As you already know, I am an Industrial Designer and an Educator.
Born in Belgium, I grew up dreaming of designing cars. I studied at ISD (now Rubika) in France, Espace Sbarro in Switzerland, and finally UID in Sweden. In between, I totaled over a year of internships at Peugeot-Citroen Style Avancé and Secma in France, I.DE.A Institute and Fiat-Alfa-Lancia Advanced Design in Italy. I got a Master of Arts in Industrial Design with major in Transportation Design from the now prestigious Umeå Institute of Design (UID) in 2001. This first segment of my path already got me to experience radically different approaches to design and to design education. I started to see how vast the world of design can be.
Joining Pronima/Caran got me to work for brands like Saab, Atlas-Copco, Thule, Scania and Volvo Group within a year, and finally at Volvo Cars for 3 years. Working at Faurecia (now Forvia) in France and Germany expanded that portfolio to brands like Ford, Range Rover and Opel. That time in the car industry embedded manufacturing technologies into my toolbox, and perceived quality into my approach to design.
I then turned toward product design in Belgium, before moving to Czech Republic to add packaging and branding strings to my bow, at Cocoon and Hill's. The focus shifted towards a sharper brand awareness, better understanding of Marketing aspects, and developing designs for visibility and performance at the sales channel.
The decade spent at Honeywell Safety Products (later PIP) taught me that design is about putting the right purpose in the right context, fully understanding whom we serve and exploring how best to serve them beyond regulations, for the sake of their safety and wellbeing. I got to learn from great minds and practice on diverse projects, including for Gas Detection, Intelligent Life Care and Aerospace divisions. It combined all the skills acquired until then, added advanced Design Thinking tools, and culminated with 20 patents and 6 prestigious design awards.
In parallel, I have given talks, delivered lectures, and facilitated workshops at respected universities in Sweden and the Czech Republic. These opportunities to teach and coach young, aspiring designers — while sharing my practical know-how alongside real-world anecdotes — bring me great satisfaction. They fuel my desire to contribute meaningfully to the education of future generations.
So, today, this rich mix of learning experiences, in 7 European countries, in many types of industries, from tiny agency work to large Fortune 500 corporations and public Universities, and the unique point of view it gave me, are available to you. Whether you want support on an Industrial Design project, or you need a speaker/facilitator to inspire and motivate your own product development teams, just let me know.