Curriculum Vitae

Personal Data

Name: Maarten Leewis
Address: Arnhem, The Netherlands
(moving to a different town or country for a job is not a problem)

Birthplace/date: Breda, January 3rd 1980
Drivers license: B

Career

  • 2003 - 2007: Falconcept, is the advertising agency for one of the bigger wholesale cash & carry stores in Holland. Within the agency I was responsible for the following:
    • Designing and layout of big and long term projects.
    • Preflighting all media before it went out for print.
    • Designing and maitaining the clients websites
    • Maintaining the workstations and the server.
    • Teaching my colleagues graphic applications.
    The work I did was very broad in it's range because I was the only one with a background in graphic design. But I did spend 90% of the time on design and layout.
  • 2003: (4 months) Soap Awards Foundation, I was named president for the foundation, and led the team in organising and managing all the necessary aspects for getting a televised Soap Awards Show. Besides leading a team, I also did all the design aspects for brochure's, websites and other media. The project was cancelled by one of the big tv stations in the Netherlands.
  • 2001 - 2003: 08media, entrepreneur in Sweden and the Netherlands. I mostly worked on designing websites and printed paper. The first year I was active in Stockholm, Sweden and the second year in Arnhem, the Netherlands, because of better opportunities in the Netherlands.
  • 2000: (6 months) my internship at Studio Newtec, an Architectural/ Urban Design & Development agency. At this employer I mostly focused on visualizing designs we came up with for a contest. I also worked on the final presentation and the result was very good, we won the contest.

Courses

I enjoy learning very much and I have taken some courses from Lynda.com. The reason for taking these courses is to keep myself up to date or to learn new applications that can benefit a design process.

  • InDesign CS3 Prepress Essentials
  • InDesign CS2 Professional Typography
  • Typographic Principles
  • Learning Dreamweaver MX
  • Intermediate Dreamweaver MX
  • CSS2 Essential Training
  • Learning Dreamweaver 4
  • Intermediate Dreamweaver 4

Education

  • 1997 - 2001: Academy of arts in Arnhem, AVM (Architectural Design & Monuments), in a later stadium of the curriculum this was amended to OK5 (Urban Space Design). The study was a hands on one, you were required to think conceptually and go beyond the box. In my graduation year I chose to the internet, and internet communities more specifically, as my urban space.
  • 1992 - 1997: HAVO, Erasmus College Zoetermeer

Computer skills

I have about 10 years of experience working with Apple Macintosh computers. All of the applications listed beneath I use the Mac OS X operating system.

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • Quark Xpress
  • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Filemaker Pro

References

Languages

  • Dutch: fluent
  • English: fluent
  • Swedish: fair
  • Russian: beginner

Motto

Always trust your heart,
even when it is wrong

What I'm looking for...

It would be a job in either Graphic Design or Creative DTP. I would like to work in a small studio & team on a variety of projects and disciplines. Diversity is an important factor. And most of all I want to be proud of my work. Which in my opinion is the key to keeping the passion for design alive.

This might be an ideal situation, I'm open to other suggestions and opportunities.

Personal summery

A list that briefly sums up some of qualities, if you would like to know more, I hope to see an invitation for an interview.

  • I consider myself to be a fairly individual person, but I work well in team and I enjoy learning from my colleagues.
  • I wouldn't describe myself as competitive.
  • Conceptual thinking is one of my key-qualities, as well as exploring an analysing user experiences.
  • I'll take the necessary extra steps to perfect a product.
  • I perform good under stress.
  • I don't have a 9 to 5 mentality.
  • Very flexible and lots of initiative.
  • Culturally interested.
  • Empathetic.
  • A quick learner.

Hobbies

kayaking, I really enjoy being in nature and taking on some white water. The chance to actually do this a lot is impossible because there is no white water in Holland what so ever. I hope to kayak in the Altai mountains (Russia) at some point.

traveling, this must be my greatest hobby. I love being on the road, and enjoying new cultures and new people. My preference is to visit places that do not receive many tourists, because the local people are more "honest" that way. My last two trips were to Siberia, a beautiful and magnificent place.

digital art. I really enjoy making my own work, which usually is slightly critical. I love working with visual and verbal contrasts. Take a look at the art section for more information.

music, is one of my favourite ways to spend my spare time, with friends or on my own. Listening and exploring new kinds of music from all over the world. One of the most interesting kinds of music I have come across lately is 5'Nizza, a Russian reggae band.