Rob Reitsma

Visual Designer :: graphics :: print :: ux :: branding :: marcom and project management.

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Albelli

Albelli is the consumer brand of Albumprinter. The company specializes in photo products and is fast becoming an expert in building intuitive software to create them. The brand started of by selling photo books in the Netherlands and soon expanded into other markets and broadened the portfolio, which now includes wall decoration and a range of fun photo products. It's a dynamic company who reacts fast to consumer trends and needs.

I have a senior role within the Brand & Creative team and lead a number of core marcom, campaign and web projects with a team of skilled designers. The in-house creative agency structure provides me with ample opportunities to collaborate with a versatile and international team and project manage up to high standards in a fast paced environment. Communication and deadlines are key while we aim to deliver innovation and quality.

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Website NTCS

http://ntcs.nl/ One of my latest projects is the design and development of the NTCS website. They are a telecom consultancy group. For NTCS, the content was key more than to any of my earlier clients. Aside from their own content, they publish articles written by editors from the industry - imagine a library of specialist publications. In the first phase of the project we focused on how to approach, document and process this content. We wanted the online presence and functionality seamless and attractive. Here, I want to express special thanks to Kristina Halvorson, Content Strategy for the Web After a first draft of the content strategy plan we started the second phase of design and development. The main website goals for the client were: write, read & share. The system is based on Wordpress, which we developed a customised theme unique to NTCS. We created an easy navigation which means you'll find a way to the articles on all pages, they are efficiently categorised and tagged. We created 3 types of navigation, in 2 languages, making the user experience great on any device. I was inspired by the growing possibilities of web font usage and the style of the most innovative news publishers online. In the layout I have focused a lot on the balance between image, word and rich media, followed by a nice topographic treatment to maximise the readability. Suitably for a telecom specialist, I played with the font families Lucida Bright used for the iPhone and Roboto used for Android devices. The two families play well together. The design elements and colours are derived from the NTCS branding. The vibrant colours are mainly used to empower navigation, the white to increase the readability. The website is now in place, the content strategy plan completed and operational. In the coming months we'll analyse the process and optimise the website for the years to come.

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Website Gianluca Soldi Shoes

http://www.gianlucasoldishoes.com/ Gianluca Soldi is an amazing shoe designer and fashion art director with over twelve years working for high end designer labels in Italy and France. I designed and developed him a unique tailor made website. Goal of his web presence is to find and present him in style speaking to the high end fashion community. Together with his shoe collections and a visual background you'll get a complete and attractive story of Gianluca Soldi and his shoes. As Gianluca is actively involved in his online presentation I abled him to manage his website through Wordpress (CMS). This way he can upload and alter content and adapt to any specific fashion event where he is presented. The fashion events are key moments directing traffic to his website. During international fashion events visitors mainly use mobile and tablet screens. The website is responsive and creates the same experience as on bigger viewports. Social media is fully integrated abling to contact and even feed the websites content. For the front-end design we went for a photographic and serene look and feel. Shades and colors are reduced to a broken white with black. The work of Gianluca gets the full attention deserved. We decided to go for a strong, bold, independent and feminine layout with navigation fitting the work of Gianluca Soldi.

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Website Clicktron Media

http://www.clicktronmedia.com/ Clicktron Media is an online media agency helping companies to grow online through performance based online marketing. A growing company which requested me to design and develop a new website based on Wordpress. With the new website I also had to redesign their branding including the logo and design elements as colours, shapes and layouts. Goal of the new website is to interest and trigger the visitor to contact Clicktron Media. The interest has to be triggered with a clear and complete presentation and a minimal amount of content. Due to a large amount of content sections and a new branding I choose to work with many different fresh colors. We agreed to go for responsive design, display on mobile, tablet and screen viewports. A one page layout abled us to have multiple sections easily accessible by scrolling or clicking directly to the section needed from the top. Also we included dynamic html5/css3 in the header to give a attractive and effective introduction of the Clicktron Media services. The Wordpress system ables Clicktron to manage the content and analyse the traffic needed to execute their online marketing. With this startup website Clicktron Media is ready to grow big, this is just the start having the full potential to do so.

