I made a logo for IGLO - Internetowa Go Liga O!
IGLO is an online go league that was started around the time the covid-19 pandemic began. The league was created by Cezary Czernecki, supported by the Polish Go Association, and is now running its 9th season with 57 players competing. Participation is free of charge and most participants are from Poland and Ukraine, but anybody is welcome to take part. Each group consists of 8 players, in which each player plays against seven others, one game per week, The players compete to promote to the higher rated groups and, when results are suboptimal, can also fall down to the groups below. When a new player joins, he/she will be placed in a suitable group relative to their playing strength. IGLO includes regular lessons and game commentaries by top European players Stanislaw Frejlak 7 dan and Lukas Podpera 7 dan. 
You can find out more about IGLO on its website here.

Previously, I designed a disc golf winter logo for the guys from Next Move in Groningen. This time around, they asked me to make a logo for Disc Golf School, a new initiative to teach disc golf to kids and grow the sport throughout the Netherlands.

I had two concept sketches that I pitched to Next Move:
- A basket with chains that grow out like the branches of a tree, forming new baskets as fruits of labor. Trees are often used as a symbol of wisdom and physical and spiritual nourishment. The multiplication of the baskets is a metaphor of the passing on of knowledge and the creation of new disc golf players.
​- A teacher and a pupil in a disc golf environment. The teacher shows the student where to throw and the pupil executes the shot. This was my literal translation of the idea of a school.

Although Next Move liked the idea of multiplication, they chose the second design because of its more professional feel. I added trees, a teepad, some details, colour and of course the text. Next Move also requested a black and white version. No problemo guys, roger that. 

I made a footer for the website of Frisbeewinkel. On request, the footer incorporates designs I previously made for the category buttons on the site of Disc Golf, Ultimate Frisbee and Dog Frisbee. This represents the range of frisbee sports the company stands for and the articles the website sells. The green mountains in the background have a similar colour to the thumbnails I made and are in line with the colours of Frisbeewinkel's logo.

I made more thumbnail designs for Frisbeewinkel, the biggest frisbee store of the Netherlands. These are visible on the website when you hover with your mouse over the banner with product categories at the top of the screen. 
This is the third category that I am making designs for: Ultimate Frisbee. Previously I made the thumbnail designs for the categories Disc Golf and Dog Frisbee. Those were easier to make because the titles of each category were self-explanatory and part of a consistent set: For "Putters" I drew a man throwing a putter into a basket, for "Midrange Discs" I designed a figure throwing an up-shot and "Distance Drivers" asked for a design of a person driving a disc, and so forth. The Ultimate Frisbee category was a bit different: the five titles of this category are "Logo, Star and Tribal Prints", "Junior Ultimate Discs", "Custom Frisbees", "Ultimate Accessories" and "Sand Socks". These titles are more varied and less in line with each other, and it did not make sense to try and directly translate these into a visual equivalent. Instead I decided to use ultimate frisbee players in action, in line with the 'action shots' I used for disc golf and dog frisbee, to form a consistent visual story throughout the website. The last two titles "Ultimate Accessories" and "Sand Socks" felt too out of sync if I used in-action-designs as well, so for those I used two characteristic products, a cap and a sock!  

#ultimate #ultimatefrisbee #frisbeeshop #frisbeewinkel

I am always grateful when friends and acquaintances reach out to me for art commissions. This time I was approached by my friend Tim van Vliet and his wife Huifang "Jenny" Deng (邓慧芳).
Jenny asked me to design a cover for her PhD thesis, titled Source attribution of human toxoplasmosis - A quantative microbial risk assessment approach.

Quoting the thesis: Toxoplasmosis, known by its Latin name Toxoplasma gondii, "is a single-celled zoonotic parasite, which has a worldwide distribution. It can infect virtually all warm-blooded animals, including humans, mammals and birds. It was first discovered in Tunisia and Brazil in 1908 and named a year after based on its crescent‐shaped morphology (Toxoplasma means ‘arc form’ in Greek) and the host species in which they were detected (a rodent, Ctenodactylus gundi) (Dubey, 2008). It belongs to the phylum of Apicomplexa together with other species, but is the only known member of the genus Toxoplasma."

