As a product designer with a solid background in mechanical engineering, I combine technical engineering with high-quality aesthetics.
Through my work at Technische Universität Dresden and the Fraunhofer Institute, I am used to translating complex functional requirements into intuitive, visually convincing design solutions.
In my free time I am into music (piano & sampling) and sports (football & snowboarding).
My diploma thesis develops a textile adventure motorcycle suit – jacket and trousers – based on circular economy strategies, in cooperation with industry partner HELD.
User, crash and product analyses led to modular concepts that combine protection with repairability, adaptability and a longer service life. Three of them were developed in Clo3D and checked for fit; the final rendering places the design in a realistic use scenario.
The thesis started from one question: how can circular economy strategies – repair, refurbish and reuse in particular – be applied to safety-relevant protective clothing? The focus was textile adventure motorcycle gear, which has to combine protection, climate comfort and everyday usability over long periods of use.
Two personas condense the target group: Thomas, the long-distance tourer, and Lena, who switches between everyday riding, short trips and her first off-road tours. A user journey from purchase and travel to care, repair and disposal showed where today's products reach their limits: heat build-up, fasteners that are hard to use with gloves – and missing repair options.
An expert interview with HELD sharpened the focus: repair and local replaceability are seen as far more practical in the market than pure recycling concepts.
Accident and damage studies show that loads are not evenly distributed: shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are protection and wear zones at the same time – and therefore the starting point for targeted replaceability.
The life-cycle assessment of the reference product shows that more than 60 percent of its CO₂ footprint comes from materials. Every extension of the use phase therefore has a direct effect.
The analysis showed that modularity is established in motorcycle clothing – as layering, removable protectors or detachable sleeves – but so far serves almost only comfort and climate. It is rarely used to make heavily stressed crash and wear zones replaceable. Six directions emerged from this gap.
Whether a module works in everyday use depends on its interface. Zips, hook-and-loop, press studs and magnets, MOLLE, buckles, form-fit as well as screw and rivet connections were rated for each module on injury risk, stability, separability, comfort and durability.
Zips proved best for large segments, hook-and-loop for quickly exchangeable elements. The variants within each idea were then compared with weighted criteria; a morphological box combined the building blocks into three concepts.
Large-scale modularity through detachable sleeves, legs and hood. The garment becomes a transformable system that adapts to weather conditions and intensity of use. After damage, heavily stressed segments can be replaced efficiently, significantly extending the life of the whole product.
The modular split also offers potential for individual fit adjustment; an additional mesh layer with exo-protectors optimises the system for warm weather. The constructive challenge lies in the safety-relevant interfaces, which must provide both protection and easy handling.
Functional and climatic adaptation of the torso through an exchangeable front module. The emphasis is on seasonal variability: in warm conditions, the standard module can be replaced by a mesh version to maximise ventilation immediately.
Modules in different sizes allow precise adaptation to different body shapes or layers worn underneath. While the focus is on thermal comfort and ergonomics, the main crash zones remain untouched in favour of lower complexity.
A targeted repair approach focused on the primary crash zones at shoulder, elbow and knee. These highly stressed areas are protected by replaceable textile patches that act as a sacrificial layer above the base material.
Tool-free attachment is provided by a large hook-and-loop connection, secured against slipping by adjustment straps and locking tabs. Besides repair, the patches carry protectors and accentuate the design language. The key challenge is redundant fixation, ensuring reliability even under extreme load in a crash.
The developed concepts were checked in CLO3D with fit maps and stress maps in riding-relevant poses – standing, arms stretched out and seated. This made tight areas, stress peaks at module transitions and critical seams visible early on and allowed the variants to be compared.
Modularity in protective clothing can do more than adapt to the weather: it enables repair, fit adjustment and the local renewal of highly stressed zones – and with that a longer service life.
At the same time, additional interfaces in safety-relevant areas create new trade-offs. The concepts therefore represent a digitally developed stage that serves as the basis for physical prototypes and certification tests.
According to HELD, fit adjustments account for a noticeable share of service requests – modules in different sizes could address this directly.
A UR5e robot picks parts with a Robotiq 2F-85 gripper. For vision-guided operation, an industrial camera had to be integrated directly at the wrist – between the robot flange and the gripper.
The goal was an adapter that holds the camera, dissipates its heat passively, guides the cable along the arm and stays within the payload budget – while reading as part of the product rather than an add-on bracket.
Sketches explored cylindrical, faceted, tapered and stepped geometries. The chosen direction is a compact cylindrical base that continues the round flange and transitions in a controlled way into a camera head tilted by 15°.
The adapter was modelled in Plasticity around reference models of robot, coupling, gripper, camera and lens – from positioning and a curve-based blockout to surface refinement.
The adapter follows ISO 9409-1-50-4-M6 and reproduces the flange for the Robotiq coupling exactly. Four M6 screws clamp coupling, adapter and robot in one go – without a second, overlapping hole pattern.
The 5 MP camera slides in from the rear, is pulled against the machined top face by three M3 screws and closed by a rear cover. The gripper can still be changed independently.
