Portfolio Sarah Serneels

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Design Portfolio

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rneels - Selec e S t

Hello!

My name is Sarah. I am a young designer ready to kickstart my career. This portfolio contains a selection of my best student work. Have a look! But first I ‘d like to tell you a little bit about myself. During my education in product development I discovered I love strategic design and designing interactions, experiences and services. Next to that I have great interest for graphic design. I love using good graphic design to enhance strategy, experiences and services. To gain more experience in that field, I added one year of studying, Brand & Packaging Design.

@ sarahserneels@gmail.com

@ linkedin.com/in/sarah-serneels/

This is me My head buzzes Next to design, I love art and culture, food, travelling and citytripping.

I’m curious I am always wondering how I am always wondering stuff works and why things how stuff works and happen.

Discovering why things happen.new things makes smile.

Discoveringme something new makes me smile.

I’I’m m empathetic empathetic I easily identify with other people’s way of thinking.

As a designer I think this is an important asset.

I love crafts Think carpentry, bookbinding, sewing, …

I’ m down to earth I have a practical mindset.

Dreaming of new concepts is fun, but bringing those dreams to reality is even more fun.

I’ve got the guts... ... to organize an event to test the design of an event concept, to interview strangers, to skydive, ... In short, I like pushing my boundaries.

Resume Experience

Education

Bailleul Ontwerpbureau | 2019 Design Internship: 3 months

Brand & Packaging Design | 2018 - ’19 LUCA - School of Arts

Participation in exhibition design Brand activation design Communication campaign design

Ma Product Development | 2013 - ‘18 UAntwerp

Voka - Antwerpen-Waasland | 2019 Freelance work Graphic design Layout design Absintt | 2018 Design Internship: 2 weeks Brand strategy creation Logo and corporate identity design

Major strategic design Minor interaction design Magna cum laude Greek-mathematics | 2007 - ‘13 Sint-Pieterscollege Leuven

Software Photoshop

Mo Ka Design Studio | 2017 Summer job: 1 month

Illustrator

Brand activation design Graphic design Communication campaign design

Solidworks

Indesign SketchUp Rhinoceros

Mo Ka Design Studio | 2017 Design Internship: 3 months

KeyShot

Brand activation design Graphic design Design for brand experience

Languages

Koning Kevin vzw | 2015, 2016, 2017 Volunteer work

English

Main cook on a summer camp Up to 50 people, limited budget BNP Paribas Fortis | 2014 Student job: 1 month

Dutch French

Various Driver’s license B

Characteristics Persistant

Creative

Empathetic

Responsible

Design strengths Strategic design & front-end innovation

Competencies

Experience design

Vision

Service design

Teamwork Customer orientation

Brand design

Focus on quality

Skills I gained at...

Design vision

Mo Ka Design Agency

In my view these concepts can enhance the power of design. Wherever relevant they are part of my design process.

Communicating designs to clients Working autonomously Attention to detail Creating campaign visuals

Exploratory research Involving users

Absintt Market research Creating brand DNA & strategy Storytelling Basics of project management Bailleul Ontwerpbureau Making good presentations

User centered design Storytelling

Contact @ sarahserneels@gmail.com

Moodboarding

@ linkedin.com/in/sarah-serneels

Conceptual thinking

@sarahs_design_projects

Time management & planning

Content 1

Master’s thesis: Co.connect

2

Pop-up playground

3

Wordcatcher

4

The Bold Sister

5

Manoj

6

Gregory

7

Technopolis

Strategic design & service design

Service design & experience design

Experience design & interaction design

Brand design & storytelling

Strategic design & brand design

Product Display

Strategic design & front-end innovation

Co.connect Entrepreneurship and creativity are considered to be the engine of our wealth. A lot of the highly skilled professionals that could be great entrepreneurs are in fact employees of larger companies. How come? Research showed that some of these people would love to be an entrepreneur, but they can’t find the right business idea.

Others have great ideas all the time, but don’t consider themselves capable of tackling the financial side of the business. Co.connect connects these two profiles so they can start a business together. But just connecting them is not enough. Additional research showed that there is a need for help to build strong collaborations between co-founders who have just met. Co.connect combines both findings in one design. This project was my master’s thesis. It started with elaborate research which then led to the design of a product-service system.

