Appstrakt: Creative with technology

Project Showcase

A selection of our finest work.

Our Homegrown Products

We love building our own products.
They boost our skills and help us to stay on top of things.

Appmiral

Appstrakt developed the Appmiral's native framework for multiple mobile operating systems. The framework is currently being used to develop custom native multi-platform mobile event applications.

Product website:
> www.appmiral.com

MijnTVgids

mijnTVgids is a popular multi-platform digital TV guide that gives TV viewers access to detailed program information. Currently available for users in Belgium and The Netherlands, however other countries will be added soon.

Product website:
> mijntvgids.appstrakt.be

Publisher

The backbone of almost all products developed at Appstrakt. A solid and high-performant, yet flexible content management system, custom fit for your every need. Publisher is not just a CMS, we consider it part of our company's USP. Our clients love it and of course so do we.

Latest News

 
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Come kick some ass with us!

General, Jobs 24/04/12 08h:52

The past 2 years have been a crazy roller coaster ride for the boys and girls [AT1] at Appstrakt, a subsidiary of COMMON Companies. Since they started at the end of 2009, the Antwerp based company established a staggering growth in both client base and revenue. Thanks to their multidisciplinary character and thorough understanding of today’s technologies, Appstrakt has managed to become a reference in the Belgian and European development scene in only a short space of time.

More in particular, Appstrakt has become a renowned developer of applications for mobile devices, web applications and complete back-end systems. Whether it concerns software running on your mobile, desktop or your gaming console, Appstrakt can build anything that needs to run on a digital device.

Appstrakt has evolved from a small development agency to a reliable, well-structured development partner. They work with local parties such as: Belgacom, Duval-Guillaume, Live Nation and have established relationships with internationally-active clients such as: KPN Group, Nokia, Boston Scientific, Harper Collins and Spotify. The young company has grown into a trusted specialist for assisting these clients in the development and maintenance of products that integrate seamlessly with their existing infrastructures. Moreover, they have also developed several products of their own.

After a few months of consolidation, optimizing the work-flow and strengthening the positioning of their services and company structure, Appstrakt is yet again ready for the next chapter.  

Appstrakt is glad to announce several job openings to back up the existing team and to support the future growth of the company.

Are you an Objective-C / Java / C# / C++ / PHP developer or are you interested in managing entire development processes as a project manager? Check out the current job openings on www.appstrakt.be.

Join the Appstrakt team and work in a stimulating environment with other COMMON Companies such as Cowboys & Indians, Appmiral and other interesting tech start-ups.

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Scott MacVicar: Scaling your development team

General 06/03/12 10h:44

In this episode of PHP NW on Blip.tv, Scott MacVicar talks about pushing code to +500 million people 5 times a week.

10 people working on a single code base can be considered high, but what about 600 people? At Facebook, code is pushed 5 times a week to over 500 million people. The small amount of downtime is due to the practices of our engineering team and the process used to do a release. Scott’s talk is going to cover everything that goes into the development of a feature at Facebook and how that code is pushed. He will try to cover as much as possible about the underlying technology stack and the open source software they use and release to make it all happen.
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Alfa Romeo Crash Proof Folder protects your files against a fatal computer crash

Desktop, Work 11/01/12 12h:25

Together with Duval Guillaume we created a desktop app (OS X and Windows) that integrates with your existing Dropbox account.

In 2011 the Alfa Romeo MiTo and Giulietta achieved both 5 stars on the Euro Safety Test. This maximum score of 5 stars makes them the safest cars in their class.Instead of making a temporary campaign about this achievement, we decided to develop something more permanent and useful: the Alfa Romeo Crash Proof Folder. A free desktop application that protects all your digital files against a computer crash. Forever. So when you have a fatal computer crash, you just have to reinstall the crash poof folder on your new system and all your protected files will be visible again. From now on you’re not only protected against a car crash, but also against a computer crash.

Download at www.crashprooffolder.be

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Lorem Ipsum Take-Over

Desktop, Work 13/12/11 14h:09

The Lorem Ipsum Take-Over app is a taskbar application for OS X. We developed the app together for our friends at Duval Guillaume.

