Last week I told you a bit more about myself. This week, my (second) blog is about my work as a graphic designer and art director.
I loved my school agendas when I was younger; I got through at least three per year – When I was around 10 years old, I drew nothing but Sarah Kay & Holly Hobby – Busy drawing at my first job.
I’ve been drawing, cutting and pasting for as long as I can remember. The moment I became really conscious of design was at home, in our shop. From a young age, I was allowed to help with the packaging of goods and shop displays. My favorite thing at primary school was putting together all the different pieces of paper we had. I even dug out fabrics from our shop, ‘designed’ my own piece of clothing, and my mother would sew it together for me. That cutting and crafting progressed into cutting pictures from magazines and using them to make collages. Which, in turn, got pasted into my agendas. I must have had at least three school agendas per year. Actually, that hasn’t stopped; I’m always sticking things into my diaries. It’s just that, later, I transformed that activity into making atmospheric images for magazines. Too chic for words; a hobby of mine that turned into a job, namely: an art director.
When I was at primary school, I asked my mother who made the magazine, Margriet. Since then, the idea of making magazines never left my head. After attending the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (Graphic and Typographic Design department), I spent the first five years working at the graphic design studio, Funcke.com in Haarlem. But those magazines kept calling; I really wanted to work on an interiors publication, and I finally got the chance. Since then, I’ve worked on several interior design magazines: vtwonen, 101woonideeën and Tuinieren. At Ariadne, I even worked in two roles: as a designer and an art director.
The cover of the very last 101woonideeën was illustrated by Geertje Aalders
Unfortunately, the last two magazines that I worked on as an art director – 101woonideeën and Tuinieren – had to stop in January this year. During a nerve-racking time, Sanoma decided to stop publishing certain magazines and opted to keep the bigger titles. And sadly, 101woonideeën and Tuinieren didn’t fall into that category. When the news was broken, it left us with no enthusiasm to carry on. But I couldn’t let that happen! Next week, you can read more about my (new) online adventures with HappyMakersBlog.com.
In the past year, we have had a period full of cozy ‘farewell events’, which did us good.
You can also find Monique and HappyMakersBlog on Pinterest and – during April – on the Friends of Flow Pinterest board, where she is our guest pinner this month.
