About
I’m a Dutch product designer living in Vancouver, Canada. Back in the Netherlands I had my own design studio called Studio Brandstof (2010-2016). I mainly worked in the field of information design, data visualization and ux.
In 2016 I moved to Ottawa to work at Shopify (2016-2021. I worked on customer facing analytics as a Staff Product Designer and a UX Manager. I lead the team focusing on various areas like reporting, dashboards and insights. I contributed data visualization guidelines to the Shopify design system called Polaris. In addition to this I ran workshops to teach data design throughout the company.
In 2021 I took a break from design to work on photography and film projects and volunteered at a conservation group called Wild Research which mostly monitors birds and environment.
In 2022 I joined Brex (2022-2023), a fintech product that helps other companies with their Spend Management. I worked on the Efficiency team as a lead designer on a product called Inbox that saves users time, improves their workflows and increases compliance.
In 2024 I decided to continue my photography work on a project called “Spark Bird” which takes a deeper look at bird conservation and the people that fight for the survival of bird species.
Projects
In 2022 and 2024 I've been on a break to work on my long term photography project called Spark Bird. It's a photographic art project that explores the world of birds and the people that try to help them survive in the modern world. It spans portraits of people and landscapes of habitats.
Speaking
Gave four workshops on designing with data to level up the practice of data visualization at Shopify together with Jeremy Kuzub.
Work Experience
Lead Designer working predominantly on Inbox a surface for employees, managers and admins to efficiently organize their most important tasks.
At Shopify I worked on customer facing analytics like dashboards, reporting, analytics in the mobile app, insights, live view etc ... I mainly worked as an IC but also took on the role of UX Manager for a year.
In addition to this I helped educate the organization on information design best practices by giving internal workshops and defining design system rules for chart and data design in Polaris (Shopify's design system).
I worked mainly as an information designer (data-viz and ux) with research agencies and government to visualize their data in an understandable way. From interactive data visualization to annual reports and other print publications.