As the year-end holidays approach, the ACC (the Belgian Association of Communication Companies) is launching a new initiative to support the profession. Following last year’s Virtual Strike, this year the ACC decided on a positive incentive called the ‘Lorem Ipsum Take-Over’, an idea that we developed for them.

Via the ‘Lorem Ipsum Take-Over’ tool, the ACC is seeking to continually remind both advertisers and advertising agencies that the best guarantee of excellent work is still a sustainable, long-term professional relationship. The ACC is striving to send a strong positive signal to advertisers that a pitch is not always the ideal way to draw the best from the agencies.

The ACC itself is not so much launching a campaign with the ‘Lorem Ipsum Take-Over’, but rather a long-term approach. The free, downloadable tool automatically replaces all Lorem Ipsum dummy texts with an ACC text that reminds advertisers of the importance of long-lasting professional relations.

In total 43 agencies are participating in the ACC’s Lorem Ipsum Take-Over. Find the tool (and more information) at www.accbelgium.be/loremipsum

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KPN & Appstrakt launch the Base Check mobile application.

Mobile, Work 29/11/11 12h:15

After going through an intensive selection procedure, KPN group assigned Appstrakt to handle the development of their Base Check mobile application.

We took care of all development: Back-end, user registration and validation processes, content management, ... and of course the development of the application for iOS, Android and Blackberry.

Check out the video above if you want to have a glance at the end result and know what the app is capable of.

Download the mobile application

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More News

  • Come kick some ass with us! 24/04
  • Scott MacVicar: Scaling your development team 06/03
  • Alfa Romeo Crash Proof Folder protects your files against a fatal computer crash 11/01
  • Lorem Ipsum Take-Over 13/12
  • KPN & Appstrakt launch the Base Check mobile application. 29/11
More news

Let’s introduce ourselves ...

Appstrakt is a small tech company located in Antwerp - Belgium, founded at the end of 2009. Our occupation? Developing software! And nothing else but software, all day long and even nights when needed to. Thanks to an amazing multidisciplinary & complementary team, we are able to develop for practically every platform or operating system. What binds us as a team? We all share a profound interest in technology, everything that has a screen attached to it, playing pool, coffee and scrum.

"Nowadays people tend to refer to software as applications or apps, giving it a more user-centered character. From our point of view, we often refer to them as products, because to make an application work, you need more than just the user-centered part."

We are multidisciplinary.

Appstrakt is a collective of creative and multidisciplinary software engineers developing products with technology. Thanks to a proper orientation towards present and future technologies, we are able to develop for any relevant device or operating system out there.

native
C++ Qt Qt Quick
Obj-c Cocos2D Cocoa
C# Silverlight xna
Java J2ME  
Air    
web
xHTML/CSS    
Javascript jQuery YUI
Actionscript    
server
PHP Symfony CodeIgniter
ASP ASP.NET  

We develop
multi-platform.

We develop software / applications for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. We develop web applications, browser plug-ins and complete back-end systems. We create software to run on your desktop or gaming console. We can even build apps that run on printers. In other words: we can build anything to run on a digital device.

By knowing and understanding every detail of the technologies we work with, we’re able to give clients the opportunity to go deep in functionality and wide in platform compatibility. In cheezy advertising language, they would call it the 360° approach.

We love scrum.

Scrum is the framework we use to manage your project. It's a proven methodology used by many other innovative companies around the world. We didn’t invent it, but we do love it.

While working in scrum, we aim to anticipate and resolve some well-known problems related to software development. But most importantly: scrum makes you, our client, part of the team during the entire process when building your product. A great way of working to make sure you will get the product just like you wanted.

The A-team

When it comes to defining our team, the A definitely stands for Amazing. We know it sounds lame, but that doesn’t make it less true. At Appstrakt, we have a team of strong, creative & competent individuals. Together they form a solid and stable team, ready to take on any challenge.
Thomas Van Sundert

Thomas Van Sundert

Technical Director & Founding Partner
"Thomas started his career as the Microsofty of the company but quickly evolved to our #1 technology evangelist. Thomas makes sure we are always up to date with the latest technologies and embodies the multidisciplinary character of the company. Thomas is also the Scrum Master of the company."
Nick Verbaendert

