About Iris
I’m Iris, a designer from the teeny-tiny Netherlands and the founder of Alta - High on Life. I am dedicated to designing products that encourage living an expansive and expressive way of life.
A true believer in infusing every-day with curiosity and introspection I feel the really good stuff lives in expanding our mind and body through personal growth and self-exploration.
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A designer by trade and adventurer by heart, you may have seen me talk at Creative Mornings, or maybe we have met during a climbing trip. Either way, I’m glad you’re here.
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After earning my Masters degree in Industrial Design and working as a designer & researcher for a few years I founded Alta in 2021. It was during the many workshops I have designed and facilitated that I found that the creative hands-on methods I was practicing were exceptionally effective in unraveling people’s inner wants and needs.
So I started implementing these creative methods into my own life by designing my own exercises and tools. From mapping my thoughts and unravelling blockers to transforming them into focus and actionable plans. Ever since, I have created many hands-on tools for friends that have helped them with structuring their thinking and unleashing their potential to navigate their way through life - just like designer’s do in their daily design practice.
And that’s how Alta came to be.
My favorite part of building Alta products is to be able to provide people with the hands-on tools to start living a life they design themselves. All from the comfort of their own homes.
That's why I founded Alta;
to build a holistic brand that encourages people to be curious about themselves, feel confident and high on life!
About Alta
Behind the name Alta
is a little story I love to share.
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A few years ago I had the opportunity to work as a design intern at the apparel department of an outdoor brand in Salt Lake City. The head designer was a tall woman and a real badass. One day after work her impressively tall husband and toddler came to visit the atelier to pick her up. The small kid that ran into the room at that moment was such a bold little lady herself, and her name was Alta. Her parents, who were both tall people, gave her this name because of its meaning: tall (woman) or high.
Ever since, I have not forgotten about this rad girl Alta. She embodies what I imagine this brand to embrace: a state of mind, to be high on life.
The Alta method
It takes a lot of effort and introspection to figure out how you want to live your life and develop yourself. Answers to deep questions are hard to come up with, since they are buried deep down within us. We often lack the means to make our inner thoughts explicit.
Generative design research tools and techniques are designed to make the implicit more explicit.
By providing people with carefully designed hands-on exercises and associative words & symbolic shapes as prompting sets, creative thought is activated. This design approach gives people the means to unravel their inner wants and needs in an inspiring and constructive way.
Alta’s life design
At Alta we design the generative exercises in our kits based on the theory of these proven generative design research techniques. This enables us to guide you in the self-documentation of your thoughts, feelings, ideas and experiences being reflected upon.
Alta’s design approach to life is rooted in experiment and curiosity for turning thoughts into focus and actionable steps and providing you with a clearer sense of direction in life. We provide you with the tools you need for designing your life and career.
We combine digital guidance with tangible products because we believe tactility is a necessary element for people to be able to express themselves fully. Â
What others say
Alta’s Design Approach to Life
Our experience is that a hands-on & visual approach to answering deep questions is extremely valuable in accessing these deeper layers within us and getting more skilled at thinking, feeling & engaging with the world we want to build for ourselves.
Hands-on & visual
Therefore we are on a mission to design a range of creative kits with hands-on tools that let you creatively discover intrinsic motivations & new perspectives, map out aspirations and break down blockers to become focussed and actionable and design the (way of) life you want to be living.
Tools for Life
Alta’s Values
We have found that these themes are important for you to focus on:
A holistic life
You want to live a life that actually suits you and meshes with your character
At ease
You feel rushed a lot of the time and distracted in your activities
Confidence
You want to have more compassion for yourself and feel confident about your own qualities
Focus
You want get focused on your priorities, close all the tabs that are open in your mind.
Actionable
You want to get actionable on your wants and needs
Broaden perspectives
You are eager to learn more about other perspectives on the art of living
Cultivate
You are in need of an actionable plan to cultivate your (vague) ideas and wants for real
Fearless
You want to overcome your fear of failure
Sustainability
Through a small product range we offer creative kits from premium quality and sustainable materials. We aim for the most sustainable solutions* in the creation of our products and try to exclude plastics any way we can.
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+ The Kits are produced in the Netherlands with an eco-friendly press machine using sustainable print production on FSCⓇ certified, post-consumer & recycled paper
+ Our packaging is made from grass and paper cardboard and is fully recyclable
+ We choose paper sticker sheets over vinyl based
+ Everything we sell is made in Europe
FSC® certified, post-consumer & recycled paper
Eco-friendly press & sustainable print production
Recyclable grass -and paper cardboard packaging
Eco-friendly prompts
Made in Europe
*Interested in why we do not choose for bio-degradable materials? Please be informed about biodegradable material specifics. Read more here.