There’s a new agency in town. And by the looks of its promotional ‘flyer’ we already dare to call it one of the most creative agencies in town. Not just because it was founded by multi-talent Johan Kramer – co-founder of KesselsKramer – but more so because this flyer (or actually oversized newspaper) is the richest and most creative agency content we’ve come across for a while. It introduces the very small office of Johan Kramer, which is very small because it lives in a shoebox. The reason is that Kramer only wants to do a few projects a year and because growth inside the head is more important than a big office. In other words, there should be plenty of room for “long holidays, to disconnect.” What’s more, Johan loves his work, but his “private life is even more important”. That sounds refreshing already. And though tiny, Johan’s office is very open and loves to collaborate. The leaflet is the message; it shows pictures of all the people from around the world with whom Kramer has worked and the places that are important to him – all posing with his shoebox office. The actual creation of the office and the leaflet is also a collaboration. With Damian Poulain who designed the office. With Studio theGirls™ that gets to show off its kaleidoscopic feel for art direction and lust for life. And also with Andreas Pasvantis – often working with Kramer and also represented by 328 Stories – who directed a new ‘Hello my name is NOT Johan Kramer’ film in which Dzelme from Riga explains why the website for Johan Kramer (personally) will not be built anymore – it follows up the Uncle Bob’s film created in 2010. When you see these films, you understand why Kramer has kept his agency website so simple; the site shows the shoebox with a link to Kramer’s Vimeo channel and an email address. And that’s all you need, really, in today’s world. We wish Kramer all the best – though we’re sure he won’t need our wishes to do great.
When we first saw this commercial for the ‘Meer Dan Voetbal’ foundation (bonding society through football), we thought ‘this has already been done’, but after a brief discussion we realized we mixed it up with this Nike “Take it to the next level” commercial. Speaking of taking things to the next level; the view from the ball (with a camera inside the ball) makes the footage even more dynamic. After Dutch ex international Giovanni van Bronckhorst (it probably helps to use a celeb) kicks off, the ball is passed on and the voice over speaks from the ball’s perspective, saying things like “I am the reason that people go outside”, “I give children their excercise”, “create friendships”, etc. The film ends with “a ball can accomplish a lot”. True that. Created by THEY and directed by Bill Tanaka (328 Stories).
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.
This film reminded us of the animation quite recently created by CCCP for the Scheepvaart museum. Both are similar styled, both promote a museum, and both use the same voice-over. Apart from that the film is of course making the museum look quite attractive. And we didn’t know that Naturalis owns one of the world largest collections of organisms; 37 million items! The animation also gives us a peak in the future; who needs to visit a physical museum, when you can make edcuational films like this – which is kind of ironic. Created by Plus One Amsterdam.
Happy New Year to you all. To stay in the right mood, we present to you this film about Champagne. A nice slow motion of a bottle of Champagne being uncorked – in reverse. Not the most original idea ever, but pleasant to watch with Vivaldi in the background and likely to make the viewer thirsty. What makes less sense is that the film was made for Lidl, known as one of the cheaper supermarket chains – and recently in the news again for treating its personnel like rubbish, for that matter. Promoting a cheap Champagne (with ditto label and price) for a cheap supermarket in a relatively stylish way feels like a contradiction. But that’s the whole idea – recently we also saw Zeeman being promoted on the catwalk. The film is part of a more integrated campaign with a print ad featuring a Dutch chef, Ramon Beuk, promoting the Champagne in Dutch glossy Linda; “The best tasting Champagne for an incredibly low price. Where to get it?!” With a QR code in the Linda readers were directed to a dedicated page showing the film and revealing the source (see case film here). The concept was created by THEY – who launched their own Champagne brand Zarb a few years ago – and the Champagne film was directed by Bill Tanaka (328 Stories).