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Front-end design Addiliate online marketing platform

http://www.addiliate.com/ Addiliate is an online marketing platform tracking and managing performance based marketing campaigns. All advertising campaigns online can be monitored in detail and generate a big amount of data. This data needs to be visualised and ordered in a front-end design with the best user experience including smooth graphic treatment and functionalities. The already existing platform needed an upgrade in the front-end, the former version couldn’t compete with the demand and type of usage. The system is used by many different users with each specific roles and responsibilities. Preparation is everything before even starting on the actual design and development. All possible information about usability, content and structure were gathered to be converted into a plan. Working together with a team of developers makes communication a priority combining the front-end design with back-end development. As this was included in the plan, implementation could be prepared referring to the backend languages used and the functionalities requested. The platform is prepared for responsive use (mobile/tablet and screen viewports), but the focus will be working on screen as this will be 98% for now.

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A quality website you can afford

Give your online communication strategy the face and voice it needs. A visual, functional and interactive identity to give the best online impression of your brand. A website can be this impression and home for all your online communication. I always go for the best design and development of any website. Equally important is the content to be published. Thanks to my network I can provide photography, copy, video, illustration and other media. Your website will publish content to be used for other channels e.g. social media. If you see that there are needs for your website, please get in touch and we could meet to discuss the possibilities and ideas.

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Albumprinter / Albelli, photos and memories

As a freelancer I’m available for companies hiring me for in-house and outsource projects. To bring creative skills, add fresh perspective and clear backlog for the creative team. My most recent in-house job was for Albumprinter / Albelli. Albumprinter is an online store to order high quality photo books and related products to print your digital photos. It was a pleasure to join this young, varied and dynamic team at the headquarters in Amsterdam. The company experiences growth and does well on the online market. A perfect match to help them out with some campaigns of their multiple consumer brand. When involving in an in-house project you can expect anything have to respond to daily needs. It was good to tap into my past experience with that. Luckily at Albumprinter they are used to clear project briefs, even when there is a huge overload of work. I enjoyed the spirit and working hard. Below I'll describe two projects I worked on. Launch personalized phone cases We pulled off a project supporting the Web UX team to deliver attractive online display material for personalized phone cases. The concept was a result of current brand identity, brainstorming and input from the creative team. We needed good photography and an alignment with the already existing website. Preparing solid quality product images through the photo shoot and in Photoshop takes time and effort. But we delivered a broad variety of online display material for different channels. All material was collected in an overview including the specifications, naming and (work)files. This document will make future product launches more efficient for the designer in collaboration with the web UX team. Theme book positioning online Second project was creating an online presentation of the theme books. This is the existing photo book product, but differs by including a ready made theme for the customer to choose and apply. We needed a visual treatment on the website making this difference clear and attractive. With a similar process as in the phone case project we came with a convincing solution. Every in-house project makes you learn new ways of working, of communicating and brings new perspective. Albumprinter proves that a fast online business benefits from the essential time taken to get to smart, aligned and quality design work. A great peek into another inspiring kitchen with an amazing product.

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Bar Brasserie Jefferson

http://www.barjefferson.nl All projects are welcome, but some give that extra drive and spark. Like the branding of Jefferson in Amsterdam. A starting bar brasserie which needed support on their initial brand communication. It’s fantastic to create a stationary for a hospitality establishment, a food & drink experience and the foundation for a crucial customer relationship. I offered Jefferson a concept based on my first impression, the business plan, the owners and research on location. After the research I started collecting the key values of Jefferson. Being a hospitality establishment on a location with hardly any competition and surrounded by the ideal target group you can play it safe and brave. We want to present Jefferson as classy and timeless with a modern classic look & feel referring to Americana, aviation, sophisticated, warm, recognisable, clarity and diversity. We had to work with the already existing logo to fit in the overall design identity concept. We tweaked it and continued adding the colour-, typography- and form elements coming from the design for the website. The stationary consisted of a website, flyer(s), business cards, invitation, menus and social media. The base stationary needed to be developed in a short timespan because of a fast approaching opening. This is definitely a successful project in development and I will keep you posted!

