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Front-end Developer - Wordpress specialist

Sam van den Houten

Custom WordPress developer with a passion for polished front-end experiences and exceptional user experiences.

01 · About

About

I design and develop bespoke WordPress websites and custom themes with a strong focus on performance, usability, and considered design. Every interface is treated as a craft, balancing technical precision with meticulous attention to detail. This approach has naturally evolved into custom plugin development, allowing me to build tailored solutions that extend WordPress beyond its defaults and deliver exactly what each project requires.

02 · Toolkit

Toolkit

Custom themes Custom plugins PHP GSAP Javascript ACF Github Bitbucket Figma AI Powered tools

Themes

Hand-built WordPress themes from design files. no bloated builders, just clean templates and flexible elements.

Plugins

Custom functionality built to spec: admin tooling, custom post types, integrations and small focused plugins.

Motion

GSAP-driven interactions and scroll storytelling, tuned to stay smooth on modest hardware.

SEO

Crafted to be discovered: semantic markup, technical SEO foundations and content structures that help search engines understand your site.

Performance

Built with speed in mind: optimized assets, lean code and efficient loading strategies to keep sites fast on every device.

03 · Selected work

Selected work

Case studies are currently in the oven — here’s a preview of what’s coming.

04 · Experience

Experience

Not actively job-hunting, here’s the path that got me here.

2018 - Now

Cherry Marketing - Front-end Developer

Building and maintaining custom WordPress themes and plugins for client projects, from first pixel to production deploy, as part of the WordPress team.

  • WordPress
  • PHP
  • ACF
  • JavaScript

2017

Bureau Feith - Front-end Developer Intern

Started as an intern on the front-end team. The agency was later acquired and rebranded as Cherry Marketing.

  • WordPress
  • PHP
  • ACF
  • WP Bakery

2016

Zinnenprikkelend - Front-end Developer & Graphic Design Intern

Split time between front-end builds and graphic design and e-book work for client projects.

  • HTML/CSS
  • PHP
  • Wordpress
  • Graphic Design
  • E-book design and production

2015

E-Force ICT - Front-end Developer Intern

First internship, building front-end templates on Umbraco.

  • Umbraco
  • HTML/CSS

2014 - 2018

ROC Midden Nederland - MBO-4, Interactive Design

Vocational study in interactive design, the foundation that led into the front-end internships above.

  • Interactive Design
  • UX/UI Basics
  • Front-end Fundamentals
  • Graphic design
  • Webdevelopment
05 · Contact

Contact

LET'S BUILD
SOMETHING GOOD.

Not currently available for new roles, freelance, or independent work - but always happy to talk shop.

Accessibility

This site is built to be accessibility-proof: semantic markup, full keyboard navigation, and AA-contrast text throughout. It respects your system preferences by disabling animations when prefers-reduced-motion is enabled and reducing transparency effects when transparency is turned off in your operating system or browser