Get To Know Us: Ricko Meulstee

How did you end up at Fabrique Invent?
During my Industrial Product Design studies in Rotterdam, I did an internship at Hamwells. During the internship we were also supposed to visit a number of fellow students at their internship offices, which resulted in me visiting the office of Fabrique Invent in Delft. From that moment on I also started following the Instagram page. Through these posts I already got a bit of an idea of ​​what the company was like and I saw that a vacancy had become available. Then I applied for the job.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I cycle a lot. I also really like to travel. But I also really enjoy days out in the Netherlands. In the weekend I like to visit other places with my girlfriend; if we need something from the city, we combine it with a day trip.

What does your working day at Fabrique Invent look like?
All my colleagues start around 9:00 am, but sometimes I like to start an hour earlier. Then I arrive here at 8:00 am and I first have a cup of coffee. Most of the work I do takes place behind the computer. As a designer at Fabrique Invent I have my own projects, so where I stopped the previous day, I can continue with the next day. The products are often complex and consist of many parts. This also makes the projects lengthy, so it's not like I start a new design project every week. I am mostly modeling in Solidworks and I have occasional contact with Theo. He assists where necessary in the design of click connections and more complex calculations.

What are major challenges in your work?
The 3D modelling comes easy to me. Everything else that is involved with designing a product can be quite the challenge. I always emphasize on the functionality of the product and focus on the technical aspect. The design is secondary to me, but you have to take this into account too. It is a challenge to come up with good solutions for the problems you encounter during design. For example, you have come up with something, but then the question arises how you are going to assemble your idea with 2 people? You have to deal with all these different aspects in advance. Before my job at Fabrique Invent I worked at a mechanical engineering company. I received a list of parts that I had to draw, of which I then made an assembly and technical drawings. You could compare it to Lego for adults; the stones already exist, but each project has a different order of bricks. Here at Fabrique Invent I have to come up with the bricks all by myself from scratch. This is a different kind of working and it continues to challenge me.

What made you decide to become an engineer?
During my second year at HAVO, we were given an assignment in engineering. We had to ceate a maquette of a building with a group of students. I really liked this and you guessed it: I wanted to become an architect. When I went to an open day for the Architecture study, I suddenly came across the Industrial Design course. My father is a machine builder, so in that sense technology was adopted at an early age. Then I decided to go study Industrial Design.

What advice would you give to young industrial designers?
My advice would be to find out what you are good at within design, and to delve into it as much as possible. For example, I was not good at sketching and conceptual thinking. That is why I focused more on materials and production knowledge. I also studied this outside of my education, for example by visiting companies that are in this sector. As a result, I can now better determine whether a design can be produced and what's needed in order to do so. By specializing you can make yourself more valuable. In my opinion it is more important to specialize in one part of the design process than to be an all-round designer. Show the motivation that you want to broaden into this!

What is something you'd really want to do in your life?
This is not a difficult question for me, different things pop up in my mind right away. I think it would be great to develop something of my own someday. Something related to products. This idea is not very specific yet, and it depends very much on what comes my way. I would also like to link this with faith. To contribute to my community.

I also think it would be very nice to engage in municipal politics in the future, to go through such a cycle for once. National politics is too fragmented and hardened for me, but municipal politics seems very interesting to me to experience how such an organization works. I can envision this at a later stage in my life. Now I'm going to focus on my work first, and when I'm a bit older, with more experience, I could focus more on this.

Finally, I want to see a little more of the world. And therefore to make some trips further abroad.