From plan to ship: the life of a project designer

The role of the project designer

As a project designer, Jeremy Bertrand translates technical calculations into practical designs. "The engineers do all the calculations and ensure that the structure and thicknesses of the steel plates are sufficient to keep the ship balanced in all weather conditions. Based on these calculations, as a designer, I first create a 3D model. This covers everything from the basic structural components to foundations and details. Based on the 3D models, we can then draw up 2D plans and production specs that are used for the construction in the shipyard."

Large-scale project at Royal IHC

Jeremy first worked at the Design and Engineering office of MULTI.engineering in Temse. He is currently working at Royal IHC in the Netherlands via project sourcing. "I'm working on a large-scale project that involves expanding an existing ship. For such a complex job, a company rarely has all the staff in-house to meet the deadlines. That's why they call in external partners, such as MULTI.engineering, to help get the job done."

Working at the Design and Engineering office or via project sourcing

"Whether I'm working for the Design and Engineering office or for a client via project sourcing, the content of my job remains the same. The big difference is in the working environment. With a client, you see your designs come to life. Royal IHC, for example, has its own shipyard. You see the ships being built and occasionally experience a launch. That makes the work extra interesting.

And it's also a different corporate culture, of course. MULTI.engineering is a smaller, family-like company: everyone knows each other and you always know who to contact. So, that allows you to react quickly. At a large company like IHC, there's more division of labour, and it takes some time to find the right contacts in the beginning. But once you find your way, you have access to a broad team of specialists here, too."

The advantages of project sourcing

Project sourcing gives companies access to external experts without having to hire them permanently. "Depending on a project, they can call on expertise that they don't have internally for a certain period of time. And project sourcing offers added value not only for the clients, but also for us as employees. You work on various interesting projects and you're constantly learning. This is only my first external assignment, but I look forward to gaining experience at other companies in the future and discovering even more new people and ways of working."

The power of the Design and Engineering office

With the Design and Engineering office, MULTI.engineering also has the expertise in-house to carry out projects from start to finish. "Clients often come to us when they see that we have references from similar projects. The experience that we can bring with us offers tremendous added value for the client. We have the knowledge, can anticipate certain problems and have a clear view of the timing."