Hey guys, welcome to a freaky trip through the jungles of my jerky English. I'm Max Schirmer and I came to this world on March 31st in 1984. My Mum told me again and again and again that it was quite cold that day and that there was snow and blabla... never mind.
Well, some would say that my love for my G4 and Apple at all is a bit strange and far from reality. But you should know the background. I had first contact with an Apple Classic back in 1994 or 1995. I started to spend some time with that Mac and tried to handle all those neat programs. Some years later I had my own Mac, it was an LC II. I learned QuarkXPress on that machine. Believe it. After doing some lousy design experiments (I did my own newspaper etc.), I started using the Mac for games and did not touch any graphic tools again. Some day I got to know this wonderful tool named I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T... it didn't take mouch time 'til I wanted to design my first homepage. Looking back it looked like crap, I did everything wrong that could be done wrong, but... I had my very own homepage! My Dad gave me the chance to learn PhotoShop on his Quadra 700, what allowed me to start the first typographic work, my first compositions and so on...
I think you get the idea how I found my way to Web- and Graphic Design. I just finished school, the final exams are in some weeks and I want to study visual communication/communication design afterwards.
I got to know Martin on the Macnews message board, I liked his AppleScript work and decided to help him present his tools on the web. A real page just looks better than the FileSharing layout on the iDisk. So I did some sketches for the Soft-O-Mat homepage and the logo typo. Martin was quite excited and I started designing the page. It took me about a week (working at night...) and the Soft-O-Mat corporation is now proud owner of a cool and fresh homepage.
I guess you'd like to know some more things about me. Well next to Macs, music plays quite an important role in my life.
Right now I'm into Alternative Rock/Crossover and Independent, but Punk Rock thrills me, too. Bands like KoRn, Slipknot, Orgy, Mudvayne, Static-X, Millencolin, Green Day or New Found Glory are my favourites at the moment. It's more than crying, drums and guitars, believe me. Apple supports me again in this case by designing the coolest add-on I ever could imagine, the iPod... I just love this cool device (my one is named Marvin, like the depressive robot in Douglas Adams' novel "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy").
I would say I'm addicted to music. At least as much addicted as I am addicted to Döner Kebap and the Döner Kebap sessions with my buddy Brati.
The Döner Kebap in the left hand, Henninger beer on the right, Blink182 rocking the room through my stereo - that's a Döner session as we like it.
Such a session would not be complete without a basketball match afterwards...

Wanna know more about the graphic monkey? Just drop me a line, I will try to help you understand me...

Click here to read about Martin.

All Soft-O-Mat tools: © Martin Michel. The Soft-O-Mat HP: © Max Schirmer.