Strategic design Service design

Research The initial topic of my thesis was the following question: how can we motivate potential entrepreneurs to actually become entrepreneurs? To respond to this question, I did a lot of research. For this research I used some tools and techniques like stakeholder mapping, persona, journeys, system mapping, ... I also conducted approximately 25 interviews and organized brainstorms with the target group.

Co-foundernights Idea owners and skill owners meet each other on co-foundernights. In six speed dates they meet other aspiring entrepreneurs that match their online profile. In a second round they get to know two of the people they met in the speed dates a little better in a longer conversation.

Then they get a better understanding of one of these people by working on a design thinking-inspired case together.

Concept testing To verify the effectiveness of the cofoundernights, I organized a test-event.

Twenty (aspiring) entrepreneurs attended this night with the goal of finding a partner.

The event was a absolute success and almost everybody said they would like to attend another co-foundernight to meet more possible co-founders.

Photos: pvhmedia.com

Applications Digital applications are an important element of Co.connect’s service. Aspiring entrepreneurs subscribe on Co.connect’s website by making a personal profile.

The website matches them to potential co-founders, whom they can meet on cofoundernights. On the co-foundernights a webapplication guides every participant through the night.

Co-founderkit People who have found each other can buy a co-founderkit. Tools and techniques in the kit focus on the building of strong collaborations and development or enrichment of the business idea. I put a lot of thought in the graphic design of the toolkit to make it attractive as well as to enhance the usability. Eventually, I made a high-fidelity prototype.

The co-founderkit is built around four themes: business idea, business design, formal arrangements and personality.

Tools and templates help co-founders figure out whether they would be good partners, develop or enrich their business idea, make formal arrangements about the collaboration and design their business.

Pop-up playground Every child should be able to attend whatever youth organisations they want to. Although this sounds really obvious, in Flanders there are still a lot of children who can’t. That’s where the pop-up playground enters the picture. The pop-up playground is a set of play modules that pops up at disadvantaged neighborhoods to introduce socially vulnerable children to local youth organizations. In the playground children get to know members of youth organizations and they learn about their existence. This way, we make the existing offer of youth organizations known to all children. To build bridges between the children, their parents and the members of the youth organization, a social worker is involved in the project. I worked on this project in my second year at the UAntwerp.

Team | Sarah Serneels, Julie Snykers, Nina Hartinger, Stine Moons

Service design Experience design

Conceptualisation At the beginning of this project we conducted some research into children and poverty in Flanders. These children often have less chances of taking part in social and leisure activities. There are organisations who focus on involving socially vulnerable children in youth organizations. It is however more difficult to let these children participate in ‘regular’ youth organizations.

Based on these findings, we used some brainstorm techniques to determine a product-service idea.

User testing A little further in the process we built prototypes and let children play with these. This way we could test our designs and adjust them to optimize the interactions.

Play modules The different play modules all have a different social use that was designed to fit the main purpose of the playground. They facilitate playing and conversation between youth workers and socially vulnerable children. All modules consist of multiple pieces that can be put together by the children themselves. As such they create their own playground.

Thinking along

Creativity

Climbing

Thinking | building

Fantasy

Wordcatcher “I want to hear a story about a butterfly and an elephant on vacation.� The Wordcatcher is a product-service combination that delivers bedtime stories for children on demand. The firm that distributes the Wordcatchers employs a number of writers and actors who write the stories and read them. The product embodies this service and serves as a meaningful touchpoint. I did this project in my third year at the UAntwerp. Based on the given service I designed the product with focus on interactions with a digital device through physical, meaningful movements.

Team | Sarah Serneels & Sara Van Moeseke

Interaction design Experience design

Step 1 To order a story the user takes the cork stopper out of the Wordcatcher and tells the product three words.

Step 2 By pushing down the stopper, the words are sent to the company.

Step 3 The Wordcatcher is making the story.

In the meantime it is slowly tilting.