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System icons & suite logos Casemix

For a recent client Casemix I designed and developed the icons for a .NET system with a iOS look & feel ;). These icons are grouped in suites and those need logos as well. A great task and I needed to refresh this skill as it’s been awhile I did the design for a system where the functionality and UI (User Interface) are just as important. I got this project through a former Amsterdam studio friend who before designed an icon for one of the Casemix applications (Thanks @clearsinking and @epologee). To develop a serie of icons you need a system behind them to ensure visual alignment and processing new upcoming icons. I gave the client three concepts. First based on the former and existing icon, second on the Casemix identity with a ternary system concept and the third with a "cells" concept. With the “Trancell 4” concept chosen we could start rolling out all icons. With this concept we could also design the logos for the suites. You can compare designing and creating a serie of icons with the process developing a font type. All icons (characters) need have that own character seperately, but also have harmony placed side by side. The attitude towards icons also changed over the years. Starting with clip art images in Word, to the endless icons within our app ruled society online. An interesting debate with the client was our position between figurative to abstract. One, does every icon needs to exactly visualize what it functions for? Two, does the apps textual description needs to equal the icons emblem visually? Three, is an abstract figure or form enough to support the text description of the apps functionality? After our experiences so far we agree to be between point two and three. Also the outcome resemble these points. This project is in progress as more icons will be added in the future.

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Feel free to contact me

All companies or projects work following a communication plan related to promotion, sales, marketing, finance etc. My service is to give this plan a face, a visual and interactive identity to give the best impression of your plan. In times when the communication options are overwhelming you have to make choices. These possibilities are all very exciting and in need of a design communication strategy which I can provide. With my skills, experience and network I’m able to manage, design and develop a wide range of design communication projects from marketing campaign concepts, websites to brochures and brand identities. All services will be strategically linked to your communication plan. EXPERT IN Project and process management Brand identity on- and offline ONLINE TOOLS Websites Web design to web development Social Media Design Support for social media campaigns within e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. Blogs Web design to web development in Wordpress, Tumblr, Facebook etc. Direct marketing Online advertisement (online display), campaign landing pages, email etc. OFFLINE TOOLS Promotional material Brochures, posters, bags, banners. POS etc. CGI TOOLS (Computer Generated Imagery) The application of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally. 3D models rendered into images which can be used within your communication strategy. Please have a look at my online presentation. If you see that there are gaps and needs I could fill, please get in touch and we could meet to discuss the possibilities and ideas.

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Progress Modo 3D

The regular practice in Modo 3D made this statisfying result. There is a good harmony between the modeling of the stacks of cards, the lighting and the texturing. Important as explained in the blog post before to get close to a photo realistic result. We'll use this 3D images in our coming campaigns to reposition business cards. Next step will be the modeling of more products and scenes. More important is to know when to apply 3D in order to support a strong concept and message.

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Idea & Concept

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Me & My Network

A creative mind and graphic designer with strong project management skills who is able to listen. The missing link for small business, startups and project teams connecting to the design of brand, marketing and sales communication. Think e.g. web, print, lead generation and 3D projects.

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You & Your Network

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PROJECT

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A form of realism with Modo 3D

After an intense 4 day training in Modo 3D software I wanted to dedicate a post to it. I’m always deeply impressed by digital 3D creation. How cool it is we can create and design our own world more vividly realistic!? I did worked with 3D design briefly during my internship for Sinot Design & Communication for interior scenes. Then a technique mainly used in engineering, video post production and gaming. Also then the mind blowing term 3D printing was becoming a practice.

