Maikel van der Wouden

Maikel van der Wouden

Maikel van der Wouden

I'm A Design Engineer & Audio Innovation Expert.

I’m a highly passionate audiophile with a lot of experience developing custom synthetic voices, voice branding strategies and other audio assets for prestigious clients, including fortune 500 companies, across various industries. I excel at converting creative energy into practical, result-driven, and delivery-orientated design that meets the needs of people.

Twitter Linkedin

Interest

Craft and Experience

Craft

  • I’ve designed a methodology that enables me and my team to create superior voices for brands, services and products. The methodology demonstrates the value of a structured, transparant and data-driven approach to achieving goals.
  • I’ve helped companies and organizations around the world to answer a simple but powerful question: What does your brand sound like? How do you exploit the power of your brand voice and the act of speaking?

  • I designed a methodology to produce superior speech data cost-effectively which is needed to train voice models to create a text-to-speech voice.

  • Most companies have extensive guidelines for their visual Brand identity, but when it comes to sound… They realize it’s important but haven’t figured out how to deal with it. That’s where I come in: I design what people hear. 

Experience

  • Current: Ask me about synthetic voices – Design engineer at VoiceBranding, an agency that specializes in designing brand voices, servicing clients across the world. Co-founder at Whoozy.agency
  • I developed a custom text-to-speech voice that optimizes and automates a user experience for a prestigious fortune 500.
  • I designed a Voice Brand strategy that delivers on the brand promise and adds to a positive user experience for a prestigious fortune 500.
  • I’ve designed the audio branding for a health care company from the UK valued at more than $2 billion.
  • I’ve designed the UX sounds and audio branding strategy for the most popular Dutch app used behind the wheel by more than 2M users per day.
  • I’ve designed a unique voice brand for the biggest insurance company in the Netherlands.
  • I recently gave a 3-hour workshops for more than 80 people in NYC.
  • I designed sound and music for a documentary that premiered at Tribeca Film festival. It was nominated for a “Gouden Kalf” (Dutch Oscars).
  • I’ve designed the sound of sustainability for the third biggest bank in the Netherlands.
  • Other clients include McDonald’s, PepsiCo,  KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Patagonia. 
  • Ask me for more…

Contact

Send an email to mail@maikelvanderwouden.com to get in touch.

Yes, I do! I work on presentations about subjects I’m interested in all the time. Before the pandemic, I spoke a lot. During the pandemic, I also presented a lot online. For more information, send me an email at mail@maikelvanderwouden.com

I do. Workshops are a great way to teach participants about the power of sound. I often get designers interested in learning more about sound to capitalize on the emergent opportunity now and prepare for the future. I have experience with small groups and larger groups (100 people). I also enjoy design sprints and brainstorming sessions.

Yes, of course. I speak English and Dutch. For podcasts, I can record my audio remotely. For more information, please send me an email at mail@maikelvanderwouden.com

Please reach out to me via email (mail@maikelvanderwouden.com). I will follow up and send you a link you can use to schedule a 15 min one-on-one.