Who is that guy?

About me

Daniel Knaack

Born: January 12th, 1985 in Hamburg, Germany
Place of residence: Barsbüttel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Languages: German (native), English (spoken + written)
Interests: Web technology, design trends, spin fishing and coastal fishing, gaming, turntablism (scratching), weight training, Vespa, marine biology, cooking (Italian / Mediterranean)
How I would describe myself?

Professionally: I am very ambitious, committed, creative, success, goal and solution-oriented, meticulous, true to detail, careful, accurate, efficient, focused and motivated.

Private: I am the quieter, relaxed guy who likes to go fishing with his brother on the Baltic Sea or Elbe, spends time with his daughter or you can find me playing on the PS4 with the latest Assassins Creed or Red Dead Redemption Game.

How do I feel about my job?

I myself sometimes call myself a web designer, sometimes a UI / UX designer and sometimes a front-end designer, but overall you can say no matter what title you have intuitive functionality and the best user experience in a modern design are always in focus for me.

Research, Customery Journey, Target Group, Best Practice, Performance, Functionality, Design, Conversion, Zeitgeist, Technology, Budget, Time, Inspiration, Intuition – All of these things flow into my work and thus determine the result. Whether across departments, in a small team or independently in the home office, the deadlines could usually even be met a few days in advance.

In the end, it is very important to me personally that the result not only did the job, but that all those involved in the team, as well as the customer himself, are 100% happy

My paper and my color

Skills & Tools

Sketch + Zeplin

Adobe XD / Figma

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Atom Editor

Filezilla / Mamp

HTML

CSS

LESS / SCSS / SASS

JS / Jquery / React / Vue / Node / NPM

PHP / MySQL

WordPress / Shopify

Icon MacBook

Hardware

Apple MacBook Pro (15 inch, 2019)
Samsung UHD 28 inch, IPS panel
Apple iPhone XS, native checks
Icon MacBook

Tools for development and analysis

Google Chrome + Dev Mode
Google Lighthouse, WooRank
Hotjar, Google Analytics

In the last episode…

curriculum vitae

Professional background

10/2018 – Today

Senior Web Designer
Team Lead UI/UX at DS Marketing GmbH (a company of Social Chain AG)
details & experience
  • Team Lead & coordination of the UI/UX team
  • Design and occasional theme development for e-commerce obnline shops (Shopify)
  • Conception and design of 20+ Magento shops for “Die Höhle der Löwen” start-up deals 2019/2020
  • Conception, design, development of corporate, brand and product websites e.g. Lumaland, Oxid7, N8WERK, Fit Engine, Landmann, Hoberg, TURM GIN, BEEM, Soda Trend, Hoberg, IN-TRADING, DS-Select
  • UX research for all UI design relevant topics regarding our brand websites
  • UX analysis for various domains with Hotjar
  • SEO / performance checks of our brand and corporate websites with Lighthouse and WooRank
  • Design for Germany‘s Next Top Model Shop, gntm-shop.de in cooperation with tv channel pro7
  • Design + development of WordPress blogs for „The Lion’s Den“
  • Training for employees from IT, project and content management in HTML / CSS, WordPress and Shopify
  • Training and advice for founders and customers on content maintenance in WordPress and Shopify, in-house and via Microsoft Teams
  • Advice and support for brand / marketing colleagues on the topics of web and UI design, UX + customer journey / SEO + performance

04/2014 – 03/2018

Senior Web Designer
Employee at YOOtheme GmbH
details & experience
  • Conception / design / development of Joomla templates and WordPress themes
  • Participation in the development for the UIkit framework
  • Collaboration on the back-end and front-end design of the CMS Pagekit
  • Training in innovations in Photoshop, sketch for colleagues
  • Project planning by the designer, regular meetings and coordination
  • Talks about our products at the Joomla conferences „Joomla Day“ 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
  • Lectures / workshops in our offices for the Joomla User Group Hamburg
  • Participation in conferences like WordCamp, Joomla Day (national + international), Smashing Conference, Fronteer, Front-Trends

11/2010 – 03/2014

Web Designer
Employee at YOOtheme GmbH
details & experience
  • See content for Senior Web Designer at YOOtheme GmbH

11/2009 – 10/2010

Web Designer & Graphic Designer
Freelancer & Small business at dannydiablo.de
details & experience
  • Conception / design / development for smaller companies such as Car dealerships, tattoo studios, party service, maintenance services under WordPress
  • Web + UI design mockups in Photoshop, as well as HTML / CSS development for several cooperation partners in front and back end development

10/2008 – 10/2009

Web Designer & Graphic Designer
Employee at WebSeason GmbH (Online & Consulting Agency)
details & experience
  • Conception / design / development of websites for companies from northern Germany such as arko, Hamburg Wasser, Damp Holding, Dole, Hela, EMP and others
  • Development of websites in HTML / CSS under Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, Magento, TypoLight, Contao
  • Pitches and presentation of design mockups directly to the customer
  • Various smaller print projects on A4, A3, A5, hard discs and clothing

08/2005 – 09/2008

media designer for digital and print media (Apprentice)
Employee / trainee at WebSeason GmbH (Online & Consulting Agency)
details & experience
  • see Web Designer / Graphic Designer at WebSeason GmbH

Training / Education

08/2005 – 09/2008

Media designer for digital and print media
College for media and communication Hamburg
Details
  • Training as a media designer in digital and print media, specializing in media design, focus: online / non-print
  • Graduated from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) in the field of media design (non-print)

06/2004 – 03/2005

Voluntary military service in the Bundeswehr
Panzergrenadierbataillon 401 of the Panzergrenadierbrigade 41, Hagenow
Details
  • Retired due to knee injury

05/1995 – 06/2002

Graduation
EKG Barsbüttel (formerly Integrated Comprehensive School Barsbüttel), Schleswig-Holstein
Details
  • Passed school leaving certificate, secondary school leaving certificate, in the 10th year, completed the 11th year

08/1991 – 04/1995

primary school
Primary school on Sooren, Hamburg-Rahlstedt