In 2016 I participated in the picture book competition Key Colors of publisher Clavis. In total there were 100 entries from different countries. After several selection rounds, my picture book Lieveheershondje was in the last 7. For the results we went to Hasselt, the head office of Clavis. I've never had the desire to stand in the spotlight, so I anxiously waited for the winner to be announced. I didn't win the race, somewhat relieved because the whole PR tralala passed me by. But I was also a bit disappointed, because my dream of publishing a children's book did not come true. Until… it was announced that the other 6 books (including Lieveheershondje) would also be published (woohoo!).

More than a year ago I designed the book Catharsia by Sjef Drummen. Job Description: Go ahead! Delicious! Because time was tight, a book of over 200 pages in 6 weeks from scratch, I immediately started designing on the computer. From this I submitted a number of design proposals to the customer.

I designed this poster series after a visit to the zoo. I hadn't been to a zoo in a long time and had forgotten how unnatural it is for most animals to live like this. I also noticed how many people completely ignored the animals in the park: screaming, trying to touch animals. Most notable was a monkey with her cub. Her outside hide away was set up in such a way that she had really nowhere to get out of side of the gazing people. She was in a tube (laid out so that you could see into it from both sides) with her cub. Her interior was locked. It made me sad and angry. As an outlet, I used my creativity and designed a series of posters.

Niekée asked to design an open day poster, flyer and brochure. It was important that attention was paid to the 4 pre-vocational secondary education profiles that you can choose at Niekée. The idea to divide the poster into 4 parts was therefore quickly made. Below I explain how the design came about.