brought joy to life.

I am deeply connected to Joan and my two sons. It is hard to find the right words to express how much joy I take in having them as part of my life. I love the ordinary things we do together, the trips we take, the meals we cook and the stories we tell.