My approach was to make the user involved with tea-making and find inspiration in cultures that have a rich history of tea-making. I explored the habits of Dutch office-workers, the benefits of tea and the rituals involved in making tea. Modern tea-machines have abandoned the rich qualities of tea-making and barely involves the user in the process. Zutea, on the other hand, makes the user experience the tea leaves and the water being turned into a cup of tea, yet still in a safe automated process.

Throughout the project, I went through numerous design iterations of idea generation, sketching, modelling and testing. These were necessary to find the best solutions for the intended interaction, casing, working mechanism, electronics and so on. While gaining knowledge on these parts, I tried not to jeopardize my vision of an aesthetically pleasing design with an elegant interaction.

ZUTEA focuses on those having difficulties taking their minds of work during their work break. Studies show that although the Dutch population drinks a lot of tea during work they take little time or effort to benefit from the relaxing rituals associated with making tea.

The ZUTEA tea maker provides an intuitively made cup of tea. Tea is added manually to any flower, followed by pulling down the flexible stem; the user initiates the boiling process. Each stem has a length associated with a brewing time to pick the desired tea strength. While the flower remains down, hot water pours in to mix with the tea leaves. The flower uprights itself while brewing and once the top is reached, the tea is ready. After pouring the brew in a cup (top-lid removed) the tea can be enjoyed.

Transparent materials make the process of tea making visible and enriches the interaction with the tea maker. Many cultures embraced the healthy and relaxing beverage in which high-quality materials and attention for details in the aesthetics of products play an important role in their tea rituals. ZUTEA’s organic shape and traditional materials, yet fully automated operation enrich the ritual of tea-making and fit neatly any modern office environment.

Because watches suited their early prototypes best, I was occupied in creating watch designs. I started designing reflective layers and continued with new concepts of showing time, casings and the appearance of all layers used in the display itself. To investigate the status quo, I looked at the current electronic watch market, made sketches and translated my concepts to technically feasible product models. It was nice to be part of a project that got the highest priority within the company and I learnt a great deal from the professional environment in which I had to prove myself worthy among the international group of engineers and marketers.

Free-hand drawing has become my primary tool to make thoughts and ideas concrete and the knowledge to work with materials such as pencils, markers, pens, Indian ink, charcoal, crayons, aquarelle paint and poster paint has lowered the threshold to use any of these to generate ideas or work out concepts.

“Linea et circulus” (line and circle) is an illustration generated by a computer. Programming a computer in such a way that it makes art was an interesting assignment during my studies in 2008. The objective was to create an illustration that could not be made manually or would take a significant amount of time. The code, written in the JAVA language, draws hundreds sets of flowered patterns, each with its own properties and colouring effects. Because the first layers drawn are least visible, a sense of depth can be perceived. The variables in the code makes the resulting image unique every time and keeps the viewer captivated.

The goal was to capture people’s expressions when missing their train and we thought of the time to film, what camera settings to use and what position would least interfere with people’s attempts to be on time, but still capture as much emotion as possible. The skills done up during this assignment proved helpful when observing user’s behaviour and when explaining a design concept to an audience.

This experience gave me inspiration and skills to produce computer graphics beyond the confined space of the map editor, and until today I still benefit from these when visualizing my design ideas with other software. It was certainly a stepping stone for the future.