In the meanwhile in Cannes...
The first two days in Holland were kind of bizarre. As soon as I entered the country by train, it was strange -but refreshing- to see the country where I was born through the eyes of a tourist. For the first time in my life I got a rush of enthousiasm when I saw a windmill.
Holland is also colorful compared to our neighbours. It looks like the houses and trains are made by a toy manufacturer who decided to make his products on large scale. Police officers never looked so innocent with their light blue shirts. And I couldn't help laughing when I saw some of the cops here ride on too small scooters that have red and white blocks on them. So even the police is colorful. Even the grass looks greener here (Holland was always known for its quality grass ;-)
And then there were bicycles...Millions of bicycles everywhere. On the central station, in front of the club, next to a canal, even ín the canal.
It was also good to see my friends again. The day I arrived, on Saturday, I went to my favorite bar and it seems as if nothing has changed. I was even involved in a fight (that is, I saw a bad guy beating up a good guy and I helped getting the bad guy out). The next day there were more bizarre scenes when a couple of - let's say lower class citizens- got into an argument about their children's custody in front of a full bar. In the end, the big, drunk man poured his beer over the small, drunk woman. Hamburg can be crazy sometimes, but I kind of missed this kind of craziness.
Talking about crazy... Yesterday I heard that my former teammate Peter van der Helm, won a Bronze Lion in Cannes. The lion is the most prestigious award for advertising in the world. Peter made a brilliant ambient ad for an organisation called Friends of the Earth. Look at http://www.canneslions.com/winners_site/outdoor/win_4_7_02812.htm to see the work. I've worked with Peter for about four years and I can tell anybody: there's nobody in the world who deserves this Lion more than Peter. For years he has been an outcast in advertising because a lot of creative directors thought he was arrogant. He is a streetwise art director who is willing to fight for his ideas. And sometimes he almost did. With the things I experienced with this guy, I can probably fill a whole book; from trashing a hotel lobby during a concept course in Bergen to a taxi ride from hell in London. Some people couldn't understand that I was working with him. But besides our differences we always had one thing in common: an uncompromising passion for making good, creative work.
He wanted to start his own agency and I wanted to learn further. That was the end of our partnership. I think we both made a good decision to go our own way. Peter started a hotshop called Hallelujah. Recently he proved that he wasn't just big talk when top creative Andy Law took over his company. By winning a Lion he finally proves what I already knew: that he's a fucking genius (that also accounts for his new copywriter Matthieu Elvers). The creative directors that didn't hire us because of him must feel really stupid now. Peter, you finally showed the world what you're worth! To use a quote from Hunter S. Thompson: "Some may never live, but the crazy never die".
P.S. Also congratulations to Menno Kluin for winning his third Bronze Lion for this ad: http://www.canneslions.com/winners_site/outdoor/win_4_1_02668.htm
Holland is also colorful compared to our neighbours. It looks like the houses and trains are made by a toy manufacturer who decided to make his products on large scale. Police officers never looked so innocent with their light blue shirts. And I couldn't help laughing when I saw some of the cops here ride on too small scooters that have red and white blocks on them. So even the police is colorful. Even the grass looks greener here (Holland was always known for its quality grass ;-)
And then there were bicycles...Millions of bicycles everywhere. On the central station, in front of the club, next to a canal, even ín the canal.
It was also good to see my friends again. The day I arrived, on Saturday, I went to my favorite bar and it seems as if nothing has changed. I was even involved in a fight (that is, I saw a bad guy beating up a good guy and I helped getting the bad guy out). The next day there were more bizarre scenes when a couple of - let's say lower class citizens- got into an argument about their children's custody in front of a full bar. In the end, the big, drunk man poured his beer over the small, drunk woman. Hamburg can be crazy sometimes, but I kind of missed this kind of craziness.
Talking about crazy... Yesterday I heard that my former teammate Peter van der Helm, won a Bronze Lion in Cannes. The lion is the most prestigious award for advertising in the world. Peter made a brilliant ambient ad for an organisation called Friends of the Earth. Look at http://www.canneslions.com/winners_site/outdoor/win_4_7_02812.htm to see the work. I've worked with Peter for about four years and I can tell anybody: there's nobody in the world who deserves this Lion more than Peter. For years he has been an outcast in advertising because a lot of creative directors thought he was arrogant. He is a streetwise art director who is willing to fight for his ideas. And sometimes he almost did. With the things I experienced with this guy, I can probably fill a whole book; from trashing a hotel lobby during a concept course in Bergen to a taxi ride from hell in London. Some people couldn't understand that I was working with him. But besides our differences we always had one thing in common: an uncompromising passion for making good, creative work.
He wanted to start his own agency and I wanted to learn further. That was the end of our partnership. I think we both made a good decision to go our own way. Peter started a hotshop called Hallelujah. Recently he proved that he wasn't just big talk when top creative Andy Law took over his company. By winning a Lion he finally proves what I already knew: that he's a fucking genius (that also accounts for his new copywriter Matthieu Elvers). