Jordi Romkema

I know it has been a while since I have updated my website. I sincerely apologize! However the last few months have been pretty hectic.

First went on vacation. I still need to upload the photos though. We have been Salt Lake City, again, doing some awesome skiing! I promise I'll upload the photos to Flickr very soon!

Second, some of you might know that I bought a house recently. It's brand new and was still under construction but last week it was finally finished. So I think you can imagine that I don't have any time to sit still

Third, I started my new job at MediaMonks on March 1st but after a few weeks I knew it wasn't a perfect fit as I had imagined. Unfortunate but it can happen of course.

So, I decided to quit and go independent. Luckily a good friend and ex colleague of mine also decided to go independent as well. So why not work together? We know we make a great team. Finally we can tell all of you that Superhero Cheesecake has been born.

Superhero Cheesecake is a fresh new digital production company. We don't actually make cheesecakes, but we do create delicious digital delicacies.

Today we launched our website and this officially marks the start of our new company. We are very excited and for more information I'll forward you to the new Superhero Cheesecake website.

The majority of this year I have been working on a personal project in my spare time. Some of you might know, but I know most of you don't. I haven't really told a lot of people about this because I didn't want to jinx it. But now the day has finally come that I can say that this project is finally ready to be released online!

The name? Snospace. What is it? It's a mix between a guide for ski and snowboard resorts and an online community. The site offers loads of information about almost every ski and snowboard resort in the world: reviews, videos, photos, statistics, snow reports, weather updates, twitter updates, news articles. Most of these subjects have already been covered by other sites obviously, but the most interesting part will be the community.

As you can imagine, right now at the start the community is still pretty much nonexistent but I invite you to join it as you can do so many things such as uploading photos, importing photos from Flickr, create your own powder tracker (you can use this to check where the fresh snow is falling), create your own SnoMap (and show off where you have been to or what to go to), write reviews, write comments, connect with other members and much more (cliché, I know it... but it's true). You don't have to create an account though, you can also use your Facebook account to log in instead.

You can check it at snospace.com and please spread the word! To get more updates you can also follow @snospace on Twitter or become a fan of the Snospace fan page on Facebook.

Snospace Homepage

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Most people probably already know this but I hadn’t really officially announced it yet: After almost four and half years at MTV Networks I have decided that it’s time to go somewhere else. It truly has been a great time with great and innovative projects. I started as an intern there and gradually worked my way up to Senior Designer at the Digital Media department. It has been so much fun: great colleagues, all the parties, trip to Marocco, all the award shows… but it’s time to leave!

My last day at MTV will be December 24th 2009. I’m looking forward to an explosive ending during the annual MTV Christmas celebration to complete my ‘journey’ at MTV!

You might be wondering what I’m going to do next. First I’m going to work on my house, work on a personal project (to be revealed soon) and do some work as a freelancer. If you’re interested, drop me a line.

Secondly, on March 1st 2010 I start my new job at MediaMonks as Senior Designer. MediaMonks is the largest interactive media agency in The Netherlands and is mostly known for creative and innovative flash games. I can’t wait to start!

Recently we at MTV Networks launched a big SpongeBob SquarePants vertical in The Netherlands at www.spongebob.nl. The Dutch SpongeBob website is an online fanclub facilitated to kids so that they can soak up everything about Spongebob and the other characters such as Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, Squidward and Gary. The content on the website varies deeply from regular online games to complete episodes, coloring pages, but you can also register yourself as a genuine SpongeBob fan!

Strategically the most important goals for the site are: supporting local marketing initiatives such as special episodes, 10 year anniversary of Spongebob and increasing (online) brand engagement. Also, the local webshop (nickshop.nl) is featured heavily throughout the website to increase awareness for all the cool SpongeBob gadgets and gifts out there.

Later this year the site is planned to be expanded with weblogs from the creators and an achievements system for the registered fans.

The site has been designed by me with the absolutely fantastic help of Roy Schieving (Design Intern) and has been built by Niels Filmer (Developer) and Fabian Scheepers (Developer).

