You!

When my niece got married they asked me to design the wedding announcement. I had lots of different ideas to show them. This is a selection of the designs I made for them. To yellow and blue one is the one they picked.

Lewis' first room

Lewis didn't get the chance to get to know his first room, 10 weeks after he was born we moved...

Engaged to be married

My grandparents on my mother's side. The card is quite small, about 8 cm wide. How formal is that?

Pills and powders

These paper boxes look almost too beautiful to match their purpose. They're boxes to carry medicine in, pills and powders. So different from the paper bags the pharmacies use nowadays! I googled the pharmacist's name, but I got no results.

Good old memory

During the wintertime we snuggle up and play a lot of games with the kids. One of their favourites is memory. I love these old drawings!

Turning 75

Last year my father turned 75 and my mother wanted to surprise him with a party. I made the invitiations and used old postcards for the design. My father originates from Breskens, a small town with a fishing port. My father collects old postcards from that town so this design was truly inspired by him!

Make a wish

About a year ago we visited the Musée du président Jacques Chirac in Sarran, France and I came across this piece of persistence. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true. An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures and is said to live for a thousand years. The other picture I found on the internet, it shows how The Thousand Origami Cranes has become a symbol of world peace. Great isn't it?
My new year's resolution should be to fold a thousand of these birds...

By the way, the museum is worth a visit if you're ever in the neighbourhood.

Naked dino

Every time I post a collage I'm inspired to get my scissors and glue and create some new ones! However, I need a lot of time and space to make that happen.

birth announcement

Birth announcements have come a long way! This one looks so formal, nowadays the cards are much more joyful.

ho ho ho, merry xmas!

I'm always in doubt whether or not to make my own christmas-cards. I'm never really inspired but I decided to make a design anyway.

Untitled doodle

Doodles need no explanation.

Armless

This little guy is very fragile. I bought him at a yardsale in Los Angeles. Together we flew all the way to the Netherlands. Mind you, he was armless when I found him!
I think he used to be part of a footballteam, a table footballteam.

Learning Turkish?

While going through my small vintage graphic design collection I stumbled upon this cirkle. I had forgotten all about it. It looks so well thought out! I don't know how old it is but it looks pretty ancient. I think it children use this in school to learn words. Maybe somebody knows what it is? Enlighten me!

TypeDrawing

Since last week I own an iPhone and I love my latest asset! So do the kids... This is the first drawing I made with the TypeDrawing app.

Flip de Beer

Once a year we have a houseguest who sleeps over for one or two nights. He is called Flip de Beer and the pre-school children are supposed to take care of him. The parents are expected to make a report of this special occasion.

A day at the beach

I love this old postcard, greetings from Zandvoort. The postmark date says 13th of August 1929. Those were probably the early days of recreation!

On my desk

I have created a witches circle on my desk at work. Thanks to Albert Heijn and of course thanks to my colleagues!

Fisherman

I'm not the world's best 3-dimensional designer, nor the most creative, but I sometimes attempt to make something for my kids. I made this one for Lewis just before he was born.

Mila's friends

Of course Mila is a friendcollector as well. I made her a friendbook last year. She started in a new class, with new kids so she 'needed' a new book. It's great to see how enthousiastic the children react!

European cheesegirls

This is a great example of early information design. The arrows show how to fold the 'girls'. The girls are part of a collection.
I bought these at a Waterlooplein-fleamarket in Amsterdam. It's always great to discover little gems like these.

Cheesy

Great typically Dutch item!

birds of a feather

We'll soon cook these birds and change them into mashed potatoes.

Greetings from...

Can't remember where and when I bought this one. I love it! It shows how the children used to dress in the region where I was brought up.

Doodling away

Tonight was 'pakjesavond' in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas has left! He's sailing back home. 'Till next year!

Best design ever

My most favourite design ever is the London Underground map.
I bought this one in a small antiqueshop in St. Ives (Cornwall, UK). This map dates back to 1972, almost as old as I am...
Although the map is updated yearly the design is unbeatable! (the map below is the most recent one, which I downloaded off the website transport for London).

Poor Pepper

Pepper gets dressed up a lot. She hates it but she's always noble enough to let us take the pictures. Immediately afterwards she shakes everything off. However, she's always quite taken with the necklace 'cause that's the only item she leaves on. A real lady knows her accessories.

Ugly but cute

One of my first illustrations I did with a collage. I'm not a very good illustrator so by using the collage-technique I can still make quite nice pictures. I never use Photoshop for my collages, I do them with scissors and glue.

two-headed duck

I've used this collage in my birthdaycalender. It's quite small in the layout so I decided to show it in a post. I'll show the birthdaycalender another time. I'll have to photograph it first.

Co-production

Yvette and I made this children's book for grown-ups for a colleague of ours at Eden.

showing persistence at art college

This poster was part of an assignment I did at Art College (St. Joost in Breda). The poster is about 70 x 100 cm and painted by hand. Imagine the persistence I had back then!

Lewis' friends

New kid on the block needs a book to collect his friends, right?! So I designed this book for Lewis, he's very prood to have his own book. He's a very enthousiastic 'friend-collector'!

orange sky

While driving back from my parents yesterday afternoon we saw a beautiful sky behind us. The sun was setting was colouring the sky a beautiful orange. The only way to photograph it was in the rearview window.

Enlargement

For the Sinterklaas-celebration at Lewis' school I made this big key. The children use it to open the door to 'the castle'. As could be expected the key broke into two pieces the very first day... Handmade objects are far too fragile for 4 and 5 -year olds.

Hair

About 18 years ago our class had an assignment in Art College called circles. This was one of my design. Each line is drawn by hand using a pair of compasses and an inkpen.

flying low

My mother always wanted to fly, so finally, when turned 64 we gave her a flight in a small plane as a present. She enjoyed it very much. She saw her hometown and the region she loves so much from the sky. A really exciting experience for her!

4 years ago

Lewis was born on 13th of August, 4 years ago. I designed this birth announcement and used a collage which I had made a few years before.