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At the end of last year we asked all Viewbook users to send in an idea for our next founding-brother-portrait. Over the last months we received many ideas from Rome to Berlin, and there were some quite extreme ones in there. Tayo wanted to put us four on the floor, butt-to-butt, in the shape of a roman II, while Peter suggested to merge our four faces into one. Dik, was swamped with assignments and preferred a face-to-face meeting before constructing his idea and Maarten wanted to capture us four, barreled in the Atlantic Ocean during a glassy morning swell. Roberto wanted to hold us underwater in a clear swimming pool and shoot us from the sky.

We were surprised by all these ideas and the many others that came in and would like to thank you all very much. The idea that really caught our attention and got us most excited was the idea that Ilse Leenders e-mailed us. So Ilse got the job and we’re working on a ‘networked’ idea with wires and trees at the moment. The coming month we expect the results, and we’ll show you an extensive making-of when it’s finished.

A ‘hi guys’ and a smile. That was my new-guy routine when I first walked into the Viewbook office. Office is not the right term, more like a studio with a whole bunch of brothers in it, all slightly different but a shared zen-like being.

Sitting down, you immediately notice that it’s not bad being the new guy. Friendly faces. An array of gadgets. Books with cool covers. Magazines, tons of pictures and some interesting equipment I don’t know how to use, all around me! Just in case I get distracted of course.

“Support is very important to us, in fact we ARE support” said Rien and I had to think about it. I already knew Viewbook from a few years before when I did my internship and I could tell nothing had changed. Viewbook is what it says it is and I would like to add my part.

Stefano Tromp

I have a background in Communications and am one of those people who can never seem to focus on just one part of it. I love to write creatively, as much as think up cheesy corporate strap lines, slogans or meticulously work on FAQ’s. And that’s what I’m here to do.

I hope I can be a of service on the support side, solving problems swiftly and smoothly and in the future entertain and inform through my writing. So far, so good. Can’t wait to see what the future brings!

Recently, the need for support outgrew our existing team. That’s why a couple of weeks ago Stefano joined our team. He just signed his new contract with Viewbook, so a warm welcome to Stefano.

Back in the day, when I started Viewbook, I did all customer support by myself and continued doing so until time ran out and it was simply not possible anymore. However, I still do a large part and scan through all the messages every day.

As founder and director of Viewbook it is important to know what our customers experience, exactly. With the feedback I receive I can make better decisions and determine which issues are important, which problems need to be solved immediately and what new features are most important for our users. The best way to enhance a product is by understanding what our customers want and need, as well as where they have trouble.

The second person who picked up support is Alrik, co-founder and our
‘communicator’. He’s the person who talks to a lot of users, and the market in general. It’s essential for him to know what people experience when using Viewbook. At the moment he started doing support he felt more connected and in his own words; things became more real.

Naturally, we find it important to help people out to the best of our ability. It’s what we’re here for. We’re not satisfied until you are. That’s why we keep improving our support. We use Zendesk behind the scenes and recently we’ve added live support with Olark. This way, we can answer questions directly on our support site with ‘live chat’. Our next goal is to have a person in the US timezone somewhere next year. This way we can split questions coming from the EU and the US and respond much quicker and hopefully almost directly as they come in.

Customer support has our constant attention, but if you feel we’ve missed out something important or simply wish to share your suggestions and thoughts on the topic, please leave us a comment or send me an e-mail: rien@viewbook.com

Last week the Photokina tradeshow in Cologne Germany was the stage for the latest on photographic equipment. I spent two days to meet some people and see what’s new. Walking towards the entrance I got captured and my early-morning-face was projected on a huge screen covering the entire fairs’ facade. Good morning Cologne! The big brands had massive and impressive stands, and by 10 AM the place was swarming with people. Most visitors carried heavy dslr bodies around their necks.



Innovations that caught my attention were the 3D scanning and 360 degrees photography presented by different companies. This technology, also called CGI (Computer Generated Imaging) allows you to photograph objects from all sides and blend together objects from real life and realistic 3D environments. Although I am an admirer of the unadulterated still photography, the way this technology creates a wireframe of an object and allows you to apply all sorts of textures to it is kind of fascinating. Photographer Chase Jarvis demonstrated the new Nikon D7000 with a music video and stills that he shot with this new camera. Various brands presented their new mirror-less compact cameras with light sensitive lenses. I discovered some neat new features in an Adobe CS5 workshop and took a nap at the Lomography beach of snapshots.

It was good to see our Blurb friends there and talk with ‘Photo News, Zeitung fur fotografie’, Marc Ludwig who started an online TV channel called FotoTV.com. FotoTV.com has the ambition to become the global destination for photographers seeking for information and inspiration. Regarding the online presentation side of things, besides our online video friends Animoto, I couldn’t really discover any other representation of this subject. Do we need to do something about this for the next edition of Photokina? At the end of day two I felt overdosed by images, products and presentations and was content to leave the Messe complex at free will.

A couple of weeks ago everyone at Viewbook received an iPad. It’s a ‘must have’ for our team to experience all the new possibilities it brings. But it also saves paper. We use online tools such as use Google Docs for all our text documents and spreadsheets, which are all easily accessible on the iPad. Instead of printing documents for our meetings everyone simply opens them directly on their iPad. A great way to save paper and spoil less.

Here’s a little behind the scenes on how we recorded the Voice over for the Viewbook promo video. After finishing the storyboard and draft for the video we setup our recording equipment at Sasha Naod’s appartment. Sasha warmed up his voice while we’re tuning all the settings. We’ve used a MLC Mic, a self made sound absorbing panel, a microphone stand and a HVR-A1E HD Handycam video recorder. After the recordings Paul mixed video, animation and voice together with the exclusive music track created by Roxbury Music. To finalize the audio track we compressed it in the studio of DJ Joris Voorn. It was great fun, a whole lot of work and we’ve learned a lot. You can see the video here.