Interview With Marco Kuiper of Marco Folio

Marco Kuiper is a blogger and designer from the Netherlands who works under the title Marco Folio. His work is unique and fresh, and his blog posts insightful and helpful. Today, I talk with Marco about his experience blogging, inspiration, and his background with design and development.

Name: Marco Kuiper
Location: The Netherlands
Age: 21
Site(s): Marcofolio
Twitter: @MarcoFolio

Interview With Marco Kuiper of Marco Folio

Brian: Hi Marco, thanks for agreeing to this interview. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background on the internet.

Marco: Hi Brian! Thanks for conducting this interview, I’m honored! I’m Marco Kuiper and I work as a software developer. I live in a town called Arnhem in The Netherlands which is a pretty nice place. I’m the owner of my own weblog called Marcofolio.net . The name of my blog established from the combination of “Marco” and “Portfolio”. Since I stopped working as a (freelance) webdeveloper, I removed the portfolio, but the name still remains.

I started the blog in 2007, just as a place to dump some fun stuff that I found online and place tutorials/resources for developers/designers. Starting in 2009, I started creating serious high quality articles about HTML, CSS(3) and jQuery.

Brian: Where did you learn design and development? What drew you into this field?

Marco: Most of the things I currently know about (web)design are self-thought. Although I have to admit that I’m not the perfect “Photoshop Guru” (still learning that by reading loads of tutorials on the web), I do know my way around CSS(3), HTML and jQuery. I hardly read any books, but the “trial and error” technique has worked out pretty good so far. Learning from code examples from others is a great way to learn!

I studied “Computer Engineering” for a couple of years, which can explain the knowledge about the server-side techniques (PHP, ASP.NET etc.). How did I roll into the field? I always had the love and passion to program stuff, as well as looking and creating beautiful things!

Brian: Your blog, Marcofolio, draws quite an audience in the web design niche. To what do you attribute this success? How has blogging impacted your life?

Marco: Thank you for your compliment. I think one of the main reasons the success of Marcofolio is keeping up, is the uniqueness of the posts. For every article, I try to create something truly unique which is always in the best interest of the reader. I work out code examples, add comments etc. just for the visitor to actually know what’s going on in that piece of code. I think that’s what people really appreciate since they’re the ones that learn the technique and can use the article as a useful resource.

Blogging doesn’t have much impact on my life – it just has impact on my overall time. Since I work as a software developer by day, loads of spare time goes to blogging. But since it’s just a hobby, I don’t really care. I really enjoy writing on Marcofolio!

Brian: Where do you go to learn? What is your biggest source of inspiration when it comes to design, development, and blogging?

Marco: Good question actually. When I want to know something about programming, I’ll simply kick up Google and search whatever I need. I draw inspiration from everywhere; On the web, magazines, nature etc. Inspiration can be found everywhere! Sometimes, when looking at something, I wonder if I can create it myself using HTML/CSS/jQuery. A couple of articles on Marcofolio are actually placed after those thoughts!

Brian: What advice would you offer to young entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in the online world?

Marco: Never stop learning and exploring! Keep on developing, create proof of concepts and improve yourself. Just keep on loving what you do and be passionate about it.

Thanks again to Marco Kuiper for this insightful interview. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!