Amber De Coen, Designer-Researcher

Amber is a graphic and service designer with a passion for participatory and social design. She graduated with an MA in Arts in 2020, completing a participatory design project that explored how loneliness in young adults can be understood, communicated, and visualised. In 2021, she completed a Postgraduate degree in Space and Service Design at Thomas More.

In her practice, Amber supports others in interpreting their social and personal contexts by positioning herself at the intersection of careful observation and active participation. Her work focuses on vulnerable and marginalised groups, using visual language to facilitate understanding, connection, and translation between people and their wider societal contexts.

In 2021, Amber started a PhD within the Contextualized Creation Research Unit at LUCA School of Arts (Genk). Conducted within the Blink. project, her research examines how design research and participatory design can support person-centered care by helping carers recognise, share, and translate nonverbal expressions of personhood. She also develops inclusive methods and more transparent ways of documenting participation with nonverbal people, including persons with late-stage dementia and persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), in professional care settings.

Since 2025, Amber has been teaching within Response_Able Futures, an MA in Design and Health Care. She also works on the EduCare project, which aims to develop a care-centered educational framework for design and other academic fields, promoting well-being, inclusion, and innovative teaching.