Thomas van den Bliek, 1/5, home blogger ArtEZ Business Centre
Product Design
Introduction
My name is Thomas van den Bliek and I’m a product designer with an interest in new technologies. My fascination for the transition from an analog to a digital world has led me to explore the byproducts that emerge with these new technologies and systems. I want to question the frictionless life that the digital era promotes and recover the human aspect through design propositions.
Can you tell us more about your graduation project?
My graduation collection ‘Objects for a Cashless Society’ delves deeper into the digitalization of the financial and economic world. The shift from physical to digital payments has led certain social and emotional aspects of our behavior and ideas around value to change or even disappear. The physical experience of monetary exchange has morphed into a digitalized, indirect procedure where our conscious awareness of value is rendered irrelevant. In my graduation collection I want to restore a physical shape to the digital flow of money, allowing mechanics and notions of value to materialize.
Gestures, interactions and rituals from Thomas van den Bliek on Vimeo.
Dit heb ik gedaan door alternatieve ontwerpvoorstellen te maken op het huidige pinsysteem waarmee we dagelijks betalen. Door er een fysieke en tastbare tussenlaag aan toe te voegen dienen de klanten een handeling te doen voordat de transactie geslaagd is. Als laatste ben ik gaan kijken hoe het mogelijk is om thuis je digitale geld op te slaan. Hieruit is het ontwerp voor de ‘Vessel’ ontstaan. Een keramische spaarpot die door middel van geluid weer volume geeft aan je inkomen.
What did you expect when you started the program?
When I started the program five years ago (I graduated interimin January 2019) I expected to have my diploma in hand four years later, comfortably sitting back in a chair of my own design. That didn’t quite pan out. Over the last few years, I spent a lot of time exploring where my interests really lie. In the first two years of the program, you work on more traditional assignments like designing a seat or a pair of shoes. In the third-year course Transition, by Frank Kolkman, I found myself in the middle of a lot of cross-pollination with students from the Graphic Design and Interaction Design programs. That opened my eyes to all sorts of new possibilities within the design profession, which found expression in my current graduation collection and my focus on making contemporary technology more transparent.
What did you learn and what would you have liked to change?
During my time as a student, I learned a lot about what my interests are and what questions I want to ask as a designer. The field of design is very broad and always shifting. The program ensures you see all the different possibilities. It’s up to you to find your own role and position; the team of teachers helps you with that. I’ve been doing freelance work for a couple of months and only now realize what a luxury it was to have access to a workplace like the one we had at the academy. Looking back on my years there, I wish I would have made optimal use of it.
What advice would you like to give to new students starting their program?
Keep your eyes open and look around; find that interest that drives you to keep pursuing this profession. It’s good to follow guidelines, but make sure also to treat the art academy as your playground – take the time and space it offers to find what really motivates you. I learned the most from those assignments that went fatally wrong. By trying a wide variety of things, you’ll be sure to find the things that suit you.
Switches (material research) from Thomas van den Bliek on Vimeo.
What are your plans for the coming year?
Because I graduated interim in January 2019, I’ve been working for a few months as a freelance designer. I want to keep doing that this year, supplemented with a part-time job to pay the bills. In November, Bram de Groot (a graduate from Interaction Design) and I will get the keys to a studio space at Arnhems Buiten. We’ll be working there individually, but I’m sure we’ll also be cooperating on our projects. November is going to be a busy month, because I’ll be traveling as an alumnus to Kyoto, Japan. The Transition project will take the 3rdyear students in Product Design and Interaction Design to do a workshop at Kyoto Institute of Technology. But more about that later…
What are your views on entrepreneurship, what does it mean to you and your work?
Entrepreneurship isn’t taught at the academy. It’s something I’m learning as I go, sometimes the hard way. It means I have to look realistically at the commissions I accept. How much time will this cost me? How will it benefit me? Does it fit the kind of work I feel confident doing? Clients are nothing like your teachers, and you have to take care to spend your time efficiently. Where you were free to fail at the academy, this will cost you money and jobs by the time you’re a freelancer. On the other hand, it’s inspiring to see how the recent ArtEZ graduates get together to finalize and polish their commissions. The good vibes and the mutual generosity make it all really satisfying.
Where do you want to be in five years? (Ambitions, dreams, prospects?)
After graduating in January 2019 I basically jumped straight into the freelance life as a designer, and registered at the Chamber of Commerce. It’s becoming clear that I’d like to build more experience through a Masters or by working at different companies and studios. Ultimately, I would like to bring all these skills along to work full-time at my own product design studio.
Translation by: Witold van Ratingen
Tangible Pin Terminals from Thomas van den Bliek on Vimeo.
Thomas van den Bliek
I’m a product designer with an interest in new technologies. My fascination for the transition from an analog to a digital world has led me to explore the byproducts that emerge with these new technologies and systems. I want to question the frictionless life that the digital era promotes and recover the human aspect through design propositions.