B1.1 SHOWCASE

CONTENTS
3 ME

PAST 4

7 COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT

LEARNING ACTIVITIES 13

26 VISION ON DESIGN

OVERALL ATTITUDE 27

28 GROWTH AS A DESIGNER

OVERALL REFLECTION 29

I am a creative and disciplined young professional with two passions
in my life: sport and design. I am eagerly pursuing a role, which will
allow me to develop my skills as a designer and leverage my passion,
my sports knowledge and my previous studies inTextile Design. My
principal objectives are to learn, grow professionally, and add value
to the company in my work.

SHOWCASE · MANUEL SUAREZ PRAT · ID · B11
3

PAST
Before coming to TU/e I had a past. When the year was over I had to make a sport clothing and shoes. During all that
After finishing high school I heard that to de- decision of which speciality to choose. Dur- amount of time we had a coach. He had no
sign shoes you had to study industrial design. ing that year I figured that accessories design idea about sports clothing or footwear. I tried
That same year I started Industrial Design in was only focus on hats, jewellery and high to get some help from other coaches but no-
a very expensive University in my city. After heels. I did not want to study any of those body; NOBODY in the faculty could help me.
7 months I decided to quit because I was all things, so I decided to go for Textile design. I did the thesis with any help. My coach only
daylong studying physics, maths, even chem- At least it had more graphic design related to explained me what was expected from me in
istry. I believed that to design shoes that patterns and also getting to know better the terms of deliverables.
place was not the best to study. materials and how they behave. After 8 months of hard work, my thesis was
After a couple of months without knowing named one of the ten best thesis of the
what to study, I decided to visit a fashion fac- Seriously, by the end of the second year of whole faculty in that year. The day of my final
ulty. They told me that the best for me was the bachelor I could not be less motivated. presentation, me and the other 9 students
to course a bachelor there (1st year Fashion, My projects where always rusty and dirty, presented in from of assessors from big fash-
then the next two years specialise on acces- and my presentations were usually one of the ion brands from Italy and France. My coach
sories, in which shoes were included). They worsts of the class. The coaches had very low tried to bring somebody from NIKE or ADIDAS
convinced me. expectations on me. but he could not. In the graduation day, I re-
It was very expensive, my family could not What kept me there was the idea of having ceived a Honourable Mention diploma from
afford it so they paid half, and the other half I one last year to finish this. the faculty.
paid it myself with all the money I was earn-
ing as a tennis coach. The third year I was highly surprised. Espe- This is my past. This is what made me have a
What was I doing studying fashion? This was cially the last 8 months, in which I developed goal and come to study here.
the most common question I asked myself my thesis: here is where my motivation
that first year. changed. I did what I really wanted: design

4

5

6

COMPETENCE
DEVELOPMENT

7

COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT

IDEAS I chose Ideas and Concepts because I do not a very abstract project and was hard to get
feel familiarized with any of those words. a clear idea, to understand the topic and
and I am a visual and corporeal thinker. This work with it. Having learned many ways of
means that the way I have been working for idea generation was one of the things that

CONCEPTS many years is with images, objects or some-
thing visual on the table.
helped me in this project. As a group, we
used brainstorming, mood boards, body
storming, and observation as idea genera-
I strongly believed that this competence tors to get to the final concept. After that,
Ideas and concepts is a competency that I would help me make a better progress in my I used sketching to work on the visuals and
chose in order to help me on my project and project, especially in the conceptual part. branding of the project.
help myself as a designer.
I have a lot of 2D designs I have made before We had several lectures with the expert. In After these lectures I feel that I know a bit
coming to the TU/e. Most of them come just my opinion they were not very interactive, better about idea generation and concept
by improvisation. I thought this competence but they were efficient. In the lectures all development but I also feel that I still need
could help me canalize all those ideas and the students sat down around the expert. to work a lot more in this area, which is less
get to know how they come and get to know He started talking and we were taking notes unknown but not familiar enough.
other ways of creating ideas. My expecta- on all he was saying. He talked about idea
tions in this competency were to be able generation and all the subdivisions. Learn- I can still say that this competence is one of
to maximize my ability of idea generation, ing about concept development was also an my weaknesses and will work hard in the
and try to understand what a concept is, important part in this competence. future to change this.
deal with it in order to make designs with a
certain concept. Basically work on my con- Learning about ideas and concepts helped
ceptual part of my brain, which I have not me a lot in my project.
developed very much yet. Cultural Interventions was in my opinion,

