I have the unique opportunity as a designer in Asia to see how my own designs become reality. It is an amazing experience to design something and have the product actually in your hands within weeks. This is possible by production in China, Bangladesh and India. In my role as ‘Creative Director’, I quite often have contact with colleagues in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which allows me to have influence on the company and achieve my goals.

What's it like to live and work in Bangkok? First of all; lovely weather, delicious food and very friendly people. Combine this with a nice apartment including a swimming pool (!): this makes the quality of life pretty good. My Thai language skills however are not that good. Thai people speak English quite well, which does not stimulate to speak the local language.

The work-culture of the Thai people is very different from the, for me usual, Western culture. Their day-to-day mind-set and way of working is a bit in contrast with my ‘definitely not 9 till 5 job’. Result? A challenge on its own to work together.

But what do I do over here? As part of my graduation project, I had the chance to teach 10 bachelor product design students in design for 12 weeks on a university in Bangkok. This allowed me to test some ideas and experience the cultural difference in a specific setting. Very interesting!