Software

Launch of Mad Viking!

Back in time: the first time i created a logo (sort of) on a Mac with Adobe Illustrator was late in the nineties in a friend's studio. It was my first experience with Illustrator and since then it has captured me till today in my daily work. My friend had her own studio at that time and I was eager to learn how she made all these beautiful stuff so i asked her to introduce me to the basics of drawing on a computer. It took me some time to learn these drawing skills and i am still finding new ways to accomplish certain drawing tasks but it quickly became a tool that i use on a daily basis. In that period of time, i used Freehand and learned most of vector drawing in that tool, later on i switched to Illustrator. I was watching these wonderful short movieclips about the history of Illustrator and want to share them with you - i particularly like the story about the logo and the Botticelli "The Birth of Venus" painting in the Chapter 2.

Some time ago, i prepared the creation of some mobile icons for the Android platform. Before i started the creative process, i read the Android documentation about creating these icons. In this short tutorial, i'll explain my work method for creating and exporting these icons.

Some months ago, i got the opportunity to design a web site for software to protect children's cell phones. Tjekkid (pronounced "Check It"), is software that protects children so they can't send too many text messages, browse inappropriate web sites or call too much. The mobile software can be controlled by the parents.

Back to school ... that means homework mostly every evening of the week for my 2 boys (9 and 7). I try to make these homework moments as pleasant as possible and as short as possible. A short moment on the iPad or iPhone with a great app is guaranteed fun for the sons. A week ago, i search and found some real cool school apps in the iTunes apps store (most of them are only available in English). I share them here in a short overview:

On the 22nd and 23rd of October the first European ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter Conference ever was organised. A unique opportunity for us to meet our fellow webdesigners and the people from Ellislab to exchange tips, best practices and bad jokes!

From september till november 2008, I stayed in hospital and had 3 surgeries from an acute appendicitis. Sickness can never be avoided, but I can tell: it was a long period without my kids, without Tim and without my work. My stay wasn't catastrophic for Bene, my self running business, thanks to our hospital and income assurance. It was in hospital that Tim bought me this wonderful present: a new iPhone 3G mobile phone. It was - and still is - a fantastic present: I was able to read my mail messages, visit websites, play games, read books, write notes, take pictures and so many more. The long, boring hours in hospital were a lot easier to carry since I got this iPhone. I realized what an amazing tool it really is (without mentioning battery life, of course). Today, the iPhone is a valuable tool for my work as a webdesigner. I sum up a few powerful tools for webdesigners for the iPhone.