How did you get into web design?

It started as a hobby, as soon as I found the Internet, I found out how easy it was to make a website myself. I read books about HTML and using Photoshop. This way I quickly learned a lot about developing websites. It took a while before I got my first professional assignment but after I did, things started rolling. The thing that drives me the most is the good feeling I get when I finish a design. It simply is satisfying to have created something new.

Do you remember the very first site you designed?

Yes, it was a movie-review site I was planning on maintaining myself. I soon found out that it wasn't my thing to maintain a website, I just really liked designing it. So that never became anything more than a design. The first design I made professionally was an intranet for hccnet.nl - a Dutch Internet Service Provider - where I worked at that time. They needed it to communicate announcements internally. The first website I made was for a small mortgage company, the wanted a simple website and a classy design. I finished it in just two days and they where real happy with the result.

You are doing a lot of CMS based websites, is that a specialization for you?

Yes, making 'variable' websites using a CMS is ideal for me. The customers can maintain the website's content and change certain parts of the design themselves. This way they don't usually need any of my time after the site had been launched. Naturally this takes more time when developing the website. But it sure is worth it. I never met a customer that didn't want the ability to change their own website for a just little more.

Where do you get your art for these webpages?

I use various stock-photo sites but sometimes they where made by assigned photographers. It always depends on the quality the customer wants. A stock-photo for a couple of dollars is good enough in most cases.

What will be the next big development in webpage design?

I think there will be a lot of development in using video on websites. The compression keeps getting better and well as the broadband connections. Flash video already has the possibility to make parts of the movie variable. This way you can influence or 'personalize' a movie before watching it. This is still a very complicated thing to do, but it is a good example of how video can be even more interactive.

What do you think about Flash technology?

I use it a lot to give websites more interaction. Flash actionscript is very understandable and the possibilities are almost endless. Sometimes you need a little help from components or pages containing PHP, ASP or XML. This is where it gets complicated, but most of the things can be done with relative ease. A disadvantage would be that most search engines can't index the text in your SWF-movie, therefore a flashwebsite is less likely to score high in search engines. Fortunately the 'bigger' engines, like Google, are able to. So when the success of your website is not depending on the smaller search engines, Flash is still a really good option.

What are your sources of inspiration?

Naturally I look around on the Internet for inspiring designs and techniques. But I get inspired by lots of other things like magazines, tabloids, advertisement posters, brochures, television and many other things.

What are your favorite website designs that you did and did NOT design yourself?

My own website - sjimwagemakers.nl/ (below). The product-site of a former employer, an accountant website that sells a low price, online Content Management System - www.absz.nl (below). The website of a group of international field hockey players from Argentina, they organize hockey-camps and clinics in Europe - www.argentinatitans.com (below).

Not my own - www.rolex.com, www.artofdance.nl, www.murakamidesign.jp.

What was the toughest project or customer situation you've encountered?

That would be the 25 websites I made for a school community in Groningen. They all had to look alike but every school had some different demands. And, of course, this had to be realized as soon as possible. In the same span of time, they needed a flash-map of the area - Groningen - where the locations of all the schools where displayed (both below).

After clicking a location it shows a picture and the address of the school. It all worked out fine but it will never be easy to talk to 25 different schools about their design. After a small period of extra support, all 25 of them where happy with their website.

What are your interests and dislikes in webpage design?

I am really interested in Flash and using a CMS. I think those have to be combined more. At the time it's either really hard or really expensive. The hardest thing about being a designer is catching up with all technical developments. You constantly have to keep learning and looking around because naturally everybody wants the website of tomorrow, yesterday.

Thank you, Sjim, for the designs, especially the CMS features. DI wishes you continued success.

Helen Walker

Helen Walker graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and Sociology. She worked as a newspaper journalist for two years after that. Having always been interested in cyberculture and its impact on society, Helen switched to online journalism and joined Design Interviews blog in July, 2007. Ever since she's been interviewing web designers and administrating the blog. Helen is a keen movie-goer and she is also a panda lover.


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Get in touch with Helen: helen.walker4@gmail.com