“Yes, I do see us as improving the world,” says Twan with a big smile, sitting at the picnic table in front of the Ink studio in Amsterdam-Noord. Read our conversation about how he went from being a chef to being a social designer.
An adventurous start
“I grew up in Goes. I started cooking when I was 14, in a pancake restaurant with a 60-page menu, and I loved the practicality of cooking. And it ensured that I always had a source of income. When I started traveling and I ran out of money, I could always go work somewhere in the kitchen. For example, I worked at a seafood restaurant on a small island off the coast of Perth; there was an open kitchen with a sea view. In the distance, the Perth skyline was visible and dolphins swam by every night.”
What do you do when things go wrong?
Once back in the Netherlands, Twan worked in the kitchen of The Movies, where he ended up though someone he knew. “I was still searching a bit. I didn't necessarily have the ambition to stay working in a kitchen. I wanted to do something creative but I had also just passed my VWO, so did that mean university was the next logical step?” I ask if he knew back then that he wanted to do something with social design. “No, not at all. I didn't even know that term. I knew I wanted to be in a job where I could be creative”. Twan decided to study Product Design at the University of Amsterdam. A middle ground between the more technical side of studying at the TU and the conceptual side of an art school. “What I had an aversion to was hot air: making something beautiful, throwing marketing sauce over it and then making a ridiculous amount of money. I never aspired to do that. But I wasn't consciously involved in social design either. Although I did think a lot about how we can make the world a little bit better”. A difficult time followed. Twan's father died, not long afterwards also his father-in-law, while a loved one started experiencing psychotic episodes. “During that period, I was very much looking for guidance, a way to give all this meaning. What worked really well for me was being very practical, which is why working in the kitchen was such a good outlet. After graduating, I dove back into that full-time. But I also realized that the kitchen should not be my final destination. I wanted to go further in design and needed a push to get back in there. During the same period, that loved one was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Slowly, the feeling formed that I might want to do something with that. I had to find a way to deal with that, how could I turn it into something positive?”
Making an impact is not the same as solving the problem
Twan ended up at the Master Crossover Creativity at the HKU. In this Master, you investigate how, as a designer, you can make a crossover to another discipline. Many of the resulting projects are examples of social design. “Even though I still didn't know the term back then. Everyone had to come in with a project proposal and I decided to use my personal situation. My question was: in what way can you help and stay involved during a loved one’s illness? People in the immediate vicinity of such a person also carry a very heavy load. There are hardly any tools available, the feeling of being powerless is intense. Someone who is in a psychosis also experiences the world in a completely different way. As bizzare as it sometimes seems, it is their reality. So how do you stay connected to each other? It is a very difficult and vulnerable situation. And yet, as their close relation, your involvment can mean a lot to them.” Such a personal topic also meant involving other loved ones in his research. “That was complicated, we were all dealing with it in different ways and not everyone felt the need to dive into it like this. But it was very valuable when we realized that our conversations most often revolved around the loved one with the diagnosis and how things were not going well. Rarely did we talk about how we actually felt about it. There was a huge hole there. I took that as a starting point and began talking to a lot of people in a similar situation. They all seemed to have the same experience.” But how do you design something for so many different people, who have a similar experience while at the same time a completely different way of dealing with it? This question leads to an interesting insight. “I also found that very difficult. And this is something I still find difficult about my job. As social designers, we naturally take on a big role by tackling these problems”. However, what I've actually learned from this process is: you're not going to necessarily solve this, but you can make a small contribution to improving it. At some point, that penny dropped - I'm not going to fix this, but there are people I'm going to help by doing this. And that is making an impact, which is not the same as solving. You need to take small steps to move forward.” So his research focused mainly on the environment. “If you teach the environment how to deal with this, and especially how to do it better together, you can create a safety net. This indirectly has a positive effect on the person with the diagnosis. During my research I spoke to them a lot. They often felt very alone and misunderstood. This goes very much hand in hand with the lack of knowledge and tools available for the people in their environment. It should not be about being ill, but about human contact. That became my starting point and ultimately resulted in the card game 'Waan-zinnig Gesprek'. It enables people to have a conversation with each other and to connect. You talk about how this situation affects you, what you can learn from it and how you can do better in the future”.
Crazy conversation
Twan's teachers saw the potential of his project and asked him to apply for a grant to turn the idea into an actual product. Today, there are several healthcare institutions that use Waan-zinnig Gesprek. Only after Twan obtained his Master's degree did he become aware of what social design is. “What would my next step be? I looked into what else I could do with the card game. That's when I actually found out that what I had done was social design. I realized that I can design for a better world. That's exactly what I want to do.”
Fortune favors the bold
When asked how he ended up with Ink Social Design, I get that big laugh again. “I was doing everything I could to get Anna to meet with me. Finally, she invited me for an interview. That was on a Friday. I was still working in the kitchen then and had a shift that evening. Anna was planning to meet a friend for dinner, but she didn't have a reservation yet. “You can come and eat at our restaurant”, I said and I think that was a good move. She came to dinner that night and next Tuesday I got a message: I think we have a project that's perfect for you. That was a project from the UMC, where we wanted to improve the quality of life for people with a long-term psychiatric disorder. Of course, that was a wonderful switch.”
When I ask Anna (Noyons, founder of Ink Social Design) why she wanted Twan on her team, her answer is clear. “Of course, he had a relevant education, but before he joined Ink, he had already led three lives. I really believe that to be a good social designer you need life experience. In addition, he had independently set up an entire project, from research to actual deployment. This showed so much potential. That project also gave him a good understanding of how healthcare works, which is an area in which we work a lot.”
At its best
Twan still uses the skills that he learned in the kitchen. “You have to be organized, be able to check things off a list. In addition, I'm better at dealing with stress; a little bit of pressure makes me more creative. I find research interesting, it teaches you an awful lot - but when we start making things, I'm at my best. Creating something. Whether that's a nice plate with delicious food or a prototype that we're going to test and improve. I love that!”
Want to know more about Waan-zinnig Gesprek? Or wish to buy the card game? That's possible, check out: https://www.waanzinniggesprek.nl/.