Nick Verbaendert

Technical Director & Founding Partner
"We know Nick as a notorious wild wild web wizard and he has been on the wanted list of many organisations. (and (un)fortunately not only on the want-to-employ section) However, ... the women who had the chance to meet him like to refer to him as "The Black Beauty". You choose how you’d like to call him. Guess what he prefers. "
Tom Vroemans

Tom Vroemans

Managing Director & Founding Partner
"Tom defines our strategy and is the table-jumper of the company. He does make a lot of noise sometimes and moves through the office like a category F5 twister, but that’s ok. We learned to cope with that. Tom absolutely doesn’t eat onions and - God knows why - he’s even proud of it."
Kevin Verelst

Kevin

Director Interaction Design
"Kevin is responsible for making users feel at home in our developed products, just like he loves feeling at home himself. Kevin loves to come in late but once he gets started, he delivers in no time. He designs so fast that he wears out his Wacom every 6 months. "
Stijn Symons

Stijn

Operations Director
"Stijn is in charge of operations and owns our clients’ products. And by ‘owning’ we do mean the slang interpretation of the verb. Stijn also brings allotta experience to the table. To illustrate: he actually played the Atari 2600 in his childhood! That’s how experienced he is. "
Chiara Marynissen

Chiara

Internal projects & HR
"Chiara takes on the long-term projects that help shaping the company. Besides that, her main occupation is to make sure that everybody is happy working here. Chiara is the trustee of the company. We all want to grow together with the company and Chiara will make sure that will be the case in the present & future. "
Sarah Boonen

Sarah

Management Assistant
"The rock, someone we all can count on for no matter what. She makes the company feel like home. Sarah is in charge of all administration and makes sure our partners and suppliers get payed in time. And boy, does she make sure that it goes the other way around as well. Sarah is the first to arrive at the pub when we go for drinks on Friday."
Bruno De Poorter

Bruno

Product Manager Appmiral
"Bruno thinks the Appmiral apps kick all other applications’ asses. And this has nothing to do with the fact that he is a sore loser. Because he will have to admit that he actually is. Especially when playing FIFA 2012. Nevertheless Bruno is the best Product manager the Appmiral could ever wish for."
Bart Vlaemynck

Bart

Front-end / Designer
"Bart is a real go-getter who’s not afraid of 90 degrees learning curves. If he can’t do it today, he will definitely be able to do so by tomorrow. During the summer time, whenever he is not at the company or at home boosting his skills, you’ll probably find him playing beach volleyball with his friends."
David De Bels

David

Developer
"David mostly develops iOS apps and is really passionate about it. Although he still swears by his Windows Phone. He’s actually a great C# developer too! If we needed to but the amount of passion into perspective, we would say it goes through the roof. We explained numerous times that it’s not necessary to work weekends. We gave up."
yannick-bontemps

Yannick

Developer
"Yannick is our beloved blabbermouth and he knows it. The saying big mouth but small heart fits him perfectly. Throw any party and he’s there, telling all the best jokes. Even if you don’t want him to. He’s quickly become an essential part of the company, making all your iOS wishes come true."
Dusty Saman

Dusty

Developer
"Dusty is rock solid. He comes to work by foot ... wearing nothing but a T-shirt ... at -15°. He is C# ninja and loves his Windows Phone just as much as he loves his girlfriend. Still ‘ninja’ is definitely an understatement. Dusty believes he will soon peak and will have unlocked all the secrets about C# and Windows Phone. To be honest, so do we. "
Kristof Van Daele

Kristof

Developer
"Kristof is the magician of the company. For real! He even went to a circus academy of some kind. Besides spitting fire while juggling six traffic cones at a time, he is a great JAVA developer who mainly develops Android applications. Kristof has a positive attitude which makes him a better developer every day. "
Arne Stockmans

Arne

Developer
"The oracle of the company. Name any programming language, he writes it. Hell, he even speaks it! He knows the answer to all of your questions, even before you asked them. We chained Arne to his desk and took away his passport. He may under no circumstances leave the company. Oracles are rare, you know."
Rien Coertjens

Rien

Developer
"Rien is the quiet one of the company, but that doesn’t make him less present. Rien is a devoted PHP developer who will make sure to compensate the lower level of sound with a much higher level of skills. Rien loves cycling and even wants to become a pro. We share his dream and really hope he will get there someday."
Jeroen Joosen