When the Wordcatcher is lying down, the story is ready.

Step 4 The storytelling is activated by tilting the lid at the bottom of the Wordcatcher. Inside the Wordcatcher a sky full of stars twinkles.

Prototyping The design process of this project was built on constant prototyping. We started with very basic prototypes to design the main interactions. Then we refined them as the design was being refined. In the end we made a cardboard prototype that closely resembled the real product.

User testing We tested the interactions of the Wordcatcher with a cardboard prototype.

This gave us insight in the usability of the product as well as the desirability. Would the children like to use the product? Do they understand the interactions?

The Bold Sister “Coffee, move over ! The Bold Sister is in town. And she brought an exciting new product.” The Bold Sister is a brand I created during my education in Brand and Packaging Design. It’s a brand we created for beetroot, matcha and curcuma latte mixes. These lattes are made of beetroot, matcha and curcuma powder mixed with hot or cold milk. They are a colorful and delicious alternative for coffee and tea. Together with Tess Deflo I designed this brand from scratch, starting by the brand strategy. We also created the brand name, logo and packaging.

Team | Sarah Serneels and Tess Deflo

Strategic design Packaging design

Strategy Competition The competition can be divided into two groups, direct and indirect competition. Other latte mixes are direct competition to The Bold Sister. Coffee, tea and chai latte mixes are indirect competition.

Coffee, move over!

The Bold Sister offers a hip, quirky and tasty alternative for coffee and tea. We radically challenge the established products coffee and tea. The Bold Sister offers a total experience that goes beyond the packaging.

Target group Young value seekers and foodies Love discovering new experiences and tastes Share their experiences on social media Question the establishment Live their life to the fullest

Brand name The Bold Sister - “a bold alternative for coffee and tea”

Brand values Wilfulness - creativity - progressiveness - Living life to the fullest - care fore our planet

Brand essence Wilfulness & quirkyness!

Brand personality If the brand would be a person, who would it be?

Well, that’s easy, it’s the bold sister! We created an impersonation of the brand, the bold sister. She represents the brand in all communication. She is quirky, tough and naughty and she likes making jokes.

The bold sister doesn’t care about the establishment and just does what she likes.

Logo design The logo of The Bold Sister reflects the identity of the brand. First of all, the activist fist fits the baseline: ‘Coffee, move over’ perfectly. The fist also matches the bold character of the brand. With the spoon we make a reference to the product: a latte mix.

Sustainability One of the main values of The Bold Sister is ‘care for the planet’. That’s why we only used recyclable materials designing the packaging. The jar and its cap are made of PET. The shrinksleeve has a recycling strip. When you tear this strip, the sleeve detaches from the jar and can also be recycled.

Experience The Bold Sister offers a total experience.

On the inside of the cap there is a surprising and funny motivational quote.

Next to that, consumers are encouraged to have a look on the brand’s Instagram to follow The Bold Sister’s adventures, get tips on how to creatively use the latte mixes and laugh with more funny quotes.

, L A E R IT’S LOOK! A HAVE

Manoj A delicious, fair and sustainable piece of chocolate to share with your friends? That’s Manoj. Handmade by Charles Wailly in his atelier in Ghent, this chocolate is all about sharing a moment of happiness. It is sold in large portions and made to be shared at the end of a dinner.

The chocolate is beautifully wrapped so it’s the ultimate gift for the host of that dinner. Together with two fellow students I created this brand during my education in Brand and Packaging Design. We developed a brand strategy, came up with a name and designed a logo and packaging.

Team | Sarah Serneels, Nieke Stegerman, Yentl van Goethem

Strategic design Packaging design

Strategy Competition Bean-to-bar chocolate brands like Krakakoa, Original Beans, Marou, ...

Story “Sharing a moment of happiness with your friends and with the cocoa farmers�. Together with your friends you enjoy a delicious piece of chocolate and the cocoa farmers that are responsible for that chocolate get fair pay. The focus of Manoj is on the experience of the eating of the chocolate in a group of friends or family.

