arjan drees

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About me

born on the 12th of november, 1987 hometown: Vroomshoop, the Netherlands long-distance running wanderlust movies and tv-shows will start travelling again soon photography eager to learn all kinds of stuff minimalistic love backpacking likes to discover new technologies open to feedback worked remotely for over 5 years disciplined mind able to defend my design and coding decisions likes to think outside-the-box knows all the HTTP Status dogs applies K.I.S.S. to code and design into content creation in for flexible work hours enthusiastic about IT gadgets discovering new cultures

Morpheus offering a blue and red pill
Take the blue pill Take the red pill

I developing all my websites with
Logo van WordPressWordPress & Logo van WooCommerceWooCommerce

Motivation

My name is Arjan Drees, 34 years old and temporarily residing in my hometown Vroomshoop, the Netherlands. I’m a driven and creative frontend WordPress developer with a keen eye for pixel perfect design and quality code.

For more then 20 years I’ve been crafting websites and doing creative jobs on and off the computer, from graphics and print design to building computers, coding and network engineering. I’ve been working remotely for over five years, managing the domains and websites (which most of them I built myself) simultaneously for more than 100 WordPress customers via DirectAdmin, Plesk, zPanel and cPanel. I love writing HTML & Sass in shorthand, with the help of Emmet.io. Furthermore, I know my way around (custom) WordPress themes; page, post and taxonomy templates; hooks and filters; custom post types in combination with Advanced Custom Fields; Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.1) and more.

For the past half year I’ve taken some time off to change my course a bit. My wanderlust was really starting to itch and in the meantime I have been exploring my options as a remote worker. I soon came to the realisation that it’s definitely part of the lifestyle I’m looking for. And now I've finally decided to take that next step and chase my dreams.

Indian Summer Ultra 2022, 75km

You see, beside al the geeky stuff, I love to run (ultra) long distances, hike up mountains and backpack while capturing all my travels on camera with film- and photography. One of my next goals in life is to combine all of these hobbies in conjuction with my favorite kind of job in the world; creating appealing, accessible user-friendly and responsive websites. For your clients. But before I would start working and travelling (we can discuss exact terms, I'm very flexible), I want to create some time inbetween to get to know my new job, so I can fully get adjusted.

So, for starters, I’d be working from my hometown or in your office. I also would be happy to relocate for a couple of months until fully settled in! I want to understand your company’s workflow, familiarize myself with the tool stack, adjust to the (custom) theming, plug-ins and upgrade other skills if needed. It will also be nice to get to know one another, I think it's important so we can build a foundation of trust.

I was looking at your amazing job opening and saw a direct match with the things I'm looking for in a job. That's why I've sent you my online resume. I’m sure I can be a worthy asset to your team and I would love to work for your company and your clients.

Of course I’ll be more than happy to provide any additional information if needed. Thank you kindly for your consideration and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Arjan Drees

Frontend WordPress developer

I have experience with all of the following skills and tools

You're highly encouraged to click some buttons and find out more!

WordPress

WordPress logo

For over 10 years I've been developing websites with WordPress. I've worked remotely for ESINIT for over 5 years. For my last job I joined up with Team Nijhhuis .

Over time I've build up my own custom workflow. From homemade plug-ins, macro's and packages to an automatic batch script to install WordPress, my custom theme and all needed plug-ins with the press of a button.

I'm also more than capable to use Advanced Custom Fields PRO, so that WordPress is functioning like a full-blown CMS, dedicated to the customer's needs.

Here's a small selection of the websites I've made for Team Nijhuis:

  • Special Olympics 2022
  • Segway Powersports
  • IetsAnders Makelaars
  • Impact Factoring
  • Group 2000
  • Limis
  • Rottink
WooCommerce
WooCommerce logo

WooCommerce

WooCommerce helped me set up multiple webshops and delivery services. I know how to customize the checkout process and have made custom .PDF templates for the invoices and packing slips.

Here are some examples:

  • Laminaat.com
  • De Oranjerie
  • Cinnabon
  • Little Nepal
  • Foodshops
HTML5
HTML5 Logo

HTML 5

							
								<!DOCTYPE html>
								<html lang="en">
								<head>
								<meta charset="UTF-8">
								<title> ♥ HTML5 </title>
								</head>
								<body>
								<p>For over 20 years I've been working with HTML! </p>
								</body>
								</html>
							
							
CSS3
CSS3 Logo

I

CSS


								
								/* Like Einstein said:
								It's all relative... */
								.einstein:* { position: relative; }
								
								
Sass

Sass: Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets

It's important to set-up a good structure for all projects, because every project is different.

