Designer Individual Profile

Hello, I'm Berk Deniz Dereli, a 4th year industrial design student at METU. I generally use my first name, Berk, but you can use whichever name you're comfortable saying. Since childhood, I’ve wanted to study a design-related field, and my first choice was architecture. However, in my senior year of high school, I discovered the industrial design department and realized it suited me better than architecture. And I think I was right. Even though there were times when projects and juries were exhausting, I’ve had a lots of fun and enjoyed studying with my friends over the last three years. Now that it’s my final year at university, I feel like there’s very little time left to spend with my friends at METU. I feel like I’m turning into one of those middle-aged people who always say, "Appreciate your college years." I’ve loved spending time on the computer since I was little. This journey started with playing computer games in my spare time, and later on, watching series, reading comics, or watching anime became part of it. My tastes tend to vary across different types of media, so it might be easier if I list the media I’ve recently consumed and my favorites below as examples. Constantly consuming this type of content in my free time has also influenced the field I want to focus on after graduation. The video game industry is one of the areas that appeals to me the most right now. In fact, I’m currently taking an elective course called Video Game Design. Also, unlike many people, my favorite project in university wasn’t a product design but a short animation called Night Shift that we created for an elective class. Contact Details:E-mail: berkdenizdereli@gmail.com – berk.dereli@metu.edu.trMobile: +90 545 712 3155Instagram: @berk.dereli

Hello! I'm Zeynep Şebnem Özbakır, a 4th year industrial design student from Middle East Technical Universty, Türkiye. I actually prefer my second name, Şebnem. No hate to all the "Zeynep"s of the world, it's just too common here in Türkiye so things get a bit confusing sometimes. So, where were we? I first decided to become an industrial designer when I realised that I get impressed by small details that help the user immensely. I was in fact looking at our 10 year old vacuum. Now I know that it's much more complicated than that, yet I still enjoy the simple solutions to what seem to be complicated problems. I am also very interested in arts and music. Though I am rather an inactive enjoyer of music, I try to dabble in art when i find time. I keep a sktechbook by my side at all time in case inspiration strucks. Here's a poorly lit picture of one of the better spreads from my latest sketchbook. Through the university years, I have struggled with having fun while creating a project. For me, anxiety always wins. But the latest project we have finished has a special place in my heart. I believe that I have finally learned how to relax during a project. This project was creating a "running vest". Although at first the project seemed a bit restrictive, but working with fabric and the human form was an interesting experience. A small showcase of the running vest we have come up with. It was named "Vestra" since it was a vest-bra hybrid. Contact Details:E-mail: zeynepsebnemozbakir@gmail.com - sebnem.ozbakir@metu.edu.trMobile: +90 537 522 4490Instagram: @sebnem.ozbakir - @shebijin