Professional Experience
RELATED EXPERIENCE
Jun 2007 – Now: Webmaster & Graphic Web Designer – The Petroleum Institute – Abu Dhabi, UAE
From revamping the old website of the ADNOC sponsored engineering university to setting up a dynamic database-driven website structure for the whole university my tasks are mostly Web related: deployment of conference websites & department sites with web features, maintenance and updates of all current pages. Secondary Graphic Design tasks involve: restyling the institute’s branding, creation of logos, artwork and print jobs like brochures, handbooks, advertising, annual reports, newsletters and much more. Report directly to the Head of Institutional Research and the President.
Recruitment of an Assistant Webmaster and management of a small centralized graphic & web design team.
Jul 2006 – Now: Freelance Collective the Black Flame – Dubai, UAE
Co-founder of ‘the Black Flame’, a freelance collective of talented designers and developers from the Dubai region.
Nov 2005 – Dec 2006: Senior Interactive Designer – Catch Interactive – Dubai, UAE
As Senior Designer my tasks were situated in creating user friendly and eye catching visuals for websites, email shots, revealers, banners, teasers and landing pages. E-marketing solutions for retail oriented clients such as Faces, Nivea, Galaxy, Chalhoub Group, JLO, Lancaster, National Bonds and the DIC among others. Project management as key role between the account managers and the international team of designers and developers. Working with Arabic web content.
Jan 2004 – Oct 2005: Web Director – Methodo Design - Lisboa Portugal
Responsible as Senior Web Designer and Project Manager for all international and national ‘web’ related projects. Working together with freelance programmers and designers. Managing international website jobs over a distance via email, FTP and telephone.
Websites for The Concentra Award (BE-EU); Troika Lusa Magazine (RU-PT); Servaustral/Sonamet (Angola); ID for Nach Stil, an association for immigrants from Eastern Europe. Learning the Portuguese language.
Jan 2002 – February 2003: Co-founder, Design Manager / Senior Web Designer – Shine.be - Antwerp Belgium
Creating the company house style based on the philosophy of “open-mindedness”, “lightness” and “professionalism” and to work on web and identity design for several High Tech, IT, Communication and Media companies from both the U.S. and Europe: TCNS, Saddletree Research, Final Sound (NL), Ultra-Scan (FBI, NASA,…), KUL (the Catholic University of Leuven), Halo Europe (Coca- Cola, Volvo, Ford,…), DENG magazine.
Aug 2001 – Dec 2001: Senior Web Designer – MaoMagazine.com - Brussels Belgium
Project based Web Design for an On-line Magazine, which had as first intention to offer critical and humoristic journalism to a young On- and Off-line community. Worked and managed event-driven web projects in cooperation with companies such as Universal Music (Björk contest) and Studio Brussels (national radio).
Nov 1998 – July 2001: Co-founder, Web Designer, Art Director – Atrecordings.com - Brussels Belgium
“Internet platform for promotion and distribution of independent Record Labels/Dotcom/E-commerce selling music from outside the mainstream”
A. During the company start-up my main responsibilities (as a co-founder and member of the -small- management team) were directed towards the development of the company “look and feel”.
On- and Off-line branding (logo, banners, stickers, flyers and posters).
Streaming media development (audio, video and Live Web cast). Acting as producer between the commercial team, designers, programmers and external technical partners. People Management: Building a strong team by attracting and recruiting highly creative and skilled professionals using my relational network.
B. Later on I was responsible for the coordination & planning of the multidisciplinary web production – team as Art Director / Producer. On-line events: live web casts, live chat sessions, contests, games…
Non stop re-thinking and re-designing the website by creating new strong community tools (‘Mail this song to a friend’, the ‘Track-o-matic’…).
Nov 1995 – NOW: Freelance Graphic Designer
Working on different projects, below a selection:
CD-ROMs: “L’art du moyen age” – Magic Media/Gallimard multimédia; “Le Violon, des hommes des oeuvres” – Editions Montparnasse; “Cyberpub, The first virtual museum of publicity with Jacques Séguéla”
ADVERTISEMENTS: The Belgian Wine Exchange: All advertisements for the national belgian press
WEBSITES: Monthly maintenance and creation of mini-sites for DENG Magazine; numerous websites for Belgian Jazz, Rock and Pop Bands
1994-1995: Graphic designer, Axis - Leuven Belgium (photo lab – digital graphics)
1994-1995: Junior Graphic Designer, Epitome - Leuven Belgium
First steps into the world of multimedia by creating communication graphics and interactive presentations for companies such as Orafti, Raychem and Henkel Ecolab.
EDUCATION
June 1994 Period of technical training ‘O Publico’ (National Portuguese Newspaper), Lisboa, Portugal
1993-1994 Certificate Desktop Publishing, VDAB, Haasrode (Digital Pre-Press)
1987-1991 BA in Graphic Design (Meester in de Beeldende Kunst), Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design
1983-1988 Certificate Figure Drawing & Printing Techniques, Academy of Fine Arts Leuven
1981 1987 Diploma of Higher Secondary Education, Latin-Science, St-Pieters College, Leuven
COMPUTER EXPERIENCE
Software competence
Web: Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Powerpoint, Persuasion, Astound, Director, QuicktimePro and QTVR, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Strata Studio Pro (3D), streaming audio and video applications, HTTP, FTP, SSH, CVS, Sending electronic newsletters.
Print: InDesign, QuarkXpress, Illustrator, Freehand, Photoshop, Acrobat Professional.
Post production and Audio: Real Producer, Windows Media, MediaCleaner Pro, After Effects, Sound Edit, ProTools.
Programming: HTML, CSS, DHTML, PHP (MySQL), Javascript, Actionscript and basic knowledge of Lingo and ASP (SQL).
Operating Systems: Mac OS(x), Windows(x).
Hardware competence
Apple Macintosh – PC.
LANGUAGES
Mother tongue: Dutch (Flemish).
Reading, speaking and writing competence in English and French.
Reading and speaking competence in German and Portuguese.
Certificate Arabic, Beginners Level from the Sana’a Institute for Arabic Language (SIAL), Sana’a, Yemen
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
AIGA – Member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts
UWEBD – Member of the University & College Webmasters newsgroup
OTHER EXPERIENCES
Teaching: “Info Graphics Multimedia – Photoshop” GroepT University/CEVORA Leuven 1997.
Design Work with other alphabets: Arabic web content, Cyrillic page lay-out.
Military service (1992): National Headquarters Tervuren – Corporal – S1 (National Operations Center).
OTHER TALENTS
Illustration, drawing, printing techniques (etching, screen printing) and painting (oil on canvas).