SIM Alumni

Katja Petronella Van Heugten

Most happy when making things, Katja joined the Design Academy in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 2009. After exploring different fields of design she was done making stuff she felt the world was full off. She shifted from product design to the department of communication. There she found her fascination for culture and the rituals and norms that are created by it.Wanting to experience a completely different culture herself, she left the Netherlands to work for a graphic design company in Delhi, India. By accident she met a Dutch social entrepreneur who she helped branding his nutritious food chain. There and then she experienced how much satisfaction the combination of design and social innovation gave here, and decided to continue working in this field. With this experience she joined a design project in Sri Lanka, which involved creating garments and working with local craftspeople.The next year she moved to Brazil to again experience a different culture.Used to work across many formats she is a real multidisciplinary designer. She loves using her visual skills to create clear and engaging products to explain complex questions, communicating the stories of those who don’t have the means themselves, and wants to use branding and communication to help other social entrepreneurs to increase their impact.