We didn’t know MTV has a sister channel called MTV Rocks – in fact, we didn’t even know that MTV has 5 more specialist channels; Classic, Dance, Base, Hits and Shows. MTV is rebranding these channels and commissioned a total of 32 TV idents, to be created by motion/audio studios from around the globe. Amsterdam based Post Panic (motion) and Massive Music (sound) created these surreal idents for MTV Rocks – currently MTV Brand New in the Netherlands. It is obvious that the alternative  character of the channel inspired script writer and director Mischa Rozema to make these five 12 second idents. He used surreal characters and moods to make people wonder what they are looking at – as if they were flicking the remote and coming across something really weird. Even though we’ve never watched MTV Rocks, this ident definitely gives us the impression that it does.

After having introduced our new columnists last week, this week we’re introducing a new item called ‘Inspiration’; Amsterdam creatives sharing their inspiration on a weekly basis. In order of future appearance we found the following posse willing to show us what they like, what fascinates them, or what they admire on a regular basis: Jennette Snape, art director at Dolly Rogers; Jarr Geerligs, art director at Selmore; Joep Beving, creative at Massive Music; Rick de Zwart, designer at Meneer de Zwart (and responsible for AAB’s visual identity); David Snellenberg, copywriter at Dawn; Johan Kramer, director at 328 Stories; Martin Pyper, designer at MeStudio; Reuben Alexander, creative at Buutvrij for Life; and Christian Borstlap, art director at Part of a Bigger Plan. Of course these people do more than just what their often somewhat rigitd title suggests (in art, music, photography, etc.) but you can read about that on their profile page, once they’ve posted their first contribution. Today Jennette Snape kicks off with an art piece she created herself. The title is “Inspiration lies in the eye of the beholder”; a nice kick off for this new genre, since it philosophies on what inspiration really is.

You see it all the time, advertising being inspired by art. This commercial quite literally is. Which is to say, we’ve seen this concept, a mosaic of choreographed webcam images, already many times in many forms. It started in a music video we believe. But we can imagine that for the average (potential) Prius Wagon driver - in the Netherlands certainly not the George Clooney’s of this world – it makes quite a cool ad. And, in all fairness, it is very well art directed. Made by Launched and directed by André Maat (Hazazah). Creative tunes added by Massive Music.

What you see is what you get: soft and strong – exactly what we all want our TP to be. Nice animation. Created by Publicis, produced by Glassworks, sound by Massive Music and Kaiser Sound Studios.

What a great clip, showing the grand opening of Massive Music’s fifth office in London – after Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and Shanghai – which will be run by Paul Reynolds and Nico Steiger. The clip was directed by Oscar Verpoort (Bananaz) and the song is ‘Sleeping Dogs’ by Big Smoky (a ‘Massive Talent’).

About a year ago Massive Music decided to give away a custom designed Gibson – in the colors of its visual identity. The contest was simple; conceive a nickname for the guitar and the best name will win the guitar. Wouter Boon – strategist and editor at Amsterdam Ad Blog – won the guitar dubbing it ‘The Ripple’. Massive Music founder Hans Brouwer; “Out of 192 names, we chose The Ripple through a democratic process; all our agencies around the world were allowed to vote. It was a close call, but eventually ‘The Ripple’ was liked best.” The other finalists were ‘LollyRock’ (Heinrich Vejlgaard, freelance creative in Denmark), and ‘Rockwork Orange’ (Floris Cobelens, marketing director at Heineken). Massive asked Gibson to make 6 customized guitars in total, also one for each office – next weekend Massive is officially opening its 5th office in London. Boon: “It’s funny, when I saw the guitar I instantly knew ‘The Ripple’ should be its name, since it matched so well with the design. I am really glad I won and feel obliged to take some lessons now!”