8


INTEGRATING rest and I was having trouble to catch up with
the programing of the prototype that we
was brighter than the green, so I calibrated
the three of them in order to get the same

TECHNOLOGY were building.
I started making some research to learn the
amount of brightness.
I feel really good with the result of the final
basics of programming and being able to prototype. I didn’t expect it to look so good,
build something myself, because I was not and I thought I would not be able to accom-
Integrating Technology is a competency in learning that much watching my colleague plish this task.
which I am expected to learn how to use work. I spoke to the expert about it, and he
some types of technology and apply it to my gave me some homework for the SDL weeks. Unfortunately I could not link this to the pro-
project. The expert’s feedback was really helpful and ject. The topic and the idea developed had
I was expecting the expert to explain which he was always willing to help me. It was one nothing to do with the prototype I have built.
options we had in order to make most of the of my SLD week’s purposes. I really am inter-
ideas work. In the first meeting the expert ested in this type on platforms because of my I felt I could have gone a little bit further if
gave us some homework using Arduino (elec- weak technical background. I have decided to start working on my own
tronic prototype platform). We were working prototype in the first week. I lost two or three
in the same groups that in the project. I was It took me some time to understand the weeks, since my fellow student was doing all
working with all my project mates. Since we language of programming but after the SDL the work of the group by himself.
were all working with that type of platform, I weeks I was able to build a box, which has On one hand, I am happy and satisfied with
expected it to be a class teaching us language three LED lights, and they fade in and out in my progress. On the other hand, I can always
and applications of the Arduino platform. order to get every colour of the spectrum. do better and will try my best to see how far I
This was a result of making research on how can go.
The procedure is that he gives us some tasks to fade in and out 3 LED lights at the same
and we solve them. So how it works is; he time. I had red, green and blue LED lights. After all was finished, I asked the expert for
tells us the next step to do, but we have to some feedback.
find the way ourselves. The problem is that I had some trouble calibrating the brightness
in my group there was somebody that had of the blue light, which was much brighter
much more advanced knowledge than the that the other two colours. Also the red

9


10


FEEDBACK

Manuel participated in his B11 semester in the DG000 mini assign-
ment ‘Integrating Technology’. He was part of a group of four
students who chose a quite ambitious project to work on during
the assignment.
Manuel told me that he tried but could not follow the progress
of his group colleagues who had prior experience with Arduino
technology and electronics in general. Before the midterm, Ma-
nuel took initiative and tried learning all the concepts on his own,
doing his own Arduino sketches and over the rest of the semester
developing a good idea and feeling for integrating technology. I
appreciate this extra effort, and his motivation
and self-drive to learn about technology without being formally
required to. He is also eager to seek feedback and he knows how
to get help in case of problems he cannot solve himself.

Mathias Funk, Assignor DG000 IT

11


SELF DIRECTED were taught is a little bit different than here. Maybe that is why I
and expect some more explicit information and more concrete things to

CONTINUOUS LEARNING do, things to follow. I am putting a lot of effort on getting used to this
learning system. The main reason why I want to get familiar with this
way of thinking is because I really believe that is a better system that
in my country.
This competency I think it doesn’t need any explanation about its I just think I can build myself more as a person and as a professional
content. It is finding the way to make the best development of your this way, and I will go for it.
skills and learn new ones by technics that are practiced by yourself.
After this first semester, I can say I have learned many things with
The importance of this is to know which technics work for me and this system. In my opinion, self directed and continuous learning did
which technics don’t work that well. That way I can maximize my not start in the TU/e. I have been working in one way or another
result and get more quality on the product/prototype etc. The time with this for many years. The difference is that now I am conscious
and the psychical effort I spend when things don’t work so well, I can about it and more motivated. I will never stop learning in a self di-
spend it on making sure my product gets the quality and good result rected way. I hope to keep this going all these upcoming years of
it is expected. study.
I come from a Mediterranean country and the learning process we

