2012: A Spectacular Year

The past year, as it has been for many, was a busy one. It was marked by a lot of change and hard work. Since we all love end-of-year overviews, here is our year in review.

Kris

It all began in February. Kris joined Studio Wolf as an interface designer. It was a big step for us. Hiring our first employee is said to be the hardest step, so that really makes a difference. The three of us tackled it together.

Identity

Perhaps the biggest change of the year was the launch of our new identity (and logo) during the Night of Art and Science in the Heymans Hall of the Academy Building. Together with our friends at Studio Wolf, we threw a great party. A new corporate identity that better tells our story: responsive interface design. Design for all devices.

Taiga and Adaptive Content

The beauty of responsive interface design is that it’s not just about aesthetics, but increasingly also about the techniques behind it. The whole process—from mood to technology—must come together to achieve a truly responsive result.

From that philosophy, Taiga was born. Taiga is an environment with a grid that lays the responsive foundation for a website or web application. Taiga is open source and free for everyone to use.

In addition to Taiga, we are working on ways to apply the principle of adaptive content to the websites we deliver (still in its infancy). We recommend you watch this video by Karen McGrane if you want to know exactly what it is. Essentially, it’s all about content first, and then design and implementation.

Responsive Workflow

Not only are the products we create changing, but the way we work is evolving as well. Over the past six months, our workflow has become more responsive. Gone is the waterfall method—we now work on the final product as quickly as possible. Our process has been adjusted accordingly. For example, we are working with Topicus on a project using the SCRUM development method. I look forward to sharing my experiences with that later. It requires, at the very least, a different perspective and extreme flexibility from the interface designer.

Smashing Conference

There is no improvement without learning. I have always wanted to attend a major conference. This year, the first conference of Smashing Magazine took place in Freiburg, Germany. Together with the team and a few hundred like-minded individuals, we participated in this conference. We learned a lot—something I highly recommend to everyone.

Design and Front-End Meetup

We believe that the interface designer should also be the front-end developer. To discuss this idea with other interface designers and front-end developers, Stef Thoen (@BaardBaard) and I organized a meetup. Or rather, a fun get-together that will take place from time to time—with a beer in hand.

Clients

Equally important, or rather, most important: our clients. It has been a wonderful year, and we have had the pleasure of working with amazing people. Thank you to everyone for that. There are a few individuals we would like to thank in particular, who have contributed to shaping Studio Wolf into what it is today:

• Mark Vletter and Erwin de Vries from Voys Telecom;
• Dirk-Jan Huizingh, Aimée Otte, and Joshua Peper from Peperzaken;
• Koos Onderwater from KPN;
• Andrea Kolrusch from the KNSB;
• Johan Stokking from Emando;
• Marco van der Niet from Topicus Onderwijs;
• And finally, Erik Rutkens from Insite Advies.

2013

The coming year will be the year of adaptive interface design (I’ll share more about that in a note later). We are going one step further. Our workflow will continuously evolve, but the core principles of Studio Wolf—such as an iterative approach, a relaxed atmosphere, delivering quality, and keeping our commitments—will remain absolutely intact.

Thank you, and here’s to a successful 2013!

Aljan & Tim

— This post was originally written on the Studio Wolf blog.