Our Approach
Me
Hey it’s me, Alexander van Dam. Industrial designer turned developer, but always have been a maker of many things.
I like to design, create and make anything I can come up with. Though I have a particular fondness of any technology or technique that (seemingly) bridges the gap between the virtual and the real world. The border between the digital and physical to me is a place where anything can happen and brand new experiences can be born.
Our Story
Skills
I studied industrial design at the “Eindhoven University of Technology” for both my bachelor and master where I picked up most of my design sensibilities, research skills and basic knowledge of a wide arrange of development platforms. This is also where I picked up my interest for the digital and physical in it’s broadest form, from various forms of mixed reality (VR, AR, etc.) to bringing objects in and out of the virtual world via 3d scanning and rapid prototyping (3D printing, laser cutting).
Afterwards I have been employed at Novility where I have worked on my C#/C++/unity development skills, got a grip on working in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams, and experience the life cycle of a product.
For me these skills are just a means to an end, I like to make awesome and inspiring stuff and will learn whatever I need to bring these ideas to reality.
Development
Development is what I am most experienced in in a working capacity. I have professional experience with C# in Unity and some C++ experience. Outside of work I have smaller nuggets of experience with a wide range of languages and platforms like Arduino, Processing, Python, Flash, Max/MSP, vvvv, UE4 blueprint and more. In terms of version control I am familiar with both SVN and GIT, SVN being the one I currently have most experience in.
Design
My design experience comes mostly from university. There I had a design project each half year in which I (either individually or in a group) went trough a full design process from concepting to prototyping and validating the concept with user research. In terms of design my strengths are less on the visual and presentation aspects and more on designing the interaction between user and product. In terms of design I am proficient with the adobe suite, various 3D programs and more.
Other
Some of the other skills that might be useful for future projects but that are not immediately related too the other categories: I have game design and development, mostly via hobby projects and gamejams, I have experience with Unity and Unreal and various other platforms. I also have basic electronics experience from both university and hobby projects. And finally, as mentioned before I love experimenting with 3D scanning using photogrammetry (Agisoft photoscan), 3D camera’s and other means.
Mentions & media
OKTOBER 2013 The result of my project “ShadoWell” has been displayed at the ID’13 exhibition during the Dutch Design Week.
SEPTEMBER 2013 Game [4Health] Jam 2013 second place with the game “SwimNote”. Following this the game has been shown off at: Games [4 Health] Europe 2013.
NOVEMBER 2012 Games [4Health] Jam 2012 Eindhoven winner with the game “sTail”. Following this the game has been shown at several events: Games [4 Health] Europe 2012, Dutch Design Week 2012, Game in the City 2012, Night of the Nerds 2013.
AUGUST 2012 Paper got published on a project I worked on: “Motivating Arm-Hand Use for Stroke Patients by Serious Games” IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society August 28 tot September 1, 2012 [Link]
Want to know more?
Feel free to contact me! 🙂