Internship B&O

I was hired as a designer to develop digital concepts for Bang & Olufsen in Struer, Denmark. Unfortunately, due to an NDA I can’t share the results, but can explain my experiences.

At the start of the internship I identified gaps in the portfolio of B&O by analyzing users, emerging technologies, the market and competitors. From this research I wrote several project briefs and together with business managers chose to elaborate the most promising projects.

The projects consisted of a short ideation phase and a larger concept development phase. The final stage was implementation of the concept into a exhibition-like presentation with physical and digital prototypes (also developed by me).

Unlike other design projects, this internship allowed me to look at design from a strategic view. How can we re-use resources, what will be the next version of a certain product and how can we extend this product family; these were main questions for defining the projects. Furthermore I saw that these projects were a good exploration for B&O and inspired managers to talk about where they would like to go. Overall, this internship made me realize what I was worth.

Feedback from Oliver Wallington (Concept/prototype developer at B&O):
“Martijn has a incredibly good blend of confidence, creativity, intelligence, usable skills and humor. He is able to identify things that need doing and just did them, all the time keeping an eye on the big picture of the project and general aims. He was a fully active and essential member of the team from the first day, and was able to see the areas and tasks that he could most contribute to.”