Marius Roosendaal
http://www.mariusroosendaal.com Biography
As a self-taught I've been doing freelance work during my college years and graduated mid 2007. Since then I'm employed at MediaMonks Interactive Marketing (
http://www.mediamonks.com/ - don't mind the ancient website, we make proper webstuff) and mainly focus on designing corporate websites. Besides that my work varies from print to game interface design and anything in between.
Unfortunately my education didn't really help me advance in the field. This was mainly because I hadn't really pinned on what I wanted to do at first. I studied IT for 3 years and decided I wanted to continue my college career and get a better degree. I had a passion for graphical design but had an eye on other media as well. MediaTechnology it was. This was a very broad study on various fields of media, but turned out to be very technical and lacked real depth and specialization. During this study I ran a small company with a friend of mine developing websites. This was something I could do for a living. In my final semester I got to work at MediaMonks, developing an online tool for their viral game statistics.
After successfully finishing college they offered me a job as a full-time designer and I'm loving it. Having people around me that share their ideas and have solid criticism helps me improve my skills a great deal.
Where do you work? What do you do there?
See above.
How long have you been in this field?
About 3 years with freelance jobs on and off, full-time since early '07.
What role did (are) you play(ing) in the project?
I wanted to have a solid showcase of the work I've done and a place where I could display my future projects. I've designed and developed the site by myself.
What was (is) your inspiration for this project?
Well looking at the portfolio imagery, one might say they look a bit familiar :P. Secondly, I really wanted to do something with MooTools and a stylesheet switcher. Having merely different themes seemed kind of dull, so I discussed this with a colleague of mine. We thought having an on and off switch would be pretty cool, having a light and dark setting. Ultimately, I came to the idea of having a night and day theme depending on the time of day.
Besides that, I wanted to keep the content minimized and focused on the work. It's my portfolio, and it is just that. No blog or other fluff for people to scroll through.
What is in your equipment/gear setup?
PowerMac G5 (work)
Ridiculously fast PC (home)
Adobe Suite
What are some websites you visit daily?
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
http://www.cpluv.com/
http://www.google.com/analytics/
http://www.tweakers.net/
Various showcase websites
Who's work do you most enjoy?
There's basically heaps of inspiring work out there and it changes constantly, so I can't really pinpoint any specific artists.
What advice can you share to people just getting into this field?
Even though I haven't been in this field for that long I can say a couple of things; Practice. A lot. Explore other styles and develop your own. Keep tinkering until you're absolutely happy with it. Try different techniques, broaden your skillset and try to improve on every project reflecting on previous ones.
Any other comments?
Thanks for the interview!