This parasite is also strongly linked to cats. Wikipedia reads: "Toxoplasmosis is usually spread by eating poorly cooked food that contains cysts, exposure to infected cat feces, and from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy. Rarely, the disease may be spread by blood transfusion. It is not otherwise spread between people. The parasite is known to reproduce sexually only in the cat family."​

The main objectives of the thesis: "To identify and prioritize successful prevention strategies, it is important to attribute the burden of toxoplasmosis to specific sources. QMRA is a useful tool to collect all available data on different aspects so that the data can be used for source attribution. In this thesis, we focused on the assessment of relative attribution of different sources (namely different meat products and soil) to human T. gondii infection in the Netherlands by using a quantitative microbial risk assessment approach. In addition, we implemented the QMRA model of meat-borne T. gondii infection from the Netherlands for the mainland of China, where consumers have different consumption habits." 

Jenny had recently seen my drawing of a go playing cat and knew that I previously designed a PhD cover for another friend of mine. After our initial brainstorm session, the first concept was to have cellular shapes of the parasite on the cover and to incorporate a leopard skin pattern, based on a Chinese saying: 管中窥豹，可见一斑。Translating to: "Look at one spot on a leopard and visualize the whole animal - extrapolate; conjure up the whole through seeing a part of it." An interesting metaphor in relation to microscopic research and the prevention of parasitic infection spread, both zooming in on small areas in order to understand the bigger picture. Jenny also asked if I could draw a small cat for the back side of the cover. Soon we figured out that it should not be just any cat: why not her cat, Ruby? 

Ruby is a funky cat with an intense and crazy stare, so I looked forward to capturing her in a drawing. I started working on the cover and I used a scientific drawing of the parasite that Jenny sent me to create the outlines of basic shapes. I used the characteristic banana shape of the parasite, multiplied that and filled them purely with leopard skin patterns, but it looked too abstract. I realized that the link between the leopard skin and the parasite itself had to be explicitly visible to make the metaphor work, so I combined the leopard skin shapes with the scientific drawing of the parasite. The link became evident, but something was still missing, so I decided to take the idea of the cat on the back side of the thesis and put it on the front instead: the parasites + the host. I made a crude first sketch of the cat and started playing around with the positioning of the cat versus the parasite-shapes, until I came up with the idea of the "thought bubbles" that you see in cartoons: the balloon in which the thoughts of a comic's character are drawn. I aligned the parasite-shapes in such a way that they started from the top of Ruby's head and grew from small to big. Now it looked like the cat, with its intense eyes, was actually spacing out and thinking of parasites! Fitting also in a sense that parasites can change the mental behavior of their host, but that's more of an afterthought, something I realize now that I'm writing.
Jenny liked this idea for the cover, so I started working on the drawing of Ruby, which I did fully in Photoshop. The main things I focused on were her fluffy hair and her big, green eyes.

The cat for the cover of the PhD was done, but I liked the idea of a cat in the corner of the back side as well, so I decided to draw a second Ruby. This time a sleeping one, as a wink at taking a rest after you've read the entire thesis, but also because sleeping cats are just cute. I added some foot prints to create the illusion of a cat walking around, inspired by the title screen of the short anime film Cat Soup. The foot prints are also a wink at the way parasites spread: they travel along with their hosts.

We ended up selecting Calibri as the font for the title of the thesis. Normally I would be against this, but Jenny requested it and it fits the design nicely. It was a lot of fun to draw cats and to design my second PhD thesis cover. Thank you, Jenny!

If you like my artwork of these cats: you can get them as posters and postcards in my Etsy shop. 

Hans Krens from Frisbeewinkel asked me to design a starter set for disc golf beginners. The set consists of three discs: a putter, a midrange and a driver. Hans is not only a frisbee fanatic, he is also very involved in aquaponics, plant cuttings and he cares about the environment. His concept for the starter set combines his passions for frisbee and nature: three flying insects that represent the different characteristics of the discs.

Bumblebee 
Putter
Speed: 3
Glide: 4 
Turn: -0,5 
Fade: 2

Bumblebees are slow and gentle. They are furry, puffy creatures that bumble about pollinating their environment. A perfect insect for a putter, a slow type of disc that is mostly used for shots close to the basket or to throw straight lines. 
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Stag Beetle
Stable Midrange
Speed: 5,5
Glide: 4
Turn: -0,5
Fade: 2

Stag beetles have mean looking jaws and a tight protective armor. They are bigger and more powerful than the bumbelee, and believe it or not, good fliers! Perfect for a midrange, which can handle more distance and power than a putter and is mostly used for upshots or long straight lines. 
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Dragonfly
Understable Driver
Speed: 8
Glide: 4
Turn: -1
Fade: 2

Dragonflies are majestic creatures. They have the most impressive wings and eyes, consisting of so many small parts and details. Faster than the bumbelee and the stag beetle by far, dragonflies live up to their name. This disc is an understable driver, which means it is used for distance throws and wants to curve towards the right when thrown with pace. 

