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Begin January I decided to quit my job at Asentio Design, the design studio where I have been working for 1,5 years. In that period I have learned a lot about industrial design, user interaction design and how to work with Chinese designers and engineers and how to communicate with clients. I worked for international and local clients, such as Philips, Cisco, Samsung, Nokia, Infineon, Flir, Absolut Vodka, ChangHong and Lenovo.

At Asentio Design I participated in different kind of projects and I was given different responsibilities that helped me to improve and develop a variety of skills, which are:

Research: analysis, interception, interviews, market research, trend research
Conceptualizing: brainstorming, organizing & selecting feasible ideas
Sketching: pen sketching and marker renderings; Delivered hundreds of sketches that communicate principles, forms, functionality and manufacturability
2D rendering: learned to do 2D renderings in Photoshop, here in China it is usual to communicate with 2D illustrations, but I was more used to use presentation drawings in the Netherlands
3D modeling: regular 3D modeling in Rhino 3D for presentation and prototyping purpose
Prototyping: defining CMF of designs, realizing mockups and prototypes (semi functional)
Client communication: communicating design decisions in a clear and efficient way to client and team
Project management: managing a small team of 3 designers (+ researcher in initial stage of project)
Internship coordination: responsible for recruiting and guiding international and local interns
Company’s representative: representing company’s design work and philosophy at a design exhibition in QingDao

After an half year working for Asentio I was given the opportunity to be a project leader for a project commissioned by a large American corporate client, named Cisco, who asked us to help them developing a design language for their first series of surveillance cameras and to create user friendly designs in terms of installation. That project is my successful highlight as a designer and project manager so far, as Cisco realized our design into a real product with a brand new design language and user friendly installation method.

Cisco's first surveillance dome cameras

I am sure one day you will see the design in public spaces, like the airport, bank, office, hotel, etc..
You can read more about the product at Cisco’s site

Furthermore my Chinese language skill has also been improved a lot, which is a very important skill here if you want to communicate efficiently with your local colleagues, clients and vendors and it comes really handy in your daily life. I feel much more home here in Shanghai when I am able to communicate well with the local people. Understanding the local humor is also a joyful plus. I always try to speak Chinese as much as possible, without being afraid that people may laugh at me, which happens all the time.

So what happened after I quit my job? You can read that in the next blog post