about
Hi, I'm Pep Zuijderwijk (Zow-der-vake)
I’m a strategic brand & digital design director, specialised in bringing SaaS brands to life. I work with forward thinking people and organisations who challenge the status quo and care about doing it right. They understand that as well as a strong purpose and great culture, they need original creative thinking and insight-driven design to succeed. That’s where I come in.
I’ve got over 2 decades of experience as a creative director and lead designer in Amsterdam, London and Wellington, working for well-known global brands as well as young and ambitious local ones. I’ve built a reputation for delivering distinctive and effective creative work that gets noticed by both clients and their customers. I’ve collected a decent amount of awards along the way and have been invited on numerous design judging panels.
Increasingly my focus is shifting to impact-driven SaaS companies, an exciting growth area for NZ, where I’ve gained deep knowledge and experience over the years. As a virtual Creative Director / Design Lead I work collaboratively with founders and their teams to translate their purpose, culture and point of difference into a strong, unique brand expression that carries through the full spectrum of digital touch points. These range from the user experience of the product to the social marketing channels, and everything in between. Depending on your internal resources, I can provide your team with brand guidelines, UX/UI design systems, brand assets & templates, but also with mentoring and coaching.
With one foot in digital and the other in brand I occupy that sweet spot between understanding the possibilities of technology and the emotional power of storytelling. I’ve got an endless appetite for solving hard problems, a generous amount of empathy and a pinch of salty goodness to bring to your project.
Have a project you could use some help with?
Get in touch.
Happy clients
Finlay Thompson
CEO of Dragonfly Data Science
"Pep has worked with Dragonfly Data Science since 2010 and is now our virtual Design Director. He provides ongoing strategic design for the Dragonfly brand and leads the design work for our client projects.
Pep has made a critical contribution to our growth and development as a globally recognised data science company. His skills ensure the innovative data science we do is presented beautifully to maximise client and customer engagement. From brand communication to user-experience design, Pep’s work consistently turns our outputs into elegant, intuitive and highly polished tools, applications and publications. This sets us apart from most other data science companies.
I rely on Pep’s expertise and advice to keep us at the forefront of user-centric design. He has a natural curiosity, an eye for detail and for the big picture, and is a pleasure to work with. I trust Pep will continue to support our business with his design leadership, Dutch humour and salty snacks."
Amy Sheppard
Then Director of Experience Design & Product Management for Deloitte Australia
"Pep is one of the best creative directors and designers I have worked with in my 15 years. He is diligent with the process to ensure he has all the info he needs before proceeding. He delivers outcomes that are well crafted, on brief, and on time.
He is smart, fun and detail-oriented and cares very much about the end result. He listens and responds to feedback and is always open
to approaching something in a new and different way."
Richard Shirtcliffe
Co-Founder & CEO of WildClean
"I've had the pleasure of working with Pep/Salted Herring on multiple occasions, most recently in bringing alive WildClean.com. Over 30 years of building brands I've never encountered any creative director even remotely as adept as Pep.
He has a truly unique combination of skills and characteristics, which enable him to rapidly understand a brand's mission; to align with the values; to collaboratively ideate; and rapidly bring a brand to life digitally.
He bestrides brand strategy, creative direction, extraordinary capability on the tools, a laser sharp intellect, and an absolutely delightful manner, all of which mean he slots effortlessly into a team. Secure him while you can!!"
Vicky Pope
Producer and Co-founder of Wild Eyes
"Pep was the Creative Director of wildeyes.co.nz a new website for kiwi kids using screens....to get kids offscreen, outside and engaged in nature.
As the lead designer Pep was responsible for developing a brand identity for NZ children that not only resonated locally, but also positioned the site to compete with the myriad of international digital content fighting online for kiwi kids’ attention. The brand he delivered was well researched, fresh and frankly... very cool.
In 2017 we took out a Silver Award at the Best Design awards for the site. I would highly recommend Pep to anyone looking for an incredible creative head and design lead for their project."