Jeroen

Developer
"Jeroen organises the company get-togethers and frequent parties. He‘ll also drop an occasional (in)appropriate joke now and then. Jeroen is definitely the funny man of the company. During his spare time, you will find him developing complex back-end systems which may go by the name of: Cobra, broken arrow, .. and are often operating systems on their own."
Geert Wille

Geert

Developer
"Geert is the benjamin of the company. He ’s the type of guy who loves coming in in the morning and disappointed when he has to leave at night. His mind is always occupied with finding new and improved methods to develop. He is an enthusiast and always eager to learn new things. Geert plays professional volleyball in the weekends."
Anna Van Toorn

Anna

Intern Interaction Design
"Anna is a guest at our company. She is from The Netherlands but will be staying in Belgium for the coming months. Let’s see if that has an impact on things? Anna studies Multimedia design at the academy of Rotterdam. During her internship, Anna will be helping us shaping the UI and look & feel of our own products."
Pepijn Hemelaar

Pepijn

Intern Interaction Design
"Pepijn is also from The Netherlands and a guest we’re pleased to have at our company. Pepijn studies Multimedia design at the academy of Rotterdam. During his internship he will be conducting some additional research towards UI conventions and patterns used in the different mobile operating systems."
Seppe Rousseau

Seppe

Intern Developer
"Seppe is currently in his final year studying multimedia at the HOWEST academy of Courtrai and passionate about game development. After a few weeks it became clear that Seppe is not your ordinary intern. Seppe is the Ace Ventura of game development. He develops with the reflexes of a cat and the speed of a mongoose. "

Want to join our ranks?

Do you feel like your interest in technology as big as ours? Do you think you can add even more awe to our awesome and your picture deserves a place up here? Great! Here’s what we have to offer:

We are currently looking for:

  • > Project manager / Product owner
  • > iOS Developer
  • > JAVA / Android Developer
  • > PHP Developer
  • > Freelance talent

Your skill-set not on the list, but convinced that you have the awe we need? Send us an email with everything we need to know about you and let’s have a talk.

Project manager / Product owner

Your profile

As an Appstrakt Project manager you manage projects from < to />. This means you're involved from the presale phase throughout the delivery and aftercare of your projects. You master the planning of the different projects you're responsible for by efficiently allocating all resources. You pilot every team member through the different phases of a project, even when that means having to put illegal substances in their coffee or lunch. That’s how you make sure everything gets done within the agreed timeframe and budget.

Your Skills
  • You have a profound interest in technology.
  • Software development is your second nature, so you speak Developer! Yes, that’s a language around here. Your first nature is probably being a total ctrl freak.
  • You are capable of handling different projects at a time without losing perspective.
  • You are not scared to take initiative.
  • You will get the job done!
  • You manage your team members’ stress levels as well as your own.
  • A fast growing and constantly changing environment is your perfect habitat.
  • Fluently Dutch and English, French is a ‘nice to have’
  • A notion of PHP, C, C++, C#, Java, and so on are bonuses… (not a necessity)
  • Experience with working and managing teams in scrum is a big fat plus.
Our Offer
  • An attractive salary together with some nice perks.
  • Kick-ass projects & clients.
  • Room for self-development.
  • An awesome team to work with.
  • Opportunities to grow together within the COMMON companies aggregation.
Want the job?

Drop us an email at work@appstrakt.be attached with
your CV and hopefully some references.

iOS Developer

Your profile

You come to work wearing a black turtleneck, light jeans and a pair of white sneakers. Mashable, Use Your Loaf and Cocoa Is My Girlfriend claim top spot in your RSS Reader. Apple is your religion, Steve Jobs your messiah. You are fun to work with, filled with enthusiasm, tell the best jokes. You’re an ambitious person and always want to know and learn more.

Your Skills

Objective C, Objective C, Objective C, Objective C, Objective C! Get it? Other languages are definitely a bonus and so is the knowledge of complementary frameworks (eg. COCOS 2D). Working experience is not a necessity, but you better be good!

Our Offer

A cosy spot in our development squad along with other skilled dev heads, a great learning experience and of course lots of gold bricks to stack in your bedroom closet.

