From passion
to a full-time job

Last updated: 04-09-23

My name is Robert Ligthart, a Freelance Product Designer who is (currently) based in The Netherlands. I am 23 years old, but have at least 5 years of experience and became a full-time freelancer in 2019.

I hold a passion for minimalistic designs and believe that great designs are often invisible. With an impactful design, you can convey your story or the story of your business to a wider audience. I want to help you build an online brand and or strengthening your online brand.

I’m a person with an entrepreneurial mindset. Due to my entrepreneurial mindset, I’m really flexible when it comes to achieving certain objectives. Think about designing top-notch web(apps) and website, but also when the website needs to be profitable focused which sometimes means that design is less important.  When I start with a certain task, I do want to know what you’re exactly in need of. In the past, I often hear that clients do appreciate that.

Besides my freelance career, I have done some side projects too that I sold or still working on in the background. Some of them were profitable, and some of them led in learning a new skill. Last year, I have sold one of my affiliate marketing websites. The time I’m writing this, I am spending a lot of time in Javascript frameworks like React & Typescript to step up my front-end and back-end skills.

Reason why I spend time in learning side skills is because of the fact that it makes me a more valuable freelance product designer. I am a big believer in focus on a specific area and getting really good at it, but because of the fact that designing a product is basically going to determine how your future product you will look like and work, it is extremely important to know how it also works from a technical perspective.

Also, I started spending more time in code because, on some of the projects that I got hired, my design didn't meet my expectations which affected (in my opinion) the result of the end product.

How I got started

I’ve been involved in working on digital designs since the age of 11. Later in the year of 2011, I was fortunate enough to design my first digital design for a Dutch Youtuber. My work was used as both a profile icon and the profile banner. Since this moment, I improved my skills, continuing to provide digital design for others in many fields including graphic design, motion design, front-end development, and some marketing skills.

Work policy

I spend most of my time working in Almere or Amsterdam. Working remotely is that I love, because it saves (a lot of) commuting time. However, this does not mean I am unwilling to work in other locations, but I won’t be able to work at specific locations on a regular basis.

Career Path

Freelance Product Designer
Robert Ligthart, NL - Full Time
5+ Years
2019 - Present
Digital Designer
Yummygum, Amsterdam - Internship
6 Months
Sep 2018 - Feb 2019
Digital Designer
Elastique, Hilversum - Internship
6 Months
Aug 2017 - Feb 2018
Graphic Designer
The Media Office, Almere - Internship
6 Months
Aug 2017 - Feb 2018

Stack

Figma
Design Tool
Slack
Communication
Dropbox
Storing Files
Telegram
Communication
Discord
Communication
Raycast
Spotlight
DEVELOPMENT
VSCode
Code Editting
Warp
Terminal
React
Framework
Typescript
Language
Prisma
Backend
MongoDB
Backend
Next.js
Framework
Auth.js
Authentication

Testimonials

"I met Robert as super talented start UI/UX designer and then saw him develop into someone who can come along at the highest product level"

Milan Daniels

Co-Founder Otrium

"Robert is one of the few with a mindset that I like to work with. After 1,5 year collaboration, I brought him in multiple projects of mine like one of them Propchain. Communication is top-notch and consistent in promises all the time"

Robin Ubaghs

Co-Founder Propchain

“Robert helped at ShopPop a ton with hands- on help designing an Inbox for Messenger, and later figuring out big product questions and our website"

Luc van Loon

Product Designer (ShopPop back-then)

"Robert is someone with an insane eye for detail. Extremely consistent in everything he does, communication, UI/UX, promises, and so forth which makes it super easy to work with"

Michiel Tol

CMO of Colect