That question is to this day the closest thing I have to a compass in the design process. Industrial Design became the area where my curiosity could be channelled into a direction and a purpose. I started my Bachelor degree in Sustainable Design at ecosign/Academy for Sustainable Design in Cologne. To me, this profession isn’t about making „beautiful“ things, but about making things that respect the people who use them and the resources they’re made of.

My way of approaching design took me to some unexpected places: a workshop for prosthetic legs for dogs, a small hospital in Tanzania co-developing an open-source platform with the local community, and care homes testing a dementia-activation system alongside residents and caregivers. Each project sharpened the same instinct: get close to the problem, understand the system around it, then design something that holds up under real use, not just under a spotlight.

This brought me to Umeå Institute of Design, where I’m now studying Advanced Product Design and I’m still asking the same questions, I’m just learning to build better answers.