The camera dissipates about 4.5 W. Instead of a fan, the aluminium body acts as the heat sink: thermal pads and direct metal contact conduct the heat into the body, and cooling slots on the head increase its surface area.
Camera and gripper cables run in service loops across the wrist joints and are guided by split clamps that can be fitted without dismantling the arm.
Adapter, cover and clamps are 5-axis milled from EN AW-6082-T6 and anodised in anthracite – the whole system reads as one product family.
With a tool mass of about 1.9 kg, roughly 3.1 kg of the 5 kg payload remain for the part; for heavier parts the adapter fits the UR7e unchanged.
Fraunhofer IWU researches production systems that print complete products, including their electronics, in one automated process. A key technology is WEAM (Wire Encapsulating Additive Manufacturing): the print head embeds electrical conductors directly into the part while printing.
My task was to demonstrate the process on a tangible product – a cordless screwdriver whose housing already contains its wiring. No soldering, no loose cables, no manual wiring.
The technical basis was the 4-volt Worx WX240 cordless screwdriver. I took it apart completely to understand its structure and function and to identify the parts that could be reused.
Circuit board, battery, motor and gearbox were carried over. Each component was measured and remodelled in SolidWorks – so the exact installation space the new housing had to hold was known.
A housing printed in the round would be stable, but needs a lot of support material and long print times – and conductors can hardly be embedded cleanly. This led to a two-stage process.
The housing is printed flat with the conductors embedded during printing. Only then is it bent around the components into its round shape – closing the electrical contacts at the same time.
Insulation displacement contacts (IDC) make the connection: their forked edges cut through the insulation when pressed in and contact the conductor – no soldering, gas-tight, vibration-proof and easy to automate.
The biggest hurdle: the round housing with all its cut-outs had to be translated into a flat print template. No standard software exists for unfolding such a complex shape.
I therefore unfolded the geometry iteratively – printing it, bending it around the real components and adjusting it until the flat template fitted exactly after forming.
For the outer shell I chose a Voronoi structure. It is typical of additively manufactured objects and makes the production process visible, saves material without weakening stability too much, and clearly sets the tool apart from conventional screwdrivers.
An inserted film seals the openings against dust; end caps on both sides close the housing.
The result is a working prototype: the flat-printed, formed housing holds all components precisely and connects them electrically – without a single solder joint. An animation made in Blender explains the whole process, from flat printing through assembly and forming to the finished device.
The project is a proof of concept. Repairability, recycling and robust contacting still need further development before series production – but the potential to fully automate assembly and wiring is clear.
This chapter brings together my modelling and visualisation work. At its centre is a Porsche 911: the car body as a NURBS surface model in Plasticity, the wheel rim as a subdivision model in Blender – from the first curve network to the final studio rendering.
The aim for the body was calm, continuous surfaces with few control points, so that reflections flow cleanly across the entire form from the very beginning.
Only one segment is modelled; mirror and array modifiers (20 instances at 18°) build the complete wheel live. Quads only, faces as even as possible: between the first build and the optimised mesh, the edge flow of the segment was rebuilt from scratch.
Finally, body and rim are brought together and rendered in a studio setting. This is where it shows whether curves, surfaces and topology are truly clean: in the reflections.
Detailed digital replicas of various Apple products, including an iPhone, a MacBook Pro and the AirPods Max.
The focus is the Apple Vision Pro. Its particular challenge lay in the highly complex surface reconstruction and the topologically demanding modelling of the housing – precise execution of flowing transitions and demanding curvature in the CAD process.
A series of detailed renderings of high-end audio equipment: a Marshall amplifier, a condenser microphone and the OP-1 synthesizer.
The focus was on the photorealistic reproduction of material-specific textures – from the amplifier's characteristic surfaces to the precisely modelled controls of the synthesizer.
Two product stagings from beauty and lifestyle: the perfume 'Phantom' by Rabanne and a serum bottle by Essence.
To add atmosphere to the serum image, a blueberry asset from the BlenderKit library was integrated – a composition that goes beyond pure object representation and places the product in a narrative context.
Freehand drawing is an essential tool for quick ideation and for analysing complex geometries. The studies shown here focus on perspective and on capturing proportion and volume.
The design of an underwater drone illustrates this process – from form-finding to constructive logic.
The complete design development of a calender gearbox – from the initial technical layout and calculation to the subsequent 3D modelling in SolidWorks.
Documented through the full assembly including a standard-compliant bill of materials and a detailed part drawing of the drive shaft. The work focused on precise technical documentation and a design suited to manufacturing.
A selection of 3D-printed lampshades. The designs are my own and deliberately use the aesthetic and technical possibilities of additive manufacturing to create filigree structures and individual light effects.
All models shown were realised as functional physical objects.
Six haptic surfaces from one material – clay.
Logos and festival identity, staged in photoreal mockups.
Christmas card motif for TU Dresden's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
A pumpkin in a glass jar, drawn in Procreate.
Design and high-end rendering of a subway car interior.
Visualising furnishing scenarios from the original floor plan.
Iceberg, meadow and underwater scenes, modelled in Blender.
The full portfolio as PDF – available on request.