TLDR: I'm a Designer for The Web.
I started my professional life in 1993 as an illustrator and graphic designer.
Five years earlier, in 1988, I had my first contact with Apple Macintosh computers and Desktop Publishing, and worked from 1989 until 1995 in a Pre-Press studio, learning about page layout, typography, and Macs, software, periphery, and data management. But also about project management, handling clients and expectations. And the highs and lows of working in and for the creative industry.
I started a graphic design education, and finished that in 1997 with a diploma in Communications Design. During studies, after the basics in marketing, concept and design principles, I focussed on illustration and screen printing, but also worked as a tutor in the computer lab, assisting the students with Pagemaker, Freehand, Photoshop and Illustrator and keep the handful of Macintosh LCs running smoothly. Also some PC work stations needed love and tinkering with autoexec.bat and config.sys.
Around 1995 I had my first encounter with: The Web. Immediatly I was hooked, and the fascination has never left me, even today, two nearly three decades later. I'm thrilled how the seemingly simple principles and the constraints of web technologies enable the global transfer of knowledge and ideas. How intertwined technology and aesthetics are. How the explosion of devices and ways people consume content on the web challenges the traditional perception of a controllable canvas and layout. And how enabling the web technologies can be if used right.
"The web is a medium for sending information on demand between any device, for consumption in the way the user chooses. Not a fax machine for pixel-perfect print layouts, or a delivery mechanism for a ton of code to be executed on the client." - Bruce Lawson @brucel
And so, after two decades of building websites of all kinds and sizes, I find myself caring less and less about the latest hot framework or ux design trend, but thinking more than ever about the foundations of well-crafted web sites: Leaness, performance, accessibility. Discoverability, URL-design, future-friendliness. Interoperability. Designing and building meaningful and helpful stuff that lasts. Be a good citizen of the web. Which is contrary to what our industry seems to care about today: Churn out visual-only oriented screen designs in the framework of the month, soaked with tracking scripts for re-targeting and "user journeys", looking for the quick win in "engagement", and everyone involved caring only about the next year – after that another complete redesign by the next round of stakeholders will be due anyway, so why even bother about sustainability and future-friendliness.
Yes, after all, I consider myself as a designer for the web, and code is my medium.
There is so much potential in the web, and I want to work with people who also see this and like to create modular, lean and sustainable experiences for an ever growing diverse group of users and devices. Who see the true aesthethics of the web, beyond the superficial visual aspects. People who are willing to embark on a journey that never ends, since a living website never is "finished". People who are able and willing to think and work in an agile way, instead of fixed-frame top-down waterfall thinking.
If you are one of those people, I'd be happy to get in contact and see what the future may bring.