								
								λ cd \wp-content\themes\customtheme\assets\css

								λ tree /f


								sass/
								|
								|-- base/
								|   |-- _animations.scss
								|   |-- _colours.scss
								|   |-- _fonts.scss
								|   |-- _mixins.scss
								|   |-- _variables.scss
								|   ...
								|
								|-- elements/
								|   |-- _base.sass
								|   |-- _buttons.scss
								|   |-- _elements.scss
								|   |-- _sections.scss
								|   |-- _tooltips.scss
								|	|   ...
								|
								|-- pages/
								|   |-- _frontpage.css
								|   |-- _about.css
								|	|-- _contact.css
								|   ...
								|
								|-- cpt/
								|   |-- _reviews.scss
								|   |-- _members.scss
								|
								|-- vendors/
								|   |-- _uikit.min.css
								|   ...
								|
								`-- site.scss
								
								
Sass logo
JSON
XML
Emmet.io

Emmet.io

Logo van Emmet

ul.uk-list>.punishment-${I won't have to write these list items a hundred times}*100

Advanced Custom Fields PRO

Advanced Custom Fields

I like to use Advanced Custom fields so that I can easily expand the capabilities of WordPress as a content management system (CMS). A simple nice use case for this was for example SMT Shipping .

SMT Shipping logo

There was a lot of data delivered in the form of .PDF files. I wrote a script so that the data was being fed to custom fields on the website. All this data is converted to custom fields and are manageable in the back-end.

Ships are shown in a UIKit powered slider and when navigation, new data is being loaded through AJAX

Custom Post Types

Custom Post Types

One of the first things to do when I create a website is defining what Custom Post Types I will use in WordPress.

In combination with Advanced Custom Fields and the frontend magic of UIKit you can easily develop beautiful pages. From sliders, slideshows and different gridviews I can fully customize WordPress' output.

WCAG 2.1
dictu

Web Accessibility

While working for ESINIT I was temporarily outsourced as a front-end developer at the government agency DICTU . Here I've learned among other things how important it is to apply the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to every website.

The web and its contents should be accessible for each and every person.

At DICTU I worked in Drupal setting up Sass stylesheets for projects like consuwijzer.nl en eherkenning.nl .

I also helped fixing some accessibility and usability issues at tweedekamer.nl and acm.nl .

UIKit

UIKit by yootheme

This site has been built with the help of UIKit 3!

Because I use UIKit a lot, I've added a lot of snippets to my Sublime Text editor.

This means that I can set-up a responsive lay-out in no-time with this framework.

Here are some examples from my portfolio where I've used UIKIt:

  • Heleen Mees
  • De Boefjes
  • SMT-Shipping
  • ESINIT
  • The Beauty Masters
  • Feestweek Vroomshoop
  • Laminaat.com
  • Suri Xprez
  • Huidkliniek Utrecht
jQuery
Apache
Git
Redis Caching
SourceTree
Adobe Photoshop

Adobe

Logo van Photoshop

Photoshop

Print

Folder van Timesplitter; een tijdregistratie applicatie Flyer van hele programma Feestweek Vroomshoop Flyer van programma Feestweek Vroomshoop; Women & Girls Summernight

Webdesign

Website voorbeeld vanAngel Opvang Website voorbeeld van Hindi Jazz Website voorbeeld van The Beauty Masters
Sublime Text Editor 3

Sublime Text Editor

Definitely one my most used software on my Macbook next to the internet browser. I've personalised Sublime with the use of snippets, macro's, custom packages and custom themes.

Here's a selection of my favorite packages:

  • Sass
  • Emmet.io
  • UIKit autocomplete
  • Monokai Pro++
  • HTMLBeautify
  • SassBeautify
  • Autoprefixer
Logo van Sublime Text Editor
WAMPserver
HAML
Scrum
Google Analytics
KeePass
ScoutApp
LiveReload
Adobe XD
InVision
iThemes

With iThemes you have a complete suite with important plug-ins to support your site management.

Security Pro

With the right knowledge you can easily set up Brute Force protection, file change detection and two-factor authentication (2FA)

BackupBuddy

I've set up multiple websites with custom backup schedules and specific destionations. Daily encrypted back-ups in the cloud with ease.

Sync

U can use this plug-in to get a nice overview from all the sites you're managing to see which sites need updates or get a notification that the website is down.

Drupal
Joomla
Trello

Trello

With the use of Trello I've made my own custom workflow, including checklists and reusable cards; starting from the intake interview with a customer to the finalising the project and releasing it on the web

A few of these checks link to other checklists to specify that task in depth. This is how I keep my work structered.

Here's a small selection of a few tasks that keep me busy when a new site goes live (dev-to-prod).