12

LEARNING
ACTIVITIES

13

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

S.D.L. WEEKS The other purpose of the SDL weeks was to initiate myself in any
type of 3D program and be able to work with it. I knew it demanded
a lot of time. Usually to learn how to use these types of programs
during normal study is difficult to follow, so that is why I found out
that the perfect moment was during the SDL weeks. I have a Mac-
In this first semester we had three SDL weeks. They were right after Book Pro so I chose Cinema 4D.
the mid term exhibition. Following a lot of YouTube videos and tutorials and blogs I got the
most amount of knowledge I could in that certain amount of time.
I used them for two purposes. The first one was to work on my own
prototype for “integration technology” competence. Right before After the SDL weeks I was surprised with myself. I did not expect to
start of the mid term exhibition, I spoke to the expert to make a learn that much. I was expecting to learn something, but not spend-
plan those weeks. The final class of this competence was right after ing that much time on it. I thought I would get bored easily and go
the SDL weeks, so I had three weeks to show the expert that I have to do sports or something else. For me, these SDL weeks were like
learned enough about how to integrate technology in design. normal class weeks. The only difference was that I worked home.

14

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

15

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

SKETCHING had to hand in the final deliverable the week after, but I still joined
the workshop. It was an opportunity I could not miss.

WORKSHOP As a future industrial designer, sketching is very important in terms
of idea generation. It will be a very important tool for me in the fu-
ture. Now, I know the basics of sketching, a perfect starting point to
Sketching workshop was a small workshop coached by Lucian Reindl develop any idea that will come in future projects or assignments.
in a Thursday afternoon. He wanted to explain and teach the basics
of sketching and make us start to use perspective in the drawing.
Me and 4 other students showed up that afternoon. With a brief
slide show presentation he showed us sketches, types of sketches
and how they can improve us as designers. After that, we go to the
drawing part where he shows us how the start point. After a few
tries with perspective we start with shading. To end, he has brought
some saw handles for us to see and use them to draw the outline to
start a sketch with that. That way we can make sketches of handles.

I am quite skilled at drawing, but I never had a chance to learn how
to sketch properly. I really find these types of workshops helpful.
I had a lot of work to do that day with my assignment because we

16

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

CARDBOARD most of the peoples attention will be the prototype. In my opinion,
without a good prototype the project looses all its magic, and is not
attractive any more.

MODELING My expectations of this assignment were to add this prototyping
skill to what I already have. In the first class we just learned the basic
forms; cube, cylinder, cone, etc. I was surprised how we were able to
manipulate foam board. We usually had a lot of homework with this
Cardboard Modeling is an assignment of form and senses compe- assignment, but that was also one of my expectations.
tence. It is a very practical and very technical assignment. I had some
trouble registering to the assignment because accidently I registered The day that I was more shocked was the class where he showed us
in the wrong quartile. I contacted the coach and he said I could join some pictures of an old fashioned camera. He said that he wanted
in. I am very interested in prototyping assignments because I think it done by next class. I did not expect to finish it even in two weeks,
that a prototype is the most visual result of a project. I can have an because I am very perfectionist and always get into too much detail.
amazing research, good report but on the exhibition what will get Spending many hours everyday, I finally made it in one week.

17

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

18

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

After the camera came the final deliver-
able. We had one week of research ex-
perimentation, and one week for building
the final model. We had to do a portable
media player. I did the media player sup-
ported by its headphones.
The final deliverable also consisted on
making 2 A3 posters explaining the build-
ing process and photos of the final prod-
uct itself.

In the exhibition day, each student had his
deliverables on a table and explained our
model to the coach one by one. After the
explanation came the coach`s feedback;
first on the process, then on the model.
His feedback was very extended and very
useful.
We had to make a box containing all the
models we have made through the assign-
ment.

