Some random facts you might not know about me.

Hi! My name is Penney Looije, I am a Senior Freelance Product Designer & UX Designer from The Netherlands with 10 years of experience.

I freelanced for 2 years in Australia

I lived in Sydney, Australia for 2 years. It has always been my dream to live abroad. But never would I have thought that I would end up in Australia. I set up my freelance business and just gave it a go. I was fortunate to work at 8 different companies. From Design agency’s to big corporates. I had the best time. In between projects I explored the country.

I also gained a new skill as a professional spider catcher.

I speak Spanish
I have a big love for learning new languages. And somehow I gained a lot of new Spanish speaking friends in Australia and back in The Netherlands. One of my friends is a Spanish teacher so 1,5 years ago I decided to start with private Spanish classes. I am not fluent yet but I will continue until I am. Hablas español?

I got stuck in New Zealand because of the pandemic
After 2 years in Australia my visa came to an end and it was the moment I had to decide if I should go back home to The Netherlands or go to a different country to live and work. I figured I would go to New Zealand. This was a totally random decision. I started working on a project for the NZ government and two weeks in the country the prime minister announced that because of the covid cases she wanted to shut down the borders. I had the chance to take a plane back home but I didn’t. New Zealand had the worst safety rules. We were barely allowed to go outside or move around. Eventually when the restrictions got lifted I decided to travel around the country until there was a flight back home again. It was the weirdest experience to travel in a country with barely any tourists.

I have a big obsession for diving
I dived in Fiji, Indonesia and Australia. My craziest dive so far was in Fiji where I did a shark dive with bull sharks and tigers sharks. I may have petted a bull shark when one passed by.

I lived in Corfu, Greece for 7 months after my studies. Mostly to avoid starting my first real adult job.
I worked in bars and nightclubs for a summer long after graduating from my studies. Even worked as a volunteer at an animal farm of an old lady. I was mostly cleaning up horse shit but I did everything to not start out with my first grown up job as a Designer. I even tried to learn Greek.