Maarten Idema III

022 697 1672

In short

A passionate human centred designer (digital, UX/UI, and graphic) and people leader with years of international industry experience in Ireland, Holland and New Zealand.

A full-stack web developer with a wide range of know-how in current tools and methodologies. Curious, continually learning and evolving.

A good communicator, well organised, driven, with strong management and problem-solving skills.

A Kiwi, father, dog owner, and skater with a full NZ drivers license.

 


Education

2003—2004

Masters of Design specialising in Type and Media

Full-time – postgraduate course in type design and typography at the Royal Academy of Art [KABK] in The Hague, Netherlands. 

1993—1996

Bachelor of Media Arts majoring in Graphic Design

The BMA was a four-year full-time interdisciplinary degree, at the Waikato Polytechnic. The course encouraged collaborative study across many disciplines including painting, film and video, photography and multimedia studies.

2018—2018

Kura Po – Te Reo Maori

An evening Unitec course introducing Te Reo Maori at an intermediate level. Enriching and fun.

Technical skills

Figma, Miro, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, HTML, responsive CSS, Javascript, Python, Django, Docker, Nginx, Bootstrap, Shopify, Wordpress, Wagtail CMS, CLI, SQL databases, Git, GitHub, Jira, and Agile. Also with experience in After Effects, Premier, and Blender.

Full-time

2023 until present

Product design lead at Xero

Designing platform solutions that support third party apps and Xero users in Xero’s two sided marketplace.

2020 — 2023

Product design manager at Xero

Building hybrid teams. Inspiring and leading people. Bringing together cross-functional experts. Joining the dots. Removing barriers and nurturing a healthy team culture. 

Highlights: running company-wide hackathons involving >200 designers across the global. Experimenting with team structures: black ops team; Xero's first multi-portfolio design team; seconding part-time designers from other teams; and contractors. Being a grad manager.

2018 — 2020

Product designer at Xero

Championing the user with human-centred UX/UI solutions and expert design direction, driving success for the Ecosystem team.

2015 — 2018

Creative and developer at Mount Deluxe

Lead creative on a variety of projects from start-ups to large corporate clients. Art direction, direct client liaison and project management. Responsible for all web development. Full-stack from server, database & app configuration, to back-end programming and front-end UX/UI design, coding and deployment.

2007 — 2014

Creative, developer, and owner at Betsy

Formed Betsy as a design consultancy. A diverse range of work, from commercial and self-initiated design and development projects in print and web, coupled with client liaising and business administration.

2005 — 2007

Designer at Typography and Other Serious Matters — Netherlands

Primarily worked with two large clients as a book designer on technically and statistically rich government publications. Coupled with a secondary website consultation, design, and development role.

2000 — 2003

Designer at Language — Ireland

Involved publication design, identity and brand development, web dev and consultation; design, pitch and print quotation; photographic direction.

Freelance

2008 — 2014

Creative and digital strategist at Port

Brought in to work on specific projects, campaigns, concept developments and studio pitches. Worked on projects for the likes of Auckland City Council, Auckland Transport, and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

2012 — 2016

Standup comedian

Not my day job, but I started working professionally after winning the Best new New Zealand comedian of 2013. Did ~140 shows during this period including, Sky City Theatre, International Comedy Festival, and the Outspoken Festival in Wanaka. 

2007 — 2013

Design lecturer at AUT

Teaching design to students of all years in the Department of Art and Design. 2007–2009, 2012 and 2013.

2009 — 2011

Design lecturer at The University of Auckland

Taught third year Elam students with an interest in design and introduced first years to design based thinking.

2002

Lecturer at IADT — Ireland

Planned, wrote and delivered the 10 week Autumn School night class – Advanced Macintosh; Made an online portal for students to access all lesson plans, class notes and related documentation.