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Robin van Wijk 

Creating reusable Design tools for Impatient Designers.

The new way of working


The work I do has completely changed over the last years. Impatient, effective & more fun. The feeling of having something behind you to be more confident in your work. Building a community of like-minded people to keep improving the tools & systems together.

My Impatient journey
Working in the startup world exposed me to a lot of Design Thinking, Sprints & Accelerators. While using these methods, I started improving & designing them for myself. Here I also met co-founder in this journey, Matic. Together we completed the Design Sprint Masterclass, from AJ&Smart, making us licensed workshoppers, starting to make it our own & use it to help others.

The challenge of working with startups
While working with startups both me, and others involved, realized so many mistakes could easily be prevented. And the same main problems always occur. Seeing so many great ideas not getting to where they deserve to be, we decided to join foces and help. Using and building tools to facilitate, mentor & teach.

What does that mean?
The amount of hours spent on fine-tuning our curiculum paid off. We now have a large archive of exercises we use for ourselves & use for starting any design projects. We hosted a Design Sprint Week, Impatient School program & brainstormed in the Swedish nature.

Impatient Website
Impatient Design Sprint Week
Aweffice Nature Sprint

The most optimal use for the AFA research archive.

So much great research...


It deserves its own online presence showing the size & importance of the AFA research department.
In addition to the main website, AFA is working to give the Research department the attention it deserves. With its own domain comes its own brand.

An interactive platform
We solved the problem of having the foundation. Now it has to become a platform working for itself, where research is offered & put to use. We initiated a new look starting with AFA FOU.

My role in this?
My work was to create a new brand for FOU (Forskning) resembling the great work it does. The work included branding & design for the website. Working within a great team of developers & managers to give this the importance its been asking for.

This is only the start
Next up is to make the Research Archive come alive as an interactive platform. The Brand Guide is an ever-evolving document which keeps growing with every addition.

FOU website

Project development platform for environmental issues.

We're all Perfectly Fine


What should the future look like and how can we play a role in shaping it? Creativity should offer inspiring visions of a better future, shaping the space of possibility.

What can we do?
It's not easy to do things individually, which is why I think platforms like this need to exist. Coming together, fighting the fight together, making big changes!

It's Perfectly Fine Facebook Instagram

Next generation technology to digitize human data.

Humanizing healthcare


A medical tech startup in San Francisco, where I spent 2 years working as Creative Lead. Out of all my experiences, this one brought me the furthest. Doing what I've never done before and learning while doing. But this startup (like unfortunately many) turned out to fail. It didn't take away from my efforts and I'm extremely proud of what I have achieved.

Working in Med Tech, with no experience in either Med or Tech
As the only creative in the company, apart from 20+ scientists & Marketing, my role was to bring insights into how to communicate very complicated technology. As this product was set out to firstly be the 'Doctor's best friend', it should instill trust in the user's experience.

Challenge
Being able to build a brand from scratch, to accompany great tech & an even bigger goal. It was during these years I moved from being just a Graphic Designer, to taking a lead in projects, taking on more responsibilities, even pitching & selling to investors.

Performance
Even though the startup doesn't exist anymore, the branding succeeded to do what it was supposed to do. We distinguished ourselves to be approachable in a very human-unfriendly field of communication. As much as I love how it turned out, including leading my first Industrial Design assignment, the most valuable takeaway has been meeting friends for life, being part of numerous accelerators & incubators, and to not make the mistake of putting trust into startup-promises again.

Prototype video Latest Pitch Deck

Jumping on the ICO bandwagon.

Just when I thought I knew tech startups...


When being part of the Silicon Valley startup scene you can't miss out on an ICO (Initial Coin Offering).

Decentralize the world!
The human data the Orphidia device & other devices would extract, need decentralized data control. And if you've paid attention during this trend, that's what Blockchain is all about. And even though it had the making of a trend, the intentions were there. By putting the authority over the patient's data in their own hands, all of a sudden they can decide what happens to their own data & they can even make 'money' by selling it to whoever they'd like to.

Did we get there?
Unfortunately not. And unfortunately this company turned out the 2nd time I had to learn the lesson of not working for the big promises startups tend to make. Remember kids, never work for free & let's stop blindly trusting in people that are saying they're going to change the world!

Website (from archive)

California brand for handmade, hand printed products

Getting inspired by San Francisco


When I moved to the US I came fresh out of Art school. This project embodied everything my perfect project would. Work I love to do, I'm good at & people loved it! We didn't make a lot of money, but it was a great experience selling in 5 retail stores in SF.

Moving abroad, repsonding to new surroundings
California was great, obviously. Extremely expensive, but great. Coming over from Holland, bringing something new, plus the unconditional love towards handmade stuff was a perfect fit to put my 10+ years of screenprinting experience to good use.

Palms is unfortunately not live anymore, we still have some products I think.. Looking forward to print again!

Website (from archive) Facebook

Let's keep in touch

robin@robinvanwijk.com
@robin_vanwijk
Medium writings

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