eliengielen@skynet.be eliengielen.myportfolio.com +32499761175
ELIEN GIELEN
CONTACT
// 2021 //
PRODUCT DESIGN
Portfolio.
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facts & figures.
Hi, my name is Elien. The next page consists of a few facts about me. This way you can get to know me better and have an idea of who I am, what I do in my spare time and what my ambitions are.
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get to know me
hello, MY NAME IS:
Elien Gielen I WAS BORN ON:
10/12/1998 I LIVE IN:
Hasselt, Belgium I MY SPARE TIME:
You can find me in the Crossfit box doing a sweaty workout. MY FAVORITE QUOTE:
“Someone busier than you is working out right now!” THESE ARE MY BEST FEATURES:
My perseverance & energy level. THIS MAKES ME HAPPY:
When my friends and family are happy, I’m happy. MY GOAL IN LIFE IS:
Keeping pushing myself and never stop growing.
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about me. I’ve always loved being with my friends. Going to the scouts was the perfect way to see and hang out with them. A day spent at the scouts, is a day well spent. I just love to be in the open air and do fun activities with my friends. After being a leader for three years, I decided to stop to focus more on my studies. Being a girl scout helped me to work in teams and gave me friends that I had indescribable adventures with. Leading a group of young, energetic kids helped me to develop a sense of responsibility and definitely made me more mature. My passion for music is all thanks to my mom. Growing up, her love for music was contagious and made me want to learn how to make music. So I started going to the music academy three times a week. I learned how to read notes and play the guitar. I kept going to the academy for 9 years in a row. After that my best friend and I started up our own little band and soon we were playing at weddings, birthdays, business parties,… Messing around and trying to make things is always something I’ve loved. I used to make my sister anything she asked for. Flipflops in paper? A whole grocery shop including all kinds of vegetables? You name it, nothing was too crazy to make. This is where my love for designing and creating things started. I grew up in a quiet sportive family. Through the years I developed a love for sports as well. I played tennis for 8 years but had to stop due to my studies in Antwerp. Since then, I started going to the gym and setting myself new goals to achieve.
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assignments.
On the following pages you will find a few of the assignments I completed since I started studying Product Development. You can see the learning process I’ve been going through and hopefully see that I’ve grown as a product developer during these years. I hope that I will continue growing and will never stop learning .
son-mat. For my Master’s Thesis at the University of Antwerp I created ‘son-mat’. ‘son-mat’ consists of a set of fermentation tools and a mobile application, that not only guide the user during the process of vegetable fermentation, but also provide more insight into the fermentation process. The most important parameters that influence the safety and taste experience of the end product are mapped out, which help the user create a safe
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and delicious fermentation.
allégro. allégro. is a project that came to life during the eight week course Interaction Design. Throughout the whole design process, the focus was on userproduct interaction and the way users understand and experiences digital products. allégro. responds to the movements and touches of its user and converts these into a dazzling dance and light show. Its subtle yet surprising movements create a unique experience every evening. Creating allégro, we wanted to not only a design a product, but a whole new experience itself, helping people to look beyond the purely functional design of modern products. This resulted in a physically working prototype that was modeled on Solidworks and later 3D printed. The movements of the lamp are controlled by an Arduino UNO board and the projections were created on After Effects and projected using a
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NEBULA mini projector.
allégro. a-lay-groh • Italian (n.) In ballet, allégro is a term applied to bright, fast or brisk steps and movement. All steps where the dancer jumps are considered allégro, such as sautés, jetés, cabrioles, assemblés, and so on.
IT ALL BEGINS WITH
a single touch sparking a unique sound and light show
IGNITING THE INTERACTION
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momo. Momo is a product service that focusses on helping new mommy’s. The weeks just after the baby is born are often hectic and can be found very stressful. Momo helps these moms to find time for themselves again and lets them enjoy being a mommy more. We did this by developing an app (in Adobe XD) where friends can offer their time as a gift to the mom. Every friend or family member can sign up and choose what tasks they would like to help the mom with. This way she sees how many people are offering their help to her and can decided whether to use it or not. For the friends and family that live further away or don’t have the time to come and visit, there are the additional services. Momo works with external providers like Deliveroo or local cleaning offices, who’s services can be bought for the mom. This way the mom always has help when needed. Because momo believes that more help means more time, is more joy and
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more mommy.
UX design. For the course UX Design they gave us the task to design a user centered speaker. This means that the experience the users gets whilst using and controlling the speaker is evenly as important as the design of the object. The motions and thoughts of the user are the point of focus for designing the perfect user centered audio speaker.
