// INTRODUCTION
DESIGNER, MARKETEER, BJJ AMATEUR, EXPLORER
I’m Chris Hoo (hopefully you already figured that out), a 23 year old self-taught Brand Designer & Digital Marketeer. I’m an Aruban-born currently living in The Netherlands. Although I am based in The Netherlands, I like to spend a large amount of time on that One Happy Island
I’ve spent the last 3 years helping out 21+ businesses stand out in their industry by creating memorable and goal-driven visual identities – enhanced by up-to-date digital marketing strategies.
Currently testing my knowledge in branding to my own personal brand, building a respectable following across multiple platforms.
// MY STORY
DRIVEN BY CURIOSITY, FUELED BY PASSION
// A CURIOUS BEGINNING
To give you some perspective of how I got to where I am, I need to go way back in time. All the way to my childhood, where I was building the most random things with Lego a 5-year-old can imagine. I was that kid who tried to fit pieces together that actually shouldn’t fit together, yet always finding a way to do so. My curiosity got me exploring every corner of the house, always touching stuff I wasn’t allowed to.
This curiosity did not only stay in the house. Car rides with me in the back were never dull, as I would ask questions about the most random stuff every 5 minutes. I wanted to know why something worked and how, sometimes to the annoyance of the people next to me. I mean, imagine a 7-year-old talking for 4 hours straight on its way to Disneyland.
// CHOOSING A PATH
Fast forward a couple of years, to the last year of High School. This was the year I had to pick a topic to study in college. As someone who was interested in almost everything, picking something was super hard. During my high school career, I had thoughts about being a firefighter, sea biologist, gym owner, soldier, and many more completely different career paths. As you can imagine, all these options left me feeling pretty directionless (as many do at that age).
At that point in time, I was being serious about going to the gym regularly. So that brought me to the idea of doing something with physical exercise. The Bachelor of Sport and Physical Education was the most logical choice at that moment, since I liked doing sports and Physical Exercise was something I excelled at during High School. Thus, in 2018, I started the Bachelor of Sport and Physical Education, super cheerful and happy of this start of a new chapter in my life. However, this study did not go as I expected.
6 months in, I started to think to myself if this really was the career path I wanted to take. This study was heavily focused on becoming a PE Teacher (logically, since that is basically the name of the study), something I was not prepared for. Although I really enjoyed the sports aspect of this study, becoming a PE Teacher was not on my long list of interests I mentioned earlier. So after thoughtful consideration, I decided to drop out of this study 6 months after starting it, which meant I had 6 months left to figure out what other direction to take.
// DISCOVERING DESIGN
During my half gap-year I found out about the concept of starting a business. This was mainly inspired by my sister who was also starting her business back then (and by my YouTube homepage, which was filled with Tai Lopez vids). The idea of building something big, all by myself, was incredibly captivating – yet I still had to find out what I exactly wanted to build.
With this new drive, I signed up for the study of Marketing Management. Many in my circle questioned this decision, going from becoming a PE teacher to studying Economics (and rightfully so, since I absolutely sucked at economics during High School). However, without me realizing it at the time, this decision was about to be the most impactful decision to my life.
The first semester of this study included the subject ‘Graphic Design’ in its curriculum. Art was not something I was really interested in, so before the first class started, I did not think much of this subject. However, my thoughts quickly changed when I started working on my first assignment, designing a concept brand book for Vans.
During my research for this assignment, I realized there are endless opportunities for graphic designers to help businesses. Graphic design was not only about art anymore. It was about making an impact for businesses, being able to convey a certain message, purely through visual identities and fitting graphics. This was the exact moment where I found my passion. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. My curiosity left me watching hours upon hours of graphic design tutorials, figuring out how to use the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator at 4 in the morning (not kidding).
// TODAY'S LANDSCAPE
My passion in graphic design and my drive to start a business merged together in 2020, creating my own freelancing business as a Graphic Designer. And even though I finally found my passion, my curiosity in different topics was still there. In the past 3 years, I’ve tried many different things: travelled over 10 different countries–of which 3 have been as a solo traveller, I’ve joined The Dutch Military as a Reserve, I’ve ran 2 Marathons (1 half, 1 full), and much more. I expanded my services to Digital Marketing, using proven strategies I’ve first tested myself, only implementing the stuff that really works.
Today, as a 23-year-old, I am in the fortunate position where I am able to help awesome brands reach their goals full-time, letting my curiosity run wild in many different industries. Reading this story back makes me happy, realizing that the curiosity I had in the back of that car, on our way to Disneyland, is still there – and now with a bigger world to explore.
“What would life be if we would have no courage to attempt anything?”
– Vincent van Gogh
// BONUS TRIVIA
FUN FACTS ABOUT ME
/ Ran a Full Marathon (42,195KM) in 5:26:50 (will improve this soon)
/ Started practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in March 2023
/ I am able to solve a rubiks cube in under 60 seconds.
/ I served in the Dutch Army National Reserve
/ Love to travel (visited countries counter: 13)
READY TO SHAPE YOUR BRAND'S FUTURE?
Every brand holds a unique story. I’m here to help yours stand out. Let’s collaborate and make your brand unforgettable.
