I have been following Rushab Chheda and Frans Taminiau ever since I visited their open table at The new business summit organised by World Start-up events somewhere in February 2020… just before the whole pandemic. I was blown away by the look and feel of their interlocking Bricks made out of Recycled plastic! At the time I was looking for a way to understand their product and create a story of their quest to use their engineering knowledge to create affordable housing suing recycled material.
When the event was done I had created a small roadmap sketch which I was happy enough to take to the next level, to get these guys to share their story BEYOND the product.
After some Zoom and Mural sessions we ended up in a lock-down. Bad for business, but good for taking stock of what you have done and clarify the path of where you are meant to be going. This process took us to the refined version of the sketch I had made in February.
For more information on the intended journey of this start-up check out: www.unibrick.global
So… now it is Oktober 2020. I took it upon myself to see where things are at the moment and not a moment too soon! Unibrick was just about to go online and start a new strategy on getting the Unibrick out there for people to start building with it themselves! The product itself is there and amazing to build with. From big Unibricks made for affordable housing (check out their website!) to the smaller mini Unibricks I got as a present to see what I would build myself!
Today…It is all about the brick… the UNIBRICK. What would YOU build with this amazing sustainable recycled resource? A bar? The ultimate Desktop? A garden wall experience? A visual connection point in a general or public space? A sustainable hotel room? A bathroom even…? There is so much to build.
Check out the website on www.unibrick.global and let’s see if we can get some ideation going to challenge Unibrick in its goal to reduce fabrication costs and move down then affordable housing roadmap.
At the end of 2017 I reconnected with an old client. After about 15 years of development in the Dairy Industry, he was ready to start writing a book about it all. The cool thing is that at the time I helped him to make his views on Precision Livestock Farming more clear and presentable. Now after all this time his views have all found fertile ground in the whole dairy industry and an introduction to Smart Dairy Farming was born!
Kees Lokhorst invited me to help him to make all of his thinking more engaging. For both the act of reading as for the more practical side of teaching in the classroom and online. It has been great to make this visions come to life and translating years of experience into a clear instruction on how to focus more on the individual cow to grow the industry.
His book will be presented on the 7th of June… Keep you posted!
Last Wednesday I was fortunate enough to receive the key to the “INSPIRATOR HOUSE”. A new location for inspiration hosted by Jake Blok.
After receiving they Key and driving to my next Interaction, I felt great Joy and welcome into a place where people are working hard on new valuable interactions for and between people! So tanx Jake Blok! Next week we start to make the light burn just a little brighter at then Inspirator HOUSE! Maarten van der Berg en Dennis Luijer…. pointing in the right direction!
A while back I met a guy in a castle who was quite possibly the most loud and articulate person I have met in the last couple of years. This man, who by the way can quote complete “Shakespearean sonnet’s without one drop of lubricating spirits, has recently finished writing his book about ENGAGEMENT. The SHAPES or thinking frameworks in his book have been cultivated over a period of 15 years. Check it out here.
The book shares a clear outline for different ways you can ENGAGE and build enduring relationships with people. These “Shapes of Engagement” help you to consciously designing & stage experiences, make smart choices with well thought out connective principles and make you aware of interpersonal boundaries to truly engage with others. All seen from the eyes of a man who has reinvented his own purpose… moving from local church minister to international business consultant.
Reading this book inspired me to rename what I do for a living. It became very clear to me that the work i do is rooted in the intent to ENGAGE. The visuals I make need to facilitate dialogue or challenge the norm. By making past present and future VISIBLE you ignite a connected conversation. This means that by designing the way you ENGAGE through a VISUAL LANDSCAPE you empower all participants to look across boundaries, spot energy or even see missed opportunities. All because the ENGAGE through a shared visual story.
This shift in focus translates to me being an engineer of VISUAL engagement.
The great thing about (finally) articulating what you do is that once it is out in the open, you need to define what is good and what is bad about the VISUALS or no… the ENGAGEMENTS that I create. Redefining my focus leads to a better frame to judge my self by. Where before I was looking at the drawing or presentation I now look at what the effects are of all my visual efforts on the way that people engage others? Suddenly a drawing is not the end result anymore. My success can now only truly be measured by a system that can gauge the way people react to an engineered visual and how that visual engagement drives interaction and eventually decision!
So thank you Scott Gould… for introducing me to your Shapes and inspiring me to start saying : I am a Visual Engagement Engineer!
Ik ben nu al zo’n 3 jaar bezig met de gemeente Den Haag rondom 1 project. Een samenwerking tussen de beleidslaag van stedelijk ontwikkeling & de groene stad en het ingenieursbureau Den Haag (IBDH). Het gaat om het duingebied dat VOOR Den Haag ligt… onze voortuin…;). Eindelijk is er een NOTA waarin het via burger participatie tot stand gekomen plan als brief vanuit Wethouder Revis wordt geschreven aan de commissie Leefomgeving. Een lang traject met mooie resultaten door leuke en gepassioneerde mensen, die ECHT geven om dit gebied.
Blader er maar eens doorheen:
Op www.haagseduinen.nl is een interactieve kaart te zien waarin ik samen met Jannis Karalis (www.janniskaralis.com) en de mensen in dit project heb geprobeerd om een plek te creeren waarin je het gebied online al een beetje kan verkennen. Het doel is natuurlijk om je nieuwsgierig te maken en er naar toe te gaan. Samen met de mensen rrondom dit gebied gaan we proberen om deze online plek uit te bouwen.
Doe je mee? Stuur me dan even een mail van wat je wil toevoegen. Samen brengen we dit gebied beter in kaart, zodat we er nog meer van kunnen genieten… ook mensen buiten Den Haag…;).
My thinking and my doing. I do however keep running into the same problem over and over again… I get stuck in the thinking part. Which is a bit weird, because my thinking usually results in a lot of visual notes & sketches. Lots of doing… without defined direction.
The reason for sharing this image with you now is that this image symbolizes the end of a phase. I have found my drive and am looking to balance all that thinking with more Doing. The new Time2Draw course I developed, the virtual narrative spaces I am developing, the book on event design I have co-written, the book on Images of Design Thinking was involved in and many more Visually Yours Projects are steps towards the Story of VISUAL.
All those projects are ways to Look at sharing…More VISUAL.
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Maarten van der Berg en Dennis Luijer…. pointing in the right direction!
