Hello, I am Marie-Anne.

I am a creative generalist fascinated by the relationship between words and images. My focus is visual and written communication, with first steps into user experience design. Next to a background in the humanities (Bachelor of Arts in Literary Studies & Research Master of Arts in Cultural Analysis), I have experience as a media designer, a freelance illustrator, and as a marketeer. Defined by strong small-town roots due to growing up in Zweibrücken (= Two Bridges), Germany, I also have an international mindset thanks to having lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for 10+ years.

UX & UI Design

Recently I graduated from an intense full-time and fully remote UX / UI design boot camp with Ironhack. The UX & UI design problem-solving approach is fascinating because it allows one to tap into different fields simultaneously. I love how research, empathy, and creativity help to unleash the hidden potential in the most diverse projects.

Illustration, Drawing, Design

I am happy to create my own as well as commissioned projects. I love the transition that happens when something previously invisible takes shape and becomes visible or when you can show something alive in a different but related manner.

Selection of past commissions: Intuit Trio - Dutch Jazzband new album cover (2022), illustrated booklet with best man’s wedding speech plus postcard design for blissfully married couple (2022), my own postcard and calendar projects can be found here on Etsy as well (since 2021), weekly DTP and graphic design jobs for ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, 2017-2019, monthly illustrations for Echt gebeurd, a storytelling program in Amsterdam, 2016-2019; set of layout drawings for the website of Crápa Mangia, set of medical illustrations for Centrum Hyperthermie in Amsterdam, poster and catalogue cover design for an exhibition of a Group Atelier in the Oranjekerk in Amsterdam, set of 8 botanical drawings for the Cornwell Lab, University of New South Wales in Sydney

COMMUNICATION and COORDINATION

in German, English and Dutch.

A unique and most inspiring job was project coordination and communication for Room for Thoughts - Labyrinth Psychotica 2017-2019; Labyrinth Psychotica offers a unique mixed-reality experience in psychosis simulation, started as a Ph.D. project by trained artist Jennifer Kanary Nikolov(a). The project developed to be an essential educational support of the Dutch police, next to having trained more than 30.000 professionals with psychosis simulation, most of them working in health care.

I also worked communication, marketing, and coordination jobs for Goethe Institute Amsterdam, Dille & Kamille, ZDF, RepublicaModa, Albelli Fotobücher, Greenpeace, and the Museum for Gegenwartskunst in Siegen, Germany, as well as Bergfreunde GmbH in Kirchentellinsfurt, Germany.

RESEARCH

For my master's thesis, I analyzed an unpublished correspondence between the painter Don Stacy and the philosopher Vilem Flusser. They fight - among other things - about what is more important, images or words. I loved reading the correspondence and also that I could interview their widows, who both lived in New York City at the time. The article “Dear Flusser, dear Don” was a preparation for my thesis and was published by Flusserstudies, an online magazine dedicated to Flusser's work.

On Medium, I started writing about UX/UI endeavors.

Contact: Marie-Anne Soyez msoyez [at] gmail [dot] com