Design education plays a crucial role in preparing students for professional practice, equipping them with the right tools to navigate the broadening field and practices of design. However, design education falls short when it comes to supporting design students in their personal-professional journey of becoming a designer.

Design students seem to struggle with articulating what they bring to the table, and knowing what their role can be within the field of design, or beyond. The fast evolving design field demands design practitioners that persist in working with complex (societal) issues and know how they can use their agency. Therefore, they have to stand strong, be resilient, and know how they can contribute with their specific qualities.

Knowing and understanding how these qualities can be of use in as a design practitioner is a powerful tool. However, design education seems to put emphasis on knowledge and skills, rather than discovering those personal qualities. The truth is that design education cannot fully prepare students for the future, since we do not know what it holds. This does not mean that we should miss the opportunity to deliver the best design students that feel empowered and have the agency to reach their full potential as design practitioners.

Therefore, this thesis proposes educational tools that can be used to support students with their personal-professional journey in becoming the desired designer they aspire to be. The tools proposed in this report consist of multiple principles and a video that can guide students in this journey. While the principles helps in discovering students’ unique set of qualities, the video helps them in showing the urgency to work on their personal journey.

By supporting design students in their authentic identity formation, ID education can better prepare students for their professional journeys. By implementing the proposed interventions students can be supported with their transition from novices to competent professionals.