A form of new realism

3D visuals have a strong visual connection to engineering, video post production and gaming. But now getting applied to our daily visual spectrum and the time is right. In the 24 hour photo culture we live, mainly because of social media, we are getting blind of these snapshots as they are not “real” anymore. With 3D we can visualize our ideas, concepts, fantasies, dreams etc. in the most photo realistic way. This catches the eye, triggers your mind and it sticks with you. In an insecure economical, social and political time, the need for clarity and change can be felt. 3D graphics can visualize this need and even come with answers by showing actual great abstract ideas and/or fantasies as a reality. This trend will become even bigger over the next years with the improving techniques, software, printing and a demand for new innovative visual perspectives.

Marketing

Already the major industries in luxury products as cosmetics, cars and jewelry changed their photography to CGI rendering (Computer-generated imagery). Imagine the advantages this brings like cutting on your photography budget, endless variation in your visual material and the small step to 3D animation/motion graphics. I work for Vistaprint selling a wide range of online printed products. Recently we also found an opening using 3D design through the software Modo. In order to accelerate this development we got offered a 4 day training to learn the basics of this incredible 3D design software.

Modo 3D

All these years I used and abused the 2D tools like Photoshop and Illustrator to deliver fine graphics. Now starting my first steps into an extra dimension. This dimension brings extra complexity, with first of all depth. Depth brings more than just an extra axe, it brings multiple perspectives, light, form, polygons, loops, vertices etc. Modo is the first 3D program which managed to integrate all functions in a decent UI. Next to all basics like the UI, tools, shortcuts and terms we had 4 days of pure practical examples and exercises. My head is on fire and I catch myself converting a street bench into a 3D Modo model.

Practice

We're at the point now to enter a new skill and start creating actual 3D models. To place them, light them and render the scenes. I want to take you along on this ride and shall post some of my breakthroughs soon.

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Screen print

As mentioned before I still carry my passion for screen printing. Next to printing myself I like to collect screen printed concert posters. Music and design are big for me and so a grand combination which comes out in these specific posters. Last year my girlfriend and I moved into this beautiful place which used to be an old bakery. The staircase slowly changes in the "Stairway to Heaven" hanging the best selection of my collection. I started a screen printing course and I'll setup my in house printing studio. From here I'll be designing and printing posters for upcoming artist playing in and around Barcelona. If you're into printing and music I like to share ideas. Also I'm constantly on the look out for new posters and definitely want to get to know more print artists around the world.

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Interesting TED talk by Clay Shirky how internet will influence governmental decisions in the near future. Based on open source github and combining this process with already existing initiatives like Google Moderator and AVAAZ.org there is a real starting point with potentially intervening with the traditional voting system. Go internet, as change is needed.

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Open Stage 2012

Link to preview page For the past 6 years my family celebrates birthdays and life with a annual open stage night. A night where friends and family climb the stage and share a performance. This goes from singing, playing to acting and dancing. Earlier this year we had another great open stage where my share was to sketch the night away. For every performance I made a quick sketch and connected them afterwards following the line I added within every drawing.

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Vistaprint

It was November 2009 and I wasn’t ready to go anywhere. I got recommended for a lead graphic designer job at Vistaprint. I considered this a lucky unexpected opportunity to understand the international corporate world I didn’t touched before. Vistaprint is an exceptionally fast growing global e-commerce company with the European headquarters based in Barcelona. The creative department develops on-, offline communication materials. Think email campaigns, online display, print and the website. My role is to manage, lead and develop graphic designers. As a key member of our in-house agency team, I need to work and collaborate with marketing professionals from all European countries. Leading a creative team within a sales driven company forces you to communicate, negotiate and defend your work. At Vistaprint your expertise and ability to adapt is tested constantly. The companies goal is to sell, my personal goal is to deliver quality. This is a huge learning next to all new design and technical knowledge I’m gaining.