Product Design

Companion

Britt van den Berg
Companion means ‘with bread’; ‘com’ is Latin for ‘with’, and ‘pain’ is French for ‘bread’
Project Project Focus
Major Product Design
Year First Year

About me

I like to consider myself as a rational daydreamer; taking a moment to rethink the ordinary, questioning it, and search for connections in the construction of our society.
Within design I see possibilities (and a responsibility) to convey those connections. By adding layers of tangibility, whilst retaining the social intention, I devote myself to all aspects of the narrative during the process. With this, I thrive to sight wonder, and enhance the relation between each other and our surroundings.

The word companion can be literally translated to ‘with bread’ (‘com’, Latin for ‘with’, and ‘pain’ French for ‘bread’),  a person you share bread with. I was intrigued by the etymology of the word, and wanted to continue working with the notion of sharing bread with others.

Delving into history, I found much interesting information regarding our relation to bread, and the culture that surrounds it. Breaking bread (breekbrood) played a significant role in numerous religions, and had a large social impact regarding the sharing of food.

I thought it was interesting to work with bread; an edible product with no lasting presence after consumption and little material value, and shape it to affect its usage the way we would with any other product.  The malleability of the dough inspired me to question the boundaries of the forms it could take, and how I could redesign its shape, feeling, and appearance to explore the effect on the social aspects of the action of consumption. I tried to create shapes that take distance from the association of the bread we already know, resulting in fun looking objects inviting to be shared.