born: Haarlem, Netherlands
resides: North Adams, MA, USA
travel: USA, Czech Republic, Japan, Italy, France, Germany
education:
MFA 2D Design, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
BFA Graphic Design, Arnhem Institute for the Arts, Arnhem, Netherlands
employment:
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA, USA
freelance/broadcast designer, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Chopping Block, New York, NY, USA
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
Otherwise Inc., Chicago, IL, USA
Pentagram Design, San Francisco, CA, USA
There is the stranger who came to a new placeI am interested in investigating the general societies' mindless acceptance of values in each culture [the Dutch and the American] and how these seemingly extreme opposite values influence me as a designer.
And there's the stranger who went back to where he came fromI find coming home more estranging than going away
The bond with that other place always felt stronger than that place where I was born and raised, and it raises questions like:
What is home, where do I belong?
Am I really the nationality that is printed in my passport?
Do I betray my people by not fitting in?
Is my culture an endless blending mix of 2 sides of my identity?
Why do I think in a language that is not my native tongue?
Why do I take the rocky road when I could be taking the smooth asphalt of the Dutch system?