My name is Marnix Oosterwelder and I am the founder of Rake Lijnen. After completing a number of vocational courses, I studied Industrial Design at the department of Leasure at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, where I graduated Cum Laude in 1997. Subsequently I worked at various design agencies at home and abroad, including 11 years at design agency Van Berlo.

Driven by a growing need for autonomy and authenticity in my work, I decided to continue under my own flag in 2013. The business and informal network that I have built up since my graduation is one of the pillars of Rake Lijnen. I combine my flexibility as a self-employed person with a wider range of services through my network. I hire capacity where necessary, or am hired myself to support another team.

One of the conditions when starting your own design practice was to find an inspiring balance between work within different work areas. I consciously chose a combination of industrial design projects, concept development projects and projects driven by idealism. The synergy I find where these work areas overlap is one of my main sources of inspiration. Working for companies in different sectors and for organizations, institutions and individuals requires a lot of adaptability, which keeps me sharp as a designer.

Read more about my background in my resume.

The office space of Rake Lijnen is located in the monumental Apparatenfabriek in the former industrial heart of Eindhoven. It is my daily workplace, but the space can also be rented for workshops and meetings.

Rake Lijnen's main activity is industrial design: translating specific needs into tangible, commercial solutions on behalf of a client. Over the past years, I developed a successful way of working closely with clients, matching our way of working and the way our development processes connect.

By using the expression "rake lijnen" (connected lines) in my company name, I express the impact of visualization. It is my experience that the most important moments in a development process take place at moments when ideas are depicted. In addition, visualization has a connecting effect: between people, between client and customer, between issue and approach, and always between idea and result. With Rake Lijnen I combine my experience as a designer and my drawing skills and I am committed to meaningful solutions that are close to people.

By often applying this method, a co-creation method has emerged in which I consider the client and the participants as co-designers. It is inherent in this that as a designer I am not a knowledge authority, and that the participant is the specialist.

Rake Lijnen is committed to customers in various sectors. The results of projects I have worked on in recent years can be found the Work page on this website.

Focused per activity below is an overview of the sectors in which I have worked.

• Industrial design: medical industry, household equipment, consumer electronics, mobility, child safety and toys, packaging industry and technological startups.

• Concept visualization: municipalities, mental health care, elderly care, housing corporations, innovation centers, educational institutions, packaging industry and technological startups.

• Co-creation: mental health care, elderly care, housing corporations, innovation centers, educational institutions, technological startups, private individuals, foundations and associations.