Target group Young value seekers and foodies Love discovering new experiences and tastes Constantly looking for inspiring experiences Social and spontaneous Conscious consumers

Brand values Honesty - social responsibility - enjoyment - experience connectedness

Brand personality ‘Character traits’ of the brand: warm, happy, authentic, spontaneous, social

Brand name Manoj means ‘hands’ in the universal language esperanto. Hands are for us a symbol of connectedness and sharing. Connectedness and sharing between friends but also with cocoa farmers in the south.

Moodboard

Storytelling Manoj is built on a strong brand story.

That is why we paid a lot of attention to storytelling on the packaging. On the back of the pack the story of the origin of the cocoa is illustrated. On the inside we tell a little bit more about the name ‘Manoj’. The QR-code leads to videos of the cocoafarmers Manoj works with.

Logo design We designed an honest logo for Manoj.

The slightly imperfect letters represent the authentic and honest character of the brand. The shape of the letter ‘N’ gives the logo a cheerful and spontaneous touch.

Gregory Great packs should be worn, not carried. Inspired by this philosophy, backpack brand Gregory strives to make the most comfortable and reliable backpacks in the world.

Don’t know the brand? That’s normal, they’ve only just started selling their products in Europe. That’s why during my internship at Moka Design Agency I got the challenge to design a display to showcase three of Gregory’s backpacks on a trade fair in Germany. The design process consisted of three phases: making a moodboard, designing three concepts and then finalizing one concept to a concrete design. The display was used on a trade fair.

Mentors | Gunter Durant, Kris Swiggers from Mo Ka Design Agency (www.moka.be)

Product display

Backdrop

Three concepts Based on the moodboard I first designed three concepts. Those three were sent to the client, who chose one of them. Then I optimized that concept to get it ready for production.

Trompe l’oeil

Tensified

Technopolis There are not a lot of Flemish people that don’t know Technopolis. It’s a science center that offers the perfect combination of education and fun. Technopolis wants to make children enthusiastic about science and technology.

Although it’s still popular among children, the center is dated. After 19 years Technopolis faces a number of challenges to fit in the current time spirit and to become relevant again. As a student of Product Design I designed an innovation strategy for the science center. First, in a team of three students, we analyzed Technopolis and its context to reveal the most important problems they face.

Then, individually, I designed an innovation plan for the science center to respond to these problems. We worked closely together with the CEO of Technopolis. This project was part of my first master’s year.

Team | Pauline Verbeke, Tess Deflo, Sarah Serneels

Strategic design Front-end innovation

Research We started this project with an elaborate analysis. We looked at the current situation, researched relevant trends and evolutions, and analyzed the business model of Technopolis. We used tools like persona, blue ocean canvas, business model canvas, stakeholder mapping, ... In this process we also had a meeting with the CEO of Technopolis.

Conceptualisation Based on the conclusions from the analysis, we organized a brainstorm session with the CEO of Technopolis. There we came up with a couple of innovation concepts for the science center. Eventually we each individually developed an innovation plan based on one of these concepts.

Innovation In this innovation plan Technopolis is built around more workshops and less exhibitions. These workshops link technology and science to the hobby’s of children to awaken their interest for it. This way, variation in content of the science center is easier and less expensive. In short, it is easier to keep Technopolis up-to-date.

And that’ s only one of the many benefits of the proposed innovation strategy.

And also...

Graphic design has always been one of my passions.

That’s why I have been working on some graphic projects on the side. Voka – Kamer van Koophandel AntwerpenWaasland – has hired me as a freelance graphic designer a couple of times. Next to that, together with two friends, I have designed a magazine called Katern. This was part of an educational project, but it was our own decision to adopt a graphical approach for this project.

Graphic design

Katern Katern is a magazine which tells the story of three students exploring three design specializations. The story is told on the basis of interviews, infographics and articles about explorations ‘in the field.’ Team | Sarah Serneels, Stine Moons, Kathelijne Put

Voka For Voka Antwerpen-Waasland I am working as a freelance graphic designer. I have designed two toolkits and a lay-out for some interviews.

Thank you!

Let’s get in touch

@ sarahserneels@gmail.com @

linkedin.com/in/sarah-serneels/