Design with benefits, Pt.II

The faces behind Design with Benefits 

After speaking to Eunice, Tania, and Ida about the genius behind Design with Benefits, we became interested in their personal stories, on their stories of travel, and their current musings and inspirations. To no surprise, these women as people are no less exciting than their creative e-store and website. 

THEIR STORIES 

T: I’m German-American: My parents and brother moved to Nicaragua from Germany, where they then lived for 10 years, my father opening an architecture practice. Following the Nicaraguan Revolution, they left to Florida where I was born.  I studied Architecture at UC Berkeley and then UT Austin, where I met Ida, and we became fast friends. I’ve always been guided by an insatiable traveling itch, which led me to seek out social design work in places like Australia, Mongolia, and India.  So it was no surprise to my family when I decided to take an architecture job in Santiago, Chile last year. Not long after, I met a handful of interesting foreigners who were all here, launching startups with the aid of Start-Up Chile, a startup accelerator run by the Chilean Government.  I couldn’t shake the idea of launching my own design-related startup.  I applied for Start-Up Chile, and eventually Design With Benefits was born.  I’m incredibly fortunate to have found two amazingly talented women, Ida and Eunice, to join me- Design With Benefits is infinitely better because of them.

I: I was born in Dubrovnik, a small historic town on the southeastern part of the Croatian coast. Long before the idea of me being an architect had shaped I enjoyed playing urban design with my favorite toy: a wooden assembly of a factory, which included a surprisingly high amount of miniature trees to be placed in this imaginary industrial setting... Tania and I met while studying sustainable design at the University of Texas at Austin, and we immediately became friends. I was very excited when she asked me to join Design With Benefits.

E: I was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived there until the age of eight, but I was pretty much raised and educated in Southern California. I am a junior studying international relations and psychology at Harvard, but I recently took a year off and am currently living in Santiago, Chile. During my time in South America, I discovered my passion for journalism, and when I am not working with Tania and Ida on Design with Benefits, I report on Chilean news with The Santiago Times. At Design with Benefits, Tania, Ida, and I tend to share many responsibilities because we are an early-stage startup, but I normally focus on marketing, editorial content, and digital media. I hope to travel the world and am obsessed with Thai cuisine, Vinyasa yoga, Friday Night Lights, foreign languages, and multimedia/tech-related things.

TO-DO in CHILE

E: Sand boarding and stargazing at San Pedro de Atacama (driest place in the world), hiking glaciers and hanging out with penguins in Antarctica, horse riding and enjoying hot springs in Pucón. Street art in Valparaíso. Visiting all three houses of Pablo Neruda (Bellavista, Isla Negra, Valparaíso). In Santiago, I would recommend visiting Pueblito Los Dominicos Artisan Village for souvenirs. I’m obsessed with palta (Chilean avocado), anything with choclo (Chilean corn), maracuyá (passion fruit). Chileans are also obsessed with pisco (in the form of pisco sours or piscola).

... & on INSPIRATION

I: I am really enjoying Brain Pickings at the moment - a cross-disciplinary website that features extremely interesting articles from design, art, science and technology, to poetry and philosophy. Their "Literary Jukebox" has a daily quote from a favorite book, matched with a song. Don't forget to press play. 

E: Landfill Harmonic (trash orchestra from Paraguay) and Girl Rising (10x10 documentary on girls’ education)

T:  Beetbox - A super talented NYU design student created a wicked instrument that allows you to make drum beats by touching actual beets. Amazing. Landfill Harmonic - There is a student orchestra in Paraguay, composed entirely from students using instruments made from trash in the landfill that the village/slum is built on. Students who could otherwise never afford musical instruments or lessons are making beautiful music on incredible instruments. I played violin for 15 years as a kid, and this story inspires the hell out of me.