Mads Nygaard

Cand.it. - Freelancer & online bootstrapper

About

I'm just another family guy doing web stuff. If you care to know more about what the stuff involves, here are the extended cliff notes:By 2024 I exceeded 20 years of professional experience with cloud-based tech, design and content creation.I started off by co-developing and designing what may have been the first (though lesser-known) web-based content management system (LetCMS) with front-end editing capabilities—shortly after graduating as a Cand.it in Multimedia Design, Technology, and Production from the University of Southern Denmark in 2004.In hindsight, we probably should have open-sourced the code—like that guy Matt Mullenweg did with this thing called WordPress around the same time. In any case, we entered a market booming with open-source CMS tools and decided to adapt to make a living.After a few webmaster jobs, IT educational roles, and some NGO work, I began focusing on freelance work, primarily doing open-source CMS website development, graphic design, and SEO for various clients, alongside digital content creation.Certainly, working in Adobe CS to create interfaces and GUI elements sparked my interest in UX design. To this day, I have a deep love for iconography in visual communication.Down the line, my graphic skills translated well into conceptualizing usability, whether through rough mockups, app-specific GUI designs, or crafting bespoke designs for websites on the fly. Aesthetics as identity have always been a key principle for me, alongside consistency and simplicity in design.Being a creative person, I admit that network engineering initially felt like a necessary evil during my early days as a digital designer, as I had to navigate the ins and outs of web server hosting while freelancing. However, through stubborn hands-on experience and keen research, I gradually gained insights into basic open-source sysadmin practices. These insights have proven helpful in setting up and configuring web apps for various purposes, as well as identifying and resolving potential issues before things go south.For a while, I even ventured into a specialized branch of ERP consulting (MOM), only to realize that while implementing ERP system modules may be profitable, the rigidity involved in huge projects, as well as the nature of the work, stifled my creative spark completely.Various front-end frameworks today push digital designers toward code and even full-stack development, and for a very good reason. However, the natural downside to any uniform or templated approach is that that special something... the signifier, the identity, the soul, the itch that sparks interest tend to gets lost in placeholder imagry.While I do know my way around HTML and CSS, I still gravitate towards using tools that simplify visual creation without sacrificing output quality whether it's the code or the message.I adhere to the classic design principles of Jacob Nielsen and while I do embrace A.I. as a beneficial technical copilot I also do struggle to grasp the amount irrelevant standardized and essentially duplicate output will be produced by all the other keyboard monkeys on copilot.Not me of course. Goes without saying. There I said it. Moving on.All in all I'm no puritan but a big part of me do fear A.I. as a potential soulless trap for creators without strong vision - like how TikTok has the potential of turning sound and talented humans into brainwashed dopamine junkies.In any case it's a job to cut through the bs and I don't really enjoy the growing reality of bots interacting with bots on behalf of humans.Maybe a bit of slow living is advisable after all. Even in our line of work.Yeah, I know. That's some rebel stuff right there! Strap in cowboy —it's getting worse.After getting married and settling down with wife and kids, as most middle-aged men do, the COVID-19 shutdown slowly pushed me toward bootstrapping cloud projects on my own accord.It dawned on me that, over the years, I had developed a sufficient technical skill set and accumulated quite a bit of know-how. This has allowed me to diversify according to my interests while maintaining a suitable work-life balance.

Contact

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