  • Activating Redis Caching
  • Collect passwords in a KeePass database
  • Set up a MySQL or Mariadb database
  • Fill forms and configure the emails.
  • Google Search Console set up
  • Authorise Yoast within Search Console
  • Make sure the PHP version is correct
  • Add a live API key for Mollie
  • Reset all the statistics
  • Remove testing accounts
  • Sitemap.xml submit to Search Console
  • Google Analytics check
SSL (Let’s Encrypt)
Mollie & iDeal

iDEAL & Mollie

Using Mollie is an smooth way to configure WooCommerce so orders can be paid with iDeal. It's a superb integration and should definitely be included in every Dutch e-commerce website.

Logo van Mollie
Logo van iDeal
Google Search Console
Wox Launcher

Wox Launcher

When I'm using Windows I always install the Wox Launcher. It uses the ALT+SPACEBAR keys to add a handy Mac's Spotlight Search like service to your toolbelt.

I usually use the following plugins for Wox:

  • Search Everything
  • Clipboard History
  • URL
  • System Commands
  • Shell
  • Github
Wox Launcher
Gravity Workflow

Gravity WorkFlow

With this plugin I can create a complete workflow in combination with Gravity Forms. You can think of a complex booking system for example with multiple steps between the website and customer, or maybe a communication tool between departments on a local network.

Voorbeeld van Gravity Workflow opties
Voorbeeld van Gravity Workflow diagram
Voorbeeld van een Gravity Workflow stap
Compass
Domain Management

Domain management

I know my way around many control panels, mainly I've been using DirectAdmin, Plesk, CPanel en ZPanel.

Advanced Custom Fields Compass
Balsamiq Mockups
Logo van Balsamiq Mockups

Balsamiq Mockups

With Balsamiq I've built a lot of proof-of-concepts and prototypes for a variety of projects. While I was working for Profity for example and designed a whole time registration application called Profity Time (Timesplitter)

Adobe Illustrator
FlashFXP
Bootstrap 5.2
Bootstrap 5.0 logo

Bootstrap

I've been following Twitter Bootstrap since it was in beta. Used it in various projects over the years.

Work Experience in IT

2006

Public Schools Hardenberg

Internship of six months as a network administrator on multiple municipal public schools

2007

Vilnius College of Higher Education

An internship abroad in Lithuania for six months months as an application developer

2010

Logic4

6 months as a graphics designer using Adobe software. Also worked on WordPress frontend development building CSS stylesheets.

2010

Truzt

6 months internship as a graphics designer, designed multiple branding projects.

2011 - 2014

Profity

Jack-of-all-trades: User interface design, web development, graphics designer

2015 - 2020

ESINIT

Jack-of-all-trades: Frontend developer (WordPress/Joomla) User Interface design, web design, graphics design,

2018

DICTU

Worked as a frontend developer on government projects writing Sass stylesheets for Drupal projects

2019 - 2020

Bebo Parket

Administrator and developer of multiple e-commerce (WooCommerce) websites. One of the main projects that I've set up here was a large e-commerce website for selling laminate flooring

2020 - 2021

Team Nijhuis

Full time frontend WordPress developer. Worked on a range of WordPress projects, including WooCommerce sites

2021 - present

Arjan Drees Media

As a freelancer I'm taking on web development in WordPress and also photography plus cinematography projects

Education

2004
Diploma gehaald

VBMO TL Engineering

C.S.G. Het Noordik, Vroomshoop

2006
Diploma gehaald

Assistant IT management

ROC van Twente, Almelo | niv. 3

2007
Diploma gehaald

Application Development

ROC van Twente, Almelo | niv. 4

2010

Higher Vocational Education Cross Media Concepting

Saxion, Enschede

2013

Higher Vocational Education Informatics

Hogeschool Windesheim, Zwolle

1996 - present

Autodidacticism

I know how to Google and search StackOverflow

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Een bericht gedeeld door Arjan Drees (@arjandrees)

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Een bericht gedeeld door Arjan Drees (@arjandrees)

Strava

Contact

Send me an email or don't be shy and call / WhatsApp me

email
WhatsApp

Note to self: roadmap

Under Construction

Roadmap

Ik probeer regelmatig aan deze site te sleutelen!

  • Alle vaardigheden in- & aanvullen
  • Responsive weergave finetunen
  • Skip links toevoegen voor tab navigatie
  • ARIA labelling
  • Toetsenbord navigatie tussen vaardigheden
  • Animatie toevoegen aan naam bij scroll
  • Window resize scroll fix
  • About me
  • Motivation
  • Skills
  • Work experience
  • Education
  • Contact