Sam Theelen
Industrial Designer
Vision
My design philosophy is punk: question everything, provoke convention, make things differently.
We're moving toward a future where we don't own products anymore and designers are complicit. Everything is 'smart,' everything requires a subscription, everything fails when you stop paying or when the company loses interest. I think we should push back. Make products people can actually own, maintain, and keep alive. Real ownership matters.
An example
Here's the difference: When something I own and maintain breaks down, I'm frustrated, but I can fix it, learn from it, build a relationship with it. When a service I rent fails, I just feel helpless. Services are designed for pure convenience. When they fail at that single purpose, there's nothing left. Ownership teaches you something. Service failure just wastes your time..
Experience over efficiency
I don't think everything should prioritize efficiency over experience. Some things benefit from friction, from investment, from care. I design products that reward engagement rather than eliminate it. Products you can understand, modify, repair. Products that get better with use, not obsolete by design.
Finishing
This means going all the way. You won't catch me with visible layer lines on a 3D print or lazy finishing. If a tool eases your workflow, you should invest MORE in craft, not less. I care about how designs are presented; in photography, video, sound, story. Every detail matters because the complete picture is what makes something resonate. Especially in provocative design.
Keep questioning the everyday
I identify assumptions embedded in everyday design and challenge them. With every technological shift, every new paradigm, we need to keep asking: are we building what we actually want, or just what we've been conditioned to want? My work questions those defaults and explores what happens when you take a different path.
Professional Identity
I design and build interactive objects that challenge convention. I identify assumptions embedded in the designs that we encounter on the daily and research why we gravitate toward familiar solutions. I then challenge them by following a different path, resulting in unfamiliar realities. I question the defaults of the every day. My strength is translating theoretical ideas into tangible experiences. If theory suggests a meaningful paradigm shift, I like to get my hands dirty and try to actually do it. It is my way of digesting the material, and putting it to the test. I am a maker who learns through material engagement and iteration. I love to physically break down existing objects to learn how they are designed and build them in my own different way. These practices are closely related to the studio methodology and first person design methods, which I gravitate towards. I discover a lot of paths on the way, and find trails that suit me to develop further. With a background in electrical instrument making, tinkering with vehicles and creative use of AI, I have a toolbox of realization skills; mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and algorithmic design. I work from an aesthetic perspective, believing function emerges from compelling form rather than preceding it.