“WHY DO WE S ETTLE FO R USABLE WHEN WE CAN MAKE I N T E R FAC E S B O T H USABLE AN D PLEASU R ABLE? ”
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- A A R O N WA LT E R
CAD. For the course CAD consummation we were given the assignment to make a family of speakers. This is one model of a set of Bluetooth speakers that were modelled in Solidworks and rendered in Keyshot. The three speakers are a configuration of each other and represent a high-end, basic and
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kids model. Here you can see the high-end version.
product & production. For the course Product and Production we had to design a product made out of a specific given material. This material was EPP. This resulted in BABA. BABA stands for ‘Build and Build again’. With this slogan, we want to refer to the infinite amount of furniture that can be created with our components. We stimulate children to give their fantasy free rein and make everything they have ever dreamt of. Since you can make playful objects as well as more serious ones, BABA grows along
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with the child, making it a durable product.
gardening tools. The goal of this assignment was to create a product family consisting of three gardening tools. The tools also had to be designed in an ergonomically correct way. For this challenge we paired up in teams of three. We chose to design a trimming shear, a plant sprayer and a foldable
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saw.
structural design. The assignment for the course structural design was a more technical one. In teams of three we received a bachelor thesis from the past year made by a student of the University of Antwerp. It was our job to improve the design technically as well as visually. The machine was made to prepare a special type of vegan cake batter. This by order
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of Madam Bakster, a vegan bakery in Gent.
EPS project. The bGuard baby monitor is a project I worked on during my exchange in Porto. The product we developed is a multifunctional product that consists of four different objects. All of these items contribute to monitoring the baby’s health and lowering the risk of Sudden Infant Death
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Syndrome.
binoculars. In the second semester of the first year we had the subject Design and History. They expected us to make a pair of binoculars in the style of a given art movement. I received the style streamline. After exploring the main characteristics of the style, I created a collage that represents the style and helped me define the important style elements for my pair of binoculars. After sketching the final presentation drawing I sculpted the binoculars out
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of a material called polystyrene.
Streamline
design challenge. Another part of Sustainable Design was a twoday design challenge. This was given to us by OVAM, the Waste Agency of Flanders. This challenge was also related to solving the Plastic Soup problem. In teams we brainstormed and came up with all sorts of ideas. My team and I wanted to prevent additional plastic ending up in the ocean by focusing us on the fishing nets. Our solution was Networks. This is a leasing company where companies can sign up and hire as many nets as they wish for a reasonable price. You pay for the nets and Networks pays for the repair of the nets. This way fishers won’t be tempted to throw their nets in the ocean when damaged. If they do throw them away anyway, the nets are tagged with
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a chip that can leads straight back to their tenant.
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my skills. LANGUAGES:
Dutch: French: English:
DESIGN:
Photoshop: Ingdesign: Illustrator: Solidworks: Sketching:
KAN Design. In spring 2020 I did an internship at KAN Design. There I had the opportunity to design an acoustic booth for open workspaces. Mono Office is a concept for open workspaces that allows you to find peace and tranquility throughout the busy workday. It offers you not only visual but also acoustic privacy and is available in a sitting and standing model.
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P R I VA C Y A S A P R I O R I T Y
Mono Office 1
2
3
brand
different models
types of privacy
Creneau International. During the summer of 2019, I did an internship at Creneau International. This is an international company with one office in Hasselt and another one in Dubai. I decided to do an internship there to expand my graphic skills and learn more about the corporate life. During my intership, I joined in on a couple of cases they were working on at the moment. One of them was the rebranding of a baby and kids supply store called ‘De Kinderplaneet’’
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(which translates as the Kids’ Planet).
book cover. This illustration is a project I worked on in the summer of 2019. It was a very personal project for me because I had the honour to design the cover of a book written by my mom. I loved it that we had the opportunity to do this together and create something with the two of us. The book is called ‘A Little Knowledge’ and is available on Amazon. I created this cover on my iPad with the
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app Procreate.
A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
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interests.
This last chapter is about what I do in my spare time. This helps give an idea what my life outside of Product Development looks like.
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music. My best friend and I play in a band called Misguided. She sings and I back her by playing the guitar. We love giving our personal touch to songs from artists like Amy Winehouse, Selah Sue and Paolo Nutini.
girl scouts. I’ve been a member, and later leader, of the girl scouts since I was 11. Our name is Gidsen de Vrede and we consist of a group of 128 girls.
sports. I love being outdoors and doing sports. This is the perfect way for me to clear my head and forget all my worries. From CrossFit to Pilates to surfing, I love it all.