19

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

After this assignment I feel surprised with myself. The result of ration field. Now, after I see my work and I have got the coach´s
the models was something that I expected. What I did not expect feedback I can find an answer to this problem. I did not adven-
to do it in such a short amount of time. This was the only way ture myself in a deep exploration because I was afraid to spend
to get to the quality I wanted; working more that 10 hours a day too much time on it. I knew I had little time to do exploration and
with the cardboard. I did not know I was able to work that many build. I thought if I have made a proper exploration I would not
hours in the same thing. spend enough time to reach the levels of quality that I was aim-
ing for. I did not take the risk. Maybe I would of made it on time.
Not everything is positive. In a way I feel happy and proud of my Now that I know to work a little bit faster than before, the next
work, but on the opportunity that comes I will take the risk.
other hand I was not able to dig a little bit deeper in the explo-

20

LEARNING ACTIVITIES
FEEDBACK
Quality of deliverables: PROCESS You also like that there is no volume control
in the main device, only on the headphones
Skills part Obviously I have struggled on the process. because they both work as a single device
You asked us to step away from our comfort and makes it simpler. The last thing you want
[Cube, Cylinder, Topped cone, Cube-cylinder combina- zone but I could not find other solution rather to highlight is the form change between the
tion, Sliding mechanism, Rotating mechanism, Beam than sketches. audio mode and the video mode.
with four mechanisms, Camera copy] How I develop my ideas has to do with the What you do not like in first instance are the
material at hand and my skills with it. icons I could have done a bit more of explo-
You have delivered a complete set of mod- You see my skill, but I am here to learn new ration about it. You also recommend using
els of good to very good quality. You show skills and add them into my “portfolio of the university facilities, which are very rich in
progress in the quality of the models from skills”. terms of possibilities of creation.
the start to the end of the assignment. If you I have a highly skilled prototype in a way. But To end the feedback you say that the high-
want to grow further try to work even more you get very little insights about if the explo- light of the device is the headphones, which
clean and precise. Your camera copy is very ration was broad and deep. My way of focus- are interesting mainly because I played with
efficiently made and captures the essence of ing this prototype was on “how do I build” the form. The other device is only though to
the real camera very well. First time I saw a and it should have been “how do I interact”. fit inside the pocket.vv
working lens mechanism that can turn and
move. Very good job. DESIGN

Design part There are a couple of thing that you want to
highlight from my prototype and a couple of
[Grip explorations, Phone explorations, Explorations
things you are critic with:
for a portable multimedia player, A design proposal in
cardboard of a portable multimedia player] First of all you appreciate the building quality.

21

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Competence development: Advice:

The goal of this assignment is two fold. First it is to provide you with The thing with cardboard modelling is that it takes time to learn. You
skills to plan and build 3D physical models out of cardboard and foam show models that are of good quality. If you want to grow further
core. Second it is to provide you with a new set of skill sand tools to work even more clean and precise. You can improve in how you use
explore design challenges; particularly design challenges that involve the technique as a tool for exploration. Give more attention to how
the design of interactive products and product/service systems. You you explore and integrate form, interaction and function. Make sure
show that you can build models of (very) good quality. You keep up this to underpin your decision making process by giving insight through
build quality in your exploration and in your final design proposal. I feel design variations and good documentation. Let the search for meaning-
that you can grow in how you use the technique for exploration pur- ful interaction lead the exploration. Practice this and become a good
poses. Do try to leave your comfort-zone and build on your portfolio of designer.
skills it makes you a more versatile designer with a richer access to the
solution domain of a design challenge. For the exploration of the rela-
tions between form, interaction and function an experiential approach
is crucial.

22

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

PROJECT ing about this competence. My margin of learning in this field is
very big so at the end, I am happy I did this project.

