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.

To fully appreciate this, it helps if you’re either a fan of FC Barcelona (FCB) or Johan Kramer (328 Stories). Since we’re both we wanted to share this short film (7:10 minutes) with you. It’s no surprise that Ali Isitir (Alametifarika, Istanbul) – working for FCB sponsor Turkish Airlines – asked Kramer to make this film. Not just because he’s a great film maker, but also because FCB is like a religion to him. In an interview Kramer told us that already at a young age he realised that football was his vocation; at the age of 10 he changed his name into Johan, after his football idol Johan Neeskens – who just moved to FCB around that time. And it’s not the first film Kramer has made about FCB; last year his film Johan Primero was launched, a film about a die hard FCB fan (who *tada* changed his name in Johan, after his idol Neeskens) driving 50 circles around Camp Nou every single day to help his team win. Anyway, the short film is an impressive portrait of Charly Rexach, someone who, just like Kramer, worships FC Barcelona.

This commercial advertises the Pink Ribbon Magazine that is published once a year to raise awareness and, more importantly, money for the battle against breast cancer – all profits made by publisher Sanoma are donated to the cancer charity. The commercial, created by Grey Amsterdam, clearly tries to create a sense of community among women and it does so in quite an arty way – partly due to director Johan Kramer and musician Junkie XL, who composed the music. Last year’s campaign, that won quite a few awards, was more friendly – a poem about two breast living happily together their entire live – and maybe therefore a little easier to digest. It raised € 1 million, which is quite decent for Dutch standards. Let’s see if this commercial can lift the bar a little higher.

This website, Hello I am Johan Kramer, is one of the funniest ‘under construction’ websites we’ve ever seen. Instead of simply saying ‘under construction’, Johan Kramer’s uncle Bob starts by saying “Hello my name is NOT Johan Kramer”. He explains why there isn’t a website. First uncle Bob hired a Swede, than an Ukrainian web agency, and now an innovative agency from Letland. Johan still doesn’t have a site, nor sound. But fortunately there are subtitles, so you can follow the whole story. His monologue is fairly long for saying ‘under construction’, but easily engaging enough to sit it all out. We’re not sure whether the site is really under construction, but that doesn’t matter cause it will create buzz anyway. And that is something Kramer can use, cause he just released a new film, called Johan Primero. It’s based on a true story about a guy who drives his Citroën 2CV 50 times around FC Barcelona’s football stadium, Camp Nou, every single day. He believes it brings his team good luck. Kramer is the founder of the world famous agency KesselsKramer. He left the agency 5 years ago to become a full time film director. But he clearly hasn’t lost his feeling for advertising yet.

Although not everyone that writes for this blog will support the Dutch this summer at the World Cup Football in South Africa, the second ‘Bleed Orange’ commercial for Nike, made by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, does get us properly excited. It introduces an un-Dutch ‘Just do it’ swagger to the Dutch team. An attitude the orange lions will need, since ‘a beautiful loss, is still a loss’ – as the copy reads insightfully. As in the first bleed orange commercial (the Dam square take-over) the tape art is used as a distintive style element to glue all the campaign assets together. The film – featuring Van Nistelrooy, Van Bronckhorst and Van der Vaart – is shot on 8mm and 16mm by Johan Kramer to create a voyeuristic look behind the scenes. And the persuasive music by Junkie XL finishes it off nicely. If anything will persuade  the Dutch to bleed orange this summer, it will be this kind of advertising.

What a smart way to use last Friday’s draw for this summer’s World Championship football in South Africa as an opportunity to make some great guerrilla advertising for Nike – the orange team’s clothing sponsor. It was made overnight by Wieden+Kennedy on Amsterdam’s Dam Square and directed by Johan Kramer. The word ‘BEZET’ means ‘taken’ and is inspired by Queen’s Day (April, 30) when the Amsterdammers claim their street market stall space the nights before the actual event by taping off an area and writing ‘bezet’. The words ‘bloed oranje’ ask the Dutch to ‘bleed orange’ for their country. Usually the ‘orange’ advertising around big football (soccer) tournaments is overwhelming and not very subtle, which makes it difficult for an advertiser to stand out. This video – distributed through Nike’s websites – is therefore well timed and with its grassrooty character (reinforced by the catchy music by Dutch electro band ‘Daily Bread’) more sympathetic than your regular over-obvious ‘orange painting’. For those of you not interested in (Dutch) football; the guy at the end is Frank de Boer – assistant coach of the Dutch team.