Eva Oosterlaken
About
Hello, I’m Eva, a Dutch-American designer.
My design practice engages with complex, global challenges in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, especially members of the public. In these projects, I work not only as a product and service designer, but also as a facilitator of design and innovation processes. I’m passionate about empowering people to let their creativity shine, envisioning an inclusive future that is shaped through the voices and ideas of us all.
Education
• MA/MSc Global Innovation Design, Royal College of Art and Imperial College London (2020)
• BSc Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology (2017)
Experience
My professional experience includes working in digital design consulting, combining strategy, user experience and visual design for corporate clients. I have also worked as a freelance designer for the last 5 years, delivering editorial, branding, web design and graphic design projects. On several occasions I have lead design workshops and created educational modules, both within design education and outside of it.
Press and Exhibitions
• DE Summer Show, Dyson School of Engineering, Imperial College London, June 2020
• Work in Progress Show, RCA and Imperial College London, January 2020
• Solo exhibition of the project “Visualizing Community Voices”, Fort Greene Park, New York City, December 2019
“Controversy over Fort Greene Park’s redesign inspires art installation ” by Lore Croghan for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 9, 2019
Statement
Why Global Innovation Design? I pursued the MA/MSc at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London to explore how to leverage my design practice to create a positive social impact. During the course, I spent nine months abroad in Tokyo and New York City, at Keio University and the Pratt Institute, respectively. There, I learned about the differences in design approaches around the world, how to collaborate across cultures, and how to design sensitively for local contexts.
My design research approach combines systems thinking with participatory design methods, allowing me to understand complex issues from both a global and local perspective. My three projects presented here explore the possibilities within this space. To bring my projects to life and appealing to interact with, I integrate skills in digital making, service design, and visual storytelling.
In the future, I would like to continue working on public sector challenges, especially those concerning the future of education, democracy, and the relationship between technology and society.
My vision for the future of design is that it will be citizen-centered. The future role of designers should be to create the conditions that enable as many people as we can to pursue creative and meaningful lives: where they have a say over how they'd like to live, work, and grow.
Citizens in the Making is looking for partners
Citizens in the Making is an ongoing project that is exhibited here. To take the project forward, I'm seeking to collaborate with an existing organisation that values youth engagement. Contact me to find out more.
Citizens in the Making
Citizens in the Making is a digital tool for young change-makers. It was developed over the course of four months to address the lack of youth civic participation in the UK. That is: the perceived lack. Although official stats like youth party membership are notoriously low, there is also a palpable energy today for creating, organizing, and participating in activities that can create social and environmental change.
So what’s holding young people back? At the root there is a lack of self-efficacy: the belief in your own ability to be able to make a difference. We all feel this. But the truth is, there is no one way to change the world - there are millions, and anyone can do it! All you need is imagination, energy, and a willingness to grow.
Citizens in the Making brings to life nine unique 'types' of citizen and the variety of ways they can make the most of their skills to make a difference. Young people can start to learn about their type through a playful personality test, after which they can discover matching activities as well as local opportunities. More than just a practical tool however, Citizens in the Making asks us to reimagine what significance citizenship has in our lives. Citizenship is not just about rights and responsibilities, but also about what kind of person you want to become. What life do you want to create for yourself and for others? Which citizen in the making are you?
Want to try the tool for yourself? Go to citizensinthemaking.com to take the personality test.
Want to learn more about the design research behind the tool? Or would you like to see this tool become a reality? Contact me (see info at the top of this page) if you’re interested or have any suggestions.
Medium:
Creative Citizenship Workshops
What if high school students could engage with global issues in creative ways?
During my exchange semester at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, I created a series of workshops for 100 high school students. The workshops were designed in collaboration with the Global Education group within Keio Media Design and with Fujimigaoka High School for Girls. They were designed as part of an existing year-long school module which engages students with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The aim of the workshops was to not only introduce the students to the subject, but to encourage them to look at it in a creative way.
Through the workshops, students learned the value of their own ideas and the power of their own actions, perhaps for the first time. The workshops helped connect the Global Goals to their own lives and introduced students to creative tools that can inspire them. The workshops also showed teachers the importance of learning approaches that actively involve students. After the workshops, I created a toolkit with the learning approaches used for the future use of teachers.
“Eva blended playful techniques to enhance students’ engagement and finely tailored the workshops for the Japanese context. The sessions inspired not only participants to envision the future they would like to build, but also her colleagues and faculties.” - Marcos Sadao Maekawa, Senior Assistant Professor at Keio Media Design
Medium:
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Visualizing Community Voices
Who should be designing our public spaces? Designers, architects, government, citizens? In response to a controversy over the government redesign of Brooklyn’s treasured Fort Greene Park, I created an installation artwork that celebrates the value of community ideas.
I learned about Fort Greene Park from Friends of Fort Greene Park and park visitors. As an outsider, it was not my place to design for the park. Instead, I wondered: what if the people proposing the controversial redesign had listened to what community members actually wanted? In collaboration with Friends of Fort Greene Park, I decided to use the design process to engage with and listen to a diverse group of Fort Greene Park visitors.
The resulting illustration visualizes my findings. To communicate the project back to the public, I built a 2.5 m wide public installation that was shown during a public event, on site in the park. Stories, memories, opinions, ideas, and dreams illustrated on a transparent sheet of acrylic – show a collective imagination for what “could be” in the park. Despite freezing December temperatures the installation resulted in curiosity, thought, conversation between adversaries, and even a news article.
“This artwork has crystallized our voices.”
- Ling Hsu,
Main collaborator, Friends of Fort Greene Park
Medium:
My Design Approach
