Contents
- Who is Skylark Productions?
- Where is Skylark Productions?
- What does Skylark Productions do?
- Why choose Skylark Productions?
- Who is Markus Baumann? (Let’s get personal…)
Who is Skylark Productions?
Skylark Productions is a sole proprietorship, established in 2001, owned and operated by Markus Baumann.
Where is Skylark Productions?
My office is in Roto Street, Tahunanui, Nelson, New Zealand. A few times a year I temporarily relocate to my other office, called “New Zealand wilderness”, the source of my stock photos.
What does Skylark Productions do?
The majority of my business involves graphic design, mainly in the sense of digital prepress. Another significant part of my business is stock photography, predominantly made up of New Zealand nature, wilderness and landscape scenes. In addition, I am the producer and publisher of my Abel Tasman National Park Photo Disc.
Why choose Skylark Productions?
I endeavour to always do my best, to deliver high-quality work, on time and at competitive rates. With any job or project, my approach is customer-focused; my intention is to deliver a product or service that works for you. My clients’ satisfaction is my priority. To see what my clients say, please refer to the testimonials.
Who is Markus Baumann? (Let’s get personal…)
English language qualifications
University of Cambridge, Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), Passed Grade A (Very Good)
Trinity College London, Examinations in Spoken English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Passed Grade 11 (Proficiency) with Honours
Born and raised in Switzerland, my first language is Swiss German, followed by German, French and some Italian. English is my fifth language which I extensively studied and am proficient in (see insert).
In my working life I gained insights in a variety of industries including railways, plastics (polymers), toys & games, precision testing machines, and pipfruit. Most positions I held had a creative aspect—“making things”—which made my work interesting. For example, I worked for a Swiss company that manufactures high-precision testing machines which are exported worldwide (including to New Zealand). My job was to learn how the machines worked, and based on that, write and illustrate instruction manuals in English, French and German.
Through my jobs I became more and more involved with desktop publishing and had the opportunity to work with software such as Aldus® PageMaker® (now Adobe® InDesign®), AutoCAD® and CorelDRAW®. Rather quickly I became fond of these tools that assisted me with design and my creative flair.
On my first visit to New Zealand, in 1988, I immediately fell in love with the country, the Kiwis, the New Zealand way of life, the magnificent landscapes and the remote and seemingly untouched wild places. In 1997 I realised my dream and moved Down Under for good. Since then, Nelson, one of New Zealand’s sunniest places, has been my home.
Surrounded by three national parks and one forest park, Nelson is a tramper’s paradise. Tramping and wilderness photography became my passion—and it still is to this day.
After much deliberation I decided to start my own graphic design business. That was seven years ago and I never looked back.
I have my own, successful business, and live in one of the most beautiful places in the world—I reckon it is pretty close to paradise!