Rick Tegelaar (born 1986 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) graduated with honors from the ArtEZ Arnhem product design department in 2011.  Since then he works independently from his studio and workshop in Arnhem.  As a material-oriented designer, Tegelaar's work is characterized by the use of very uncommon materials, finding new beautifully shaped forms with an innovative approach.  The designer's fascination for engineering, combined with an aesthetics sense, is reflected in his designs, which shed a new light on undervalued materials and existing techniques.  According to Tegelaar, "I've always gotten a lot of satisfaction out of the processes of making something.  When I was a kid I was always playing with technical Lego.  Even now, I sometimes use Lego for making a scale model.  I'm a designer who combines thinking and doing for developing new designs."