Interview by Charlie Festa

Hello there, and how are you doing today?

Mighty fine, how about you?

How is life right now hectic crazy or laid back?

Pretty hectic at the moment, loads of work both design and non-design to do. I try putting of some of the non-design work to have fun designing, but hey, the other stuff has to be done as well right? So in the end as usual I just end up doing both, but that can be interesting as well.

How did you get your start in design?

I've always been busy drawing and doodling but I started doing some serious designs in 1997 when I wanted to create a logo for a bunch of friends (meant to be printed on clothing by the way). It was the first design I ever did in Illustrator and it looked like this (see attached file " security.gif"). I remember that weekend vividly as I started with Illustrator and basically got hooked on it directly. Before that I used to do some gaming on my PC but I virtually never touched a game again. Lots of people liked the result and I wasn't too unpleased with it myself.


What inspires your work?

My mind is always set to designing some way or other. Maybe that's why I have so many designs up. Even when I'm doing other things just a tiny detail in the surroundings can give me an idea. I'm always looking around. But loads of ideas come just before sleep, in the shower or during lectures/meetings. Especially that last one is a great source of inspiration. When I don't have the option of drawing my idea I just write a text message in my phone and save it - and hope I'll remember the idea later on. Works out fine some of the time, ha ha.

What have you been doing lately?

I've been pretty busy lately. I just finished my second master's thesis, which was a pretty big project. I wrote on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, quite a well-known philosopher (that is, within philosophy, although a lot of people outside philosophy know him as well). Plus, besides that I do a lot of design work, mostly in the evenings and weekends though. Also, I just visited London a couple of days back and met up with some fellow threadless visitors!


How does it feel to win on Threadless?

Definitely a great rush. When I got the email I was bouncing through the room, ha ha!

Who would you like to give the middle finger to?

No one, I'm not a middle finger kind of guy I think. More of an index finger person.

What do you plan to spend your winnings on?

To be honest I really need to pay some bills (boring!) but I'll definitely buy something for my designer lair as well. I'm saving for a new workstation as mine is way too old and keeps complaining all the time. Maybe a new tablet would be nice.

Have you ever sneezed so hard that you gave yourself a headache?

If I would I'd probably remember that, so I don't think so. But now that you mention this, I did sneeze a lot the last couple of days.


Is there anything wrong with the United States that you have noticed over the years?

Well, what can I say? I'm not a Bush fan really. But I'm also not that much into politics I must admit.

Last question..What is your favorite compound curse word? ex: bitch face or shit storm

Ooh, hard one. I'm generally laidback and easy going person and don't (like to) get into fights that much, but of course I swear sometimes as well. You probably want an English one, but my favourite Dutch one would be "godverdomde klootzak" (although I'd probably not say that to someone). My favourite English one would be something like "fucking shitface bastard" (feel free to strike that through if you can't actually publish that)

Cheers and have a nice day!

Thanks Jan! Looking forward to see more of your work, and your Naked & Angry stuff is incredible :)

Interview by Charlie Festa

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