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Just like my last disc golf design, this project had some time pressure behind it. I just moved to my new apartment, many boxes were standing around waiting to be unpacked and curtains and lamps had to be bought. Then Hans called me: if I could make three designs within the next 4 to 5 days. I'm proud I managed to do so and I am even more proud of the results! Lately I am getting more art commissions and I definitely feel like I'm growing and honing my skills. 
These discs will become available at Frisbeewinkel.nl in the next few weeks. They will come in three different colours. I will also sell these designs as posters and postcards in my Etsy shop.

Joost Vlieg, disc golf player and employee of Next Move, asked me to make a logo for the disc golf Winter League in Groningen and surroundings. The winter league starts in October 2020 and will consist of an indoor putting league every Thursday and a sanctioned event once a month in Stadspark Groningen.
There was no clear concept for the logo, which as a designer is both difficult and fun, because I was free to make what I wanted, but did not have any guidelines to work with. After talking some more and asking some specific questions, it became apparent that "winter" had to be the main theme. Joost also told me that the league will be sponsored by Next Move, Eagles Wings disc golf and Prodigy Disc. The name "Eagles Wings" immediately resonated with me as a designer, since I often use animals in my drawings, and I suggested that I'd include an eagle in the logo. Joost was enthusiastic about it and quickly after I came up with the idea of a basket being part of a snowman and an eagle throwing a disc in the chains. I ended up making two versions, one in color to be used for the promotion of the league, and one in black and white to be used for the printing of discs. Most likely the design will be printed on discs as a hot stamp, so I am excited to see how those will turn out. 

Time pressure was lifted to a new level for this design, not only because I have several design projects lined up and because the deadline for this design was end of September, but also because I am in the midst of moving to a new apartment. It is a crazy busy time for me and I keep surprising myself with the time and energy I don't have but somehow find anyway.

I'm looking forward to the disc golf Winter League and to joining at least one of the events to chuck a disc with my own design! 

The discs I designed for disc golf club DSA and the AMSterdam Challenge 2020 tournament have finally arrived! I'm stoked about the end result. In the above video, main organizer Paul Sterk unboxes the discs that were produced by Latitude 64 in Sweden, also the main sponsor of the tournament. Big shout-out to them for the top quality product. 

These discs are Sapphires, light weight and speed 10 drivers. They come in the colors white, yellow, blue and two types of orange/red with many different colors of hot stamp. 
Want one? Take part in the tournament on 3&4 October in Amsterdamse bos!

The Dutch Go Association (NGoB) asked me to make a series of black and white portraits for a beginners-book they are publishing this year. The portraits will be accompanied by short stories about the individuals. Some of them are fictional characters and some are real people. The pictures and stories take you through the ages of go players:

- 5th century BC: Li is described as a Chinese student aspiring to become a high functionary. To become one, he must master the four arts - calligraphy, painting, guqin and weiqi.
- 8th century AD: Zhou is a soldier who travels along the coasts of Japan and Korea on a Chinese trade ship. During his travels he plays go on deck with the other soldiers and the high priest.
- 13th century AD: Takashi is a Japanese samurai who learned to play go during his training to become a warrior. He is the strongest go player of the empire and is looking forward to the upcoming castle tournament. 
- End of the 19th century: Oskar is a German engineer who learns to play go from a Japanese professional player during his work time overseas. After returning to his homeland, he aims to spread go in Germany and writes the first Western book on the topic.
- Halfway through the 20th century: Kees is a student from Amsterdam who studies Japanese. During his time in Japan he learns the game from a Japanese student. Back home he starts a go club and aims to establish a national go association.
- 2015: Demis is the director of DeepMind and is the driving power behind the making of a computer program that should challenge the best go players on the planet. AlphaGo will eventually do exactly that and defeat the strongest human go player alive.

I made more thumbnail designs for Frisbeewinkel, the biggest frisbee store of the Netherlands.
This time for the category dog frisbee. I never knew there was such a thing, it's spectacular how dogs can fly through the air and have so much fun catching discs. If I were a dog owner, I would not hesitate.

#dogfrisbee #hondenfrisbee #frisbeeshop #frisbeewinkel
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These two designs did not make the cut: