From paint to pixels

Inflicted, tell us about growing up…

‘My parents were always into art. They stimulated me exploring the boundries of my own creativity. I was into punk music: The Clash, The Dead Kennedy’s and The Cure had a great influence on my early years.'

So…

'Later on hiphop culture inspired me tremendously: The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy & NWA were among my favorites. As you can see, the imagery of both subcultures were an inspiration for my early artworks. I eventually attended art schools in Amsterdam and The Hague and never really looked back.’

And then?

‘I always worked hard at my painting and stayed connected to hiphop culture. Together with my buddy Subalpin I organized a street art and hiphop event called COZMIC. Over the years, we welcomed some major artists like Eboy, Shepard Fairey and crews like Slum Village and Lootpack. Making a living painting and organizing events was always going to be tough, though. Disillusioned by narrowly losing out to a final round place for a major art prize, I was looking for a new challenge.’

So what happened?

'This whole World Wide Web thing kicked off! As there are these days, in the early years of the net there were a great amount of poorly designed sites. A surprisingly small number of brands took web design very seriously; I can only remember Apple and Nike giving it proper thought. It was then, that I took the opportunity to start for myself.

How did you swap paint for pixels?

'Haha, it was hard work. My first taste of web design was to present my paintings online. Initially, the limitless possibilities of Flash really excited me, but I soon started educating myself in CSS en HTML. I really focused on website accessibility & web standards when starting out as a freelance designer. In 2006, I met Ellen van den Berg at the @media conference, and she introduced me to the people at Relephant. They seemed to like my work and offered me a contract.'

Any cool clients?

'For sure. I was chief designer for Sunweb and Eliza was here, and a project I really enjoyed was the design for the 2010 Tourpoule. I spent three years with the company and learned a lot. Now I’m back to being an independent designer, but I’m still involved with some Relephant projects.'

Describe your mission now...

'Well, I’m basically back to visual design. It’s where the heart is. Attractive, professionally designed websites determine how we perceive a brand. "According to a 2002 study, the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size, and color schemes is the number one factor we use to evaluate a website’s credibility" (In Defense of Eye Candy, by Stephen P. Anderson). I couldn’t agree more. I use all these ingredients to encourage interaction within well thought out interface designs. I’m out there to turn a look into a feel.’

• Reference

• Paintings: Some artworks by inflicted on Flickr
• Article: In Defense of Eye Candy, by Stephen P. Anderson on the fabulous A List Apart