Join the Appstrakt team and work in a stimulating environment with other COMMON Companies such as Cowboys & Indians, Appmiral and other interesting tech start-ups.

Want the job?

Drop us an email at work@appstrakt.be attached with
your CV and hopefully some references.

JAVA / Android Developer

Your profile

You have a profound interest in technology, consider yourself a geek and proud of it. You have the Android drone stickered to the back of your laptop and every time you have dinner at a restaurant, you order ice cream sandwich for dessert. Your first Android device was an HTC and you removed the Sense layer even before you unpacked the battery charger. You are fun to work with, filled with enthusiasm, tell the best jokes and always want to know and learn more.

Your Skills

JAVA has no secrets for you. And we don’t just mean the Indonesian islands group or composition of a coffee brand with the same name. Unlocked the secrets of other programming languages too? That’s definitely a bonus and so is the knowledge of complementary frameworks (eg. J2ME). Working experience is not a necessity, but you better be good!

Our Offer

A cosy spot in our development squad along with other skilled dev heads, a great learning experience and of course lots of gold bricks to stack in your bedroom closet.

Join the Appstrakt team and work in a stimulating environment with other COMMON Companies such as Cowboys & Indians, Appmiral and other interesting tech start-ups.

Want the job?

Drop us an email at work@appstrakt.be attached with
your CV and hopefully some references.

PHP Developer

Your profile

You started developing websites at the age of 12, of course using tables and plain HTML. Later on you discovered CSS, Javascript and PHP and you’ve been BFF ever since. Now that every bakery, butcher and hairdresser in the neighbourhood have their own website, you are ready to take it up a notch. You are ready to start taking on the big projects now. We’re talking about hard-core web-applications, complex back-end systems, the real deal! Hello world feels like a very distant memory now...

Your Skills

You are a skilled PHP developer and have knowledge of complementary frameworks such as Symfony and CodeIgniter. Experience with working in scrum and Git is a bonus.

Our Offer

A cosy spot in our development squad along with other skilled dev heads, a great learning experience and of course lots of gold bricks to stack in your bedroom closet.

Join the Appstrakt team and work in a stimulating environment with other COMMON Companies such as Cowboys & Indians, Appmiral and other interesting tech start-ups.

Want the job?

Drop us an email at work@appstrakt.be attached with
your CV and hopefully some references.

Freelance talent

Your profile

You have a profound interest in technology, consider yourself a geek and proud of it. Your a a skilled and multidisciplinary developer, nevertheless there will always be that one language you share that special bond with. The two of you combined equals fireworks, equals kicking ass like a ninja. You are a freelance developer during daytime. And apart from occasionally grabbing-a-beer-with-your-friends or doing-an-all-nighter-with-the-latest-shooter-in-your-PS3-or-Xbox, you are a freelance developer at night.

Your Skills

You are skilled in one or more of the following programming languages: Objective-C, C#, C++, JAVA (Android) and / or PHP, combined with knowledge of complementary frameworks such as: Cocoa, Cocos2D, Silverlight, xna, J2ME, Qt, Qt Quick, jQuery, Symfony, … Experience with working in scrum and Git is a bonus.

Our Demands

You like working on a project basis and are able and willing to commit yourself to an entire project. You have no problem working at our offices. But why should you, our offices are awesome. And it may sound cliché, but you are a team player. We value that a lot around here.

Our Offer

Let's have coffee first

Want the job?

Drop us an email at work@appstrakt.be attached with
your CV and hopefully some references.

Here are some of the awesome clients
we had the privilege to work with

We hope you had fun going through our website and are pleased by the way we work and what we have done so far.

Are you somehow intrigued, would you like to know even more about us or just want to get in touch? Please do so. You‘re more than welcome!
Below you can find all information on how to contact us.

Want to keep up with our adventures?
You can do so by following us on

A COMMON COMPANY

COMMON is an aggregation of innovative businesses, driven by creativity, a thorough understanding of technology, and a sh*tload of COMMON sense.

COMMON Companies

Appstrakt

Dendermondestraat 44
2018 Antwerpen
België

+32 3 500 92 21
hello@appstrakt.be