About Me
Scientific visual communicator & Teacher
As a visual communicator, I have a deep passion for both design and nature. My academic background includes a BSc in Plant Sciences and two MSc degrees in Landscape Architecture, Floriculture, and Garden Design. After my studies, I shifted my focus to graphic design and founded my own studio, AgileColor.com, in 2012.
info@agilecolor.com
A Blend of Science and Design
I specialize in working with PhD students, helping them design their thesis books and create compelling scientific artwork. As a scientist myself, I understand the unique challenges students face and work closely with them to balance scientific content with effective visual communication.
Since 2015, I’ve had the pleasure of teaching courses in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Infographic Design at universities like Wageningen and Utrecht. My teaching work has since expanded to more universities and institutes, and I also offer guest lectures, training sessions, and workshops.
In 2019, I became a Certified Adobe Instructor and a registered teacher in the Netherlands. I am passionate about using my skills to empower others in the design world.
A Foundation in Art: Color and Composition
For over 30 years, I’ve poured my passion for painting into my design work. This artistic background has honed my eye for color and composition, allowing me to infuse my creations with emotion and depth. This unique blend of artistic flair and scientific understanding is at the heart of my teaching. I weave these principles into my courses, giving students the practical skills they need to use color effectively and achieve stunning visual balance in their work.
When I’m not teaching or designing, I’m enjoying life in Koedijk, Alkmaar, with my husband, three children, and our lively animal kingdom of a dog, birds, fishes, and a Madagascar’s gecko.
infographics
books
institutes
What My Clients Says
The work of Iliana was simply great. She paid a great deal of attention to details and she was very fast in transforming broad ideas about the cover and layout into concrete and beautiful examples. Her knowledge of the thesis printing process made this final stage extremely easy. I cannot thank her enough.
Antonio Castellanos
Iliana did wonderful job on my thesis cover and layout on such short notice! Her help made the last phase of my PhD life much easier! Her design is just simply fantastic! I enjoyed very much working with her – a creative, patient and professional designer!
Xuan Xu
After some discussion on the subject of my thesis and pictures on what style I liked, Iliana presented a first draft, which almost exactly matched to what I had envisioned. Suggestions were quickly incorporated and the whole process was efficient, very enjoyable and I’m very happy with the end result!
Gerben Hermes
The process of working with Iliana was great. Whilst involving me in every step of the process, she was able to transform abstract ideas and concepts into a wonderful and colorful design.
Joyce Browne
It was a great pleasure to work together with Iliana. She understood immediately what kind of cover I had in mind, and the first draft was already nearly perfect. She works in a very transparent and flexible way. In the last stretch of my PhD it was a relief to have her by my side, designing my cover and preparing the lay-out. On top of her creative and professional skills, she is also a very pleasant person to work with.
Louise den Uijl
Afgelopen vrijdag heb ik het geprinte proefschrift opgehaald bij GVO en ben ik begonnen met het uitdelen ervan aan mijn begeleiders en collega’s. Ik krijg al veel leuke feedback op de omslag en de layout. Bedankt voor alle moeite, ik ben er erg tevreden mee.
Chris Wijner
It was a pleasure to work with Iliana. She is careful, patient, attentive, creative, responsive, communicative, curious, and a complete joy to work with. I found her website by accident, and am so lucky I did! I had some ideas about the layout of my book, but no ideas about the cover. She listened, asked good questions, and came up with beautifully designed book. I’ve received so many complements on her work. I would love to write another book just so I could work with her again.
Kashmiri Stec
Iliana helped me with the design of my PhD book cover and also checked my layout (actually helped me a lot). I’m very satisfied with the end result, my book looks amazing :). She is a great designer, full of awesome ideas and very easy going person. Communication was fast and efficient, it’s a pleasure to work with her. She listens carefully to what you want and turns it into a beautiful peace of art!!! She has experience not only with design but also with printing books and knows all the details about making the best looking PhD thesis. I would definitely recommend her design studio to anyone!
Tatyana Radoeva
I came to Iliana without any clear picture of my thesis cover. She helped me find out what I like by asking questions. Iliana is an experienced and professional designer who always takes time to dig out what you want, and make it better than expected. I am very happy to have her helping me with my thesis design while I am so busy with preparing defense, publishing my work. She takes a lot of responsibility and always give valuable suggestions for the design, she also has good contact with printers. In the end, I had a beautifully designed thesis book at hand, with heavy work from Iliana. I would definitely recommend Iliana to my PhD colleagues.
Yehua Li
Iliana did both the cover design and the layout of my thesis and I am very satisfied with the results. I came to Iliana with no clue of what to do for the cover of my PhD thesis, and after a brief and simple explanation of what I did during my research, she came up with a great concept for the cover design. She is very responsive, efficient and it is a pleasure to have worked with her. I definitely recommend her design studio!
Irene Alvarado Quesada
Iliana is a great teacher, very inspiring and capable of teaching you the skills you need for your own purpose in just a few days. I had a grafic design course for visualizing scientific data and in these 3 days I even learnt so much more from Iliana. While transferring basic knowledge about data design, Iliana manages well to keep her students excited about illustrating by providing fun excercises and creating a nice atmosphere. We all still benefit from that course and enjoy daily illustrating. Thank you Iliana.
Susanne Geisen
Iliana heeft zowel het ontwerpen van de omslag van mijn proefschrift (inclusief uitnodiging, stellingen en titelpagina’s) als het verzorgen van de lay-out van het binnenwerk voor haar rekening genomen. Hoewel ik dat laatste graag zelf had gedaan, heb ik er zeker geen spijt van dat ik dit alsnog uit handen heb gegeven. Ik ben erg blij met het eindresultaat!”
Jannette van Beek
Iliana did the layout of my thesis, and helped me with finalising the cover. She has been very professional, and very promptly, even working night hours when we were getting close to the deadline. I’m sure if I had to do all the layout myself it would have taken me many more hours and a lot of frustration, and the final result would have looked way less nice. So to me, this was definitely worth the investment.
Ingrid van de Leemput
Getting my cover designed by Iliana was one of my best decisions during my thesis writing period. She handled the design very professionally and I experienced the process very customer friendly. It was a joy to finally hand out my thesis to my colleagues who all lowed the cover-design.
Jorin Hoogenboom
I came to Iliana without any clear picture of my thesis cover. She helped me find out what I like by asking questions. Iliana is an experienced and professional designer who always takes time to dig out what you want, and make it better than expected. I am very happy to have her helping me with my thesis design while I am so busy with preparing defense, publishing my work. She takes a lot of responsibility and always give valuable suggestions for the design, she also has good contact with printers. In the end, I had a beautifully designed thesis book at hand, with heavy work from Iliana. I would definitely recommend Iliana to my PhD colleagues.
Yehua Li
I took a course given by Iliana during my PhD, and what I learned helped me with formatting my own thesis, and I’m using many of the skills in my daily activities now! I can highly recommend her courses, very inspiring!
Katharina Hanika
Iliana guided us through the unpredictable process of creating a new visual identity. Her creativity and talent were highly appreciated in our team, and her reactivity and quick response times made for a smooth collaboration. It was a pleasure working with Agilecolor!
Tulipan Zollinger
Although the topic was relatively different from her previous work, Iliana was not afraid of the challenge and tackled it superbly! Initial ideas were combined and worked out into an awesome cover! I am delighted with the outcome but also with the communication that we had during the process, Iliana’s response to comments and further development of suggestions. Keep up the great work!
Slavisa Jovic
One of the best choices I made near the end of my PhD adventure, was asking a skilled expert like Iliana to take care of the cover and layout of my PhD thesis. She did it very quickly and meticulously at the same time, based on my preferences and requests, resulting in a thesis that looks appealing and professional and with which I’m very happy!
Canan Ziylan
Working with Iliana was wonderful. I really liked the design she made for my cover and for the layout of my thesis. Communication with her was super easy and although I changed my mind several times, she listened to me with patience and professionalism. She pays a lot of attention to small details and for sure the best was to have everything done so nicely and quickly. Thanks again!
Mayra Alejandra Diosa Toro
As being a person with very limited graphical skills, I decided to ask a graphical designer to help me in designing the cover of my PhD thesis. From the first meeting onwards, Iliana understood immediately how I wanted my cover to look like. It only took us 2 versions to get to the final cover. I would strongly recommend her work to others, not only for her creativity and skills but also for her transparent communication and hands-on mentality.
Ilse Remmers
What I appreciate the most about working with Iliana, is how efficient, easygoing and smooth our communication was. Paired with her skills this led to a brilliant execution. There was no need to say anything twice, all of my ideas were incorporated and further improved by her creativity. A great book cover helps you tell the story, and when the topic is abstract then that is a tough task, but Iliana delivered. She went the extra mile, even past the last-minute changes, just to make sure everything was as it should be. I believe there is no cutting corners in her work and I highly recommend her. The whole process was fast, enjoyable and stress-free, exactly what a PhD candidate needs in the last weeks before their defense!
Zeljka Madzarevic
Working with Iliana was an absolute pleasure. With her professionalism and attention to detail, the thesis delivery process went incredibly smooth. Iliana is extremely efficient as my suggestions/ideas were quickly adapted to my liking. This resulted in the design of a thesis cover and layout turning out better than I could have ever imagined it! Thank you lliana for such an enjoyable experience!
Steph van de Wall
When I got into contact with Iliana, I was quite lost about how to translate the idea in my head to a nice and appropriate cover for my dissertation. The first skype contact with her calmed me down, as she tackled the task very professionally and listened to me. She was clear about the expectations and agreement, which was very reassuring. Iliana was able to hit my taste and come up with a first draft that only needed minor changes to become the final version. Even for the many small changes to make it perfect she did not get tired of applying my suggestions, and I am thankful for the great communication about the different versions. A designers mind can be quite different from a researchers mind, but we solved the misconceptions before they became hampering. Also, Iliana went out of her way to fit my timeline, which I appreciated very much. I can only recommend Iliana as a kind person and able designer, that somehow manages to produce exactly what you want.
Ida Nissen
Being a person with limited graphic creativity and without knowledge on design packages, I found Iliana’s help invaluable. Also very important was that she helped me to keep track of the deadlines. Iliana did a wonderful job designing the cover and the layout of my thesis. I love my book! I highly recommend her services to anybody in their last phase of the PhD, when time is limited and deadlines have to be met.
Daylan Tzompa Sosa
Working with Iliana was an absolute pleasure. With her professionalism and attention to detail, the thesis delivery process went incredibly smooth. Iliana is extremely efficient as my suggestions/ideas were quickly adapted to my liking. This resulted in the design of a thesis cover and layout turning out better than I could have ever imagined it! Thank you lliana for such an enjoyable experience!
Suzanne Geisen
I was a student of Iliana for the University Utrecht course on Adobe InDesign Essential training. Iliana is a very enthusiastic teacher with a lot of energy, and at the same time is very patient as well. Because of her course I was able to completely design my own thesis. I absolutely could not have done that without her teaching!
Denise van Hout
I have been working with Iliana for many years now and always with full satisfaction. The desktop publishing work she does for us (Niacet b.v., Tiel, NL) is of high quality and the response times are super short. This is very important to us since new commercial documentation and brochures always seem to be needed asap.
Henk Jan van Lent
I was a student of Iliana in her Photshop and InDesign courses and later worked with her to design my thesis cover and layout. She’s a very energetic and committed teacher, and her courses really helped me to make a start in using design programs. For my PhD thesis she was incredibly patient, responsive and accommodated to my ideas and requests. It was a pleasure to work with her!
Amalia Diaz Granados
Iliana is a creative designer, who designed the cover and layout for my PhD thesis. She is trustworthy and reacts to comments/ changes very fast.
Kristin Mouron-Hennig
Iliana is a very social and professional person. While member of the Graduate School of Experimental Plant Sciences we asked her to design posters for several events organized by the Council and we always received inspiring design solutions. She provided creative, colorful and affordable solutions according to our needs. I would definitely recommend Iliana for her designing skills.
Julio Maia
I worked together with Iliana for the development of the company’s corporate folder. I was extremely pleased with the creativity she showed as well as the personalized service and time that she gave to the project. Iliana is easy going and nice to work with, she is able to combine the commercial ideas with her own, making her able to obtain great results.
Sebastian Sanchez Gerritsen
llliana Gkini is able to deal with challenges that are new to her and necessary to a good result. She has a determinacy that is healthy and empowering and is able to present her work excellent
Paul Roncken