Homepage

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We’re currently looking for a Web Developer Intern for our Digital Media department at MTV Networks in Amsterdam. So if you study and live in The Netherlands and you are interested, please read on… Read the rest... »

The last few weeks of 2008 is generally the perfect time to look back to all the wonderful things we have done in the last year. Some of the things were successes and were celebrated but some of the things aren’t as visible as others. That’s why the company I work for, MTV Networks, decided to create the MTV Networks Awards. It’s an awards ceremony for MTV Networks employees to raise awareness throughout the company of the successes individuals or teams have had in the last year. There are three categories in which every employee could nominate individuals or teams. Then a shortlist was made with three nominees in each category.

A website was created and designed by me where everybody could vote for their favorite nominee. Each category has its own logo, here are the three categories:

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Superster The Family Battle is an exciting television program and singing contest on Nickelodeon. In Superster The Family Battle kids (8 to 14 years old) sing together with one or more family members. The best family will win the Superster trophy and a special live performance on another popular Nickelodeon television show, SuperNick.

The contest exists of two weeks of auditions, 5 weeks of live shows, two live semi finals and one spectacular finale. The show can be seen every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7.20 PM on Nickelodeon in The Netherlands. Each episode is 12 minutes, short but very powerful!

Each week there will be three battles: on Monday there will be the singing battle, on Tuesday the dancing battle and on Wednesday they have to bring those components (sing and dance) together in the ultimate battle. Then the jury chooses which family can continue to the semi finals.

The finale consists of three spectacular family performances. Three families will battle each other by delivering their ultimate performance!

The website closely follows all participants. Kids can participate in quizzes, watch backstage videos and view profile of all the candidates. They can also leave messages for the different families, the presenter and for the jury members. The Superster The Family Battle was designed by me and built by Desk02.

Today we released a new online campaign at MTV for the new XBOX 360 game Fable II. In Fable II every decision you make has consequences for the development of your in-game character. You can be good or evil. Who will you become?

This video based contest revolves around a highly annoying girl, Dorien. She has a special Fable II edition of the XBOX 360 console in her possession. You can win this special edition contest but there’s no way this irritating brat will give it to you. Or is there?

You can be nice or cruel to here, it’s your choice. There are dead ends but you can also end up as the winner! Who will you become?

For my foreign visitors: Finally a site for you to enjoy, it’s all in English!

Credits for this campaign go to: Dorien de Voogt, Allan Sperling, Hessel Roos, Matthijs van Dongen and Jordi Romkema.

Recently TMF launched a new website called Kijk Dit Nou! Roughly translated it means Watch This! It’s a user generated content platform for television channel TMF. However it’s not like YouTube or Vimeo where you can only upload videos but you can also record movies with your webcam and upload audio and photo’s.

The website also plays a supporting role for the television show TMF Reaction . With Kijk Dit Nou! the show becomes more interactive as viewers are encouraged by the presenters to upload their funniest content to be shown on television. Furthermore advertisers can use the new UGC platform for their own campaigns. The webcam recording ability is especially popular among advertisers.

Kijk Dit Nou! - Homepage

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It was an exciting day yesterday at MTV Networks. Why? That day Nickelodeon finally released a new game and website for television show Het Huis Anubis (Anubis House). For those that don’t know, Het Huis Anubis is a teenage soap about a group of teenagers that live together in a boarding house during their secondary school education. Each with their own story, their own history and their own way of moving on to maturity. The show is full of mystery as the house a past, a secret history. The show started its fifth season on Monday and it’s extremely popular with kids in The Netherlands and Belgium in the age 8 through 13.

The new game is already the fifth Anubis game that has been released and was completely revised compared to earlier editions. The game, created by MediaMonks for Nickelodeon, is so successful that even without promotion on television it has attracted 5000 kids playing the game simultaneously the first day. Het Huis Anubis has an active fan base and the number of kids playing grows on a daily basis. The game is sponsored by the Dutch bank Rabobank. In-game the kids can collect coins and put them on their in-game bank account. This way kids learn how to earn and spend coins as they can buy collectibles in the Anubis shop. They also earn interest based on their amount.

Het Huis Anubis Game

Game Clubhouse

The website has also been revamped in order to support the release of the new game and the premiere of the new season. I was responsible for the interaction and visual design and co-worker Fabian Scheepers has put the site together technically while Rens van de Lee worked on the CSS.

Het Huis Anubis Website

For a more in-depth analysis in Dutch of Het Huis Anubis, the new site and the new game by Nickelodeon’s Engagement Manager Kids Eline Kwantes you can visit DutchCowgirls.nl.