The report was made before the final exhibition.
During the exhibition in my opinion, we had the best spot of the
My project was “Out of Control – Cultural Interventions”. green space. Everybody that came for the exhibition had to see it.
I have to point out that I did not choose this project. The informa- I expected to receive some more interesting feedback. Most of the
tion about when or where to sign up for the projects was not clear people said that they liked the visuals, and it was an interesting way
for me. After the introduction week, I left Eindhoven to finish the to approach the people. They also were wondering if it really would
summer season where I was working back in Spain. The previous have worked.
days of the registration I was working and I tried to contact or get
some information but it and it was useless. The result of this was The second day of the exhibition I had an interesting conversation
that the project was randomly selected. with a coach, I don not know her name. She asked me to explain her
the entire project, then she said that it could have a lot more people
If I had the chance to choose a project, I would not have chosen this interested on this system. Tourism would be one, inviting people to
one. It sounded too conceptual and very little concrete. In fact, that go to their country by exposing the flag and letting them try their
was one of the main problems I had during this project, it was not food. Also she was not so sure about the possible success of this
concrete at all. system, because we used flags; flags in a lot of countries are the
reason of wars and miscommunications in politics.
The positive thing is, that I had to deal with it and work on a lot on Overall, she liked it and thought it was an original idea.
ideas and concepts, which is one of my weaknesses. The process I
experienced with this project I find it very positive in terms of learn-

23

LEARNING ACTIVITIES
FEEDBACK
Overall comment: topic“ your thing.
teamwork + communication: You are a reliable partner in project
You have developed well throughout the project. In the beginning cooperation and you communicate well. Within the group you have
you where very critical and sometimes rather passive and slightly played the role of „the speaker“ a lot. In the end you contributed very
“destructive” through your comments. But along the project devel- well tho the group result.
opment, especially after the midterm exhibition you showed a lot of
ambition and energy to design. (in our project, but also in cardboard form + senses: You have a sense for graphic design and illustration.
modeling and design related interests). You can be very critical to- Within the project you did not dive deep into 3D design - also be-
wards the „others“ which sometimes has a negative influence on the cause it was almost impossible - but you did make some experiences
group. On the other hand you can make use of your life experience there.
and your temperament to push the design process for all... ideas + concepts: It was sometimes difficult for you to develop a
broader range of ideas and concepts because the complexity of the
Quality of deliverables: topic was overwhelming. Still you managed to offer different basic
concepts and paths to go.
You have played an important role in this project in the area of „mak- design + research process: You have explored the field and frame con-
ing it concrete“ and creating visuals. The quality of your 2D designs ditions of the design project. There was some research in the begin-
has improved because you have learned not to keep the first crea- ning of the project but not much at the end of the project - caused by
tion but to develop form and design in a process that needs time and the deficit of time.
reflection. business process design: This was not the main focus of your project.
socio-cultural awareness: This project supported well your growing
understanding of socio-cultural conditions in design developments.
Competence development:t user focus perspective: see comment above
self directed + continuous learning: From the beginning you where descriptive + mathematical modeling: n.a.
quite clear in understanding the need for individual initiative in our
educational system. You work very independent and - when you like
the topic - very ambitious. You have difficulties to make an „external

24

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Process:
Advice:
rom abstract to concrete: You are a quite „hand-on“ designer. It was
not easy for you to „abstract“ from what you see when you „create Keep communication with experts and experienced partners. Be an
and make“. But in the end you have created a good basis for abstract- experienced partner for your fellow students. Trust yourself - in a self
ing what a future system to “slightly break down cultural borders” critical way and keep your will to create. (Because that‘s what design
could be. is about).
project setting / user definition: Through the abstract project de-
scription it was hard to find a clear and straight forward setting. The
user was defined through the project description.
idea generation / concept finding: See comments above: overall it
worked well. You could have gone further in exploration and „open-
ing up“ a broader range of ideas. But on the other hand it was a clear
basis for decisions.
form development: You made important experiences in form giving
and design - as commented above.
user test: Sadly there was no real user test possible. But you made
the effort to test the perception of the labels and the system in our
faculty.

Attitude:

In a project group you can be a leading partner. You can commu-
nicate quite well with a client and your partners. You should show Exhibition
more patience with fellow students and you should transform your
temperament and ambition in a positive creative flow.

25

VISION ON DESIGN
I believe in hard work. Of course success has a lot to do with wants. I have been practicing several sports since the age of
talent, but without hard work and without an ambitious at- 4.
titude does not matter how much talent you have, you will
not succeed. That is why I am here in Holland. Nike has the EMEA head-
Tennis has taught me this. I have been playing tennis all my quarters in the east of Amsterdam (Hilversum). This is a first
life many hours every day. I had no choice, my father was a step to get closer to them and also to other companies like
good tennis player and he wanted his kids to also be good ASICS, HI-TEC etc.
in tennis. When my parents stopped paying my trainings I
started playing because I wanted and with a much better at- During these three years of Bachelor and possibly other two
titude and with better results. more if I decide to do the Masters I want to learn the maxi-
mum in order prepare myself for what comes next.
I have a goal. I want to be a footwear designer in NIKE. I
want to see how far I can get, in order to reach that goal.
Maybe I reach it, maybe not. But at least I will be happy
with myself knowing that I have tried my best.

I want to contribute my knowledge and ideas designing
sport shoes, and feel that I am making someone else’s life
easier when they practice sports. I want to feel useful with
my creativity to people who love sports as much as I do.
No one else is better than me to know what a sportsman

26

OVERALL ATTITUDE
Leaving my country, my family andv my friends behind, my only expected too much from them.
purpose of being here in Eindhoven is to get the best out of me I have done many projects with many groups in my previous
in this Bachelor program. bachelor. I was always the one who did not do anything. Now
I think that is the main reason my attitude has changed so the things have changed, and these new feelings are what I am
much compared to my previous bachelor in Madrid. Here I am trying to control. Next semester, if I get a similar group, I will
a much efficient student and I spend most of my time focusing try to be more patient and more apprehensive.
on things for Industrial Design. This explains why the project has been a little bit frustrating for
To be honest, I have never been so focused on something; also me. I think that as a group we could have gone a lot farther and
having a goal is helping me. Getting new habits also comes with results could have been much better. Most of my group mem-
getting new reactions and also feelings. bers think that the result is enough and OK. They are happy
with that. I am not. I think we were one month behind most of
I think my attitude as a group mate could have been better. the groups. I do not want to be happy with having “enough”, I
During the whole semester I pushed myself a lot to get to the want to be happy by having “the best we could get”. I think this
quality levels I wanted to reach. I believe that is positive. The semester we did not achieve the best we could get. This is one
thing is that I also expected my project mates to reach that of the reasons why I am really looking forward for next semes-
certain level of quality, and that way we could work the same ter to begin and start working on assignments and projects.
direction and speed. That did not happen, maybe because I

27

GROWTH
AS A
DESIGNER
Having in mind all the competences, I still need a long to build
myself to become a better designer. This semester, I have devel-
oped more on self-directed and continuous learning. Also I have
improved a little bit in Ideas and Concepts, Form and senses. I
have made important improvements in Integrating Technology
and the most important fact is that I also have made a big step
in Teamwork and Communication. In this area being a foreigner
changes a lot of things but I have learned from my mistakes in
this competence area, and still have a lot more to learn.
I have learned that I am capable or working under pressure and
being a little bit more efficient with my work.

28

OVERALL REFLECTION
This first semester here has been a mixture of emotions. I quit studying industrial design 4 years ago in Madrid. I find
First of all, I come from a completely different culture. With the this system exciting and motivating, but at the same time very
culture comes behaviour. In those terms I think I am closer to confusing. Maybe because it is my first semester here and that
Dutch culture than Spanish culture, but still my adaptation is is how I have to feel. I feel that the information we receive is
being gradual. not that clear. Hopefully, next semester will be better in those
terms.
What I am having more trouble is to understand how the edu-
cational system works here. Back in my country, the “self direct- I have learned a lot this semester, more than what I expected.
ed learning” part it is almost inexistent. We are used to go to Next semester I hope to continue learning the same speed or
lectures, take notes and study for the final exam because there faster than this semester.
is only one exam. I find that boring, that is one of the reasons

29

B1.1 SHOWCASE

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B1.1 SHOWCASE