February 15, 2026
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4 min
Hey! I’m Tim van Cappellen and I study Communication & Multimedia Design at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Over the coming six months, I’ll be working at TodayTomorrow as a graduation intern, contributing to the Space Teen project. Looking forward to it!
I’m a big fan of Google Arts & Culture, an app that lets you explore art, culture, science, and design. It offers a weekly selection of current stories tailored to your interests. This week, for example, I read about Stan the T. Rex (the largest and most complete specimen of its kind ever excavated) as well as illustrations of New Zealand flora. You can also “chat” with artworks using artificial intelligence to get answers to your questions, add widgets that brighten up your home screen with a daily artwork, and explore many other experiments by Google. The interaction feels intuitive and the visual design is polished, making it an enjoyable and accessible way to learn more about the world.
In the digital domain, the possibilities feel endless, and digital design sometimes feels like a fun puzzle or brain teaser. You try things out, move elements around, and gradually see a solution come to life. One you can ultimately carry around in your pocket.
One of the reasons I stopped using Spotify is that music, podcasts, and audiobooks are presented all together. That doesn’t work for me. I prefer a product that does one thing really well, rather than a system where different functions compete with each other.
I was born in Rotterdam but grew up in the small village of Strijen, just south of the city. I’ve now been living back in Rotterdam for about ten years, but I still really enjoy going for bike rides through open fields and countryside.
I graduated as a media manager from Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam, where I learned a bit of everything within the creative industry — from management to visual design. Outside of that, I’ve gained broad work experience as well, for example as a marketer and freelance photographer. Today, I’m able to draw on the inspiration and knowledge from these different experiences in my design work.
The great thing about an internship is that it gives you the space to discover where your strengths lie. What I already know is that I’m analytical and able to use research to clearly identify the core of a problem. At the same time, I’m visually oriented and enjoy translating insights into concrete, tangible designs. That combination of analysis and visualization helps me build bridges and make abstract ideas tangible. It’s precisely in that translation that I hope to be of value at TodayTomorrow.
For me, it all starts with curiosity: “Why does this work the way it does?” I also like to ask myself whether something could work better in a different way. That constant drive to understand and improve things is what keeps me moving forward.
I would love to live in the Irish countryside someday, in an old cottage or farmhouse with a garden where I can grow my own vegetables. Inside, I imagine myself sitting by the fireplace in a small personal library, while outside I wander through rolling, idyllic landscapes. I can picture it perfectly.
I often try to learn something new, and at the moment that’s Morse code. I’m also a big film enthusiast and have a fascination with unusual animals and plants (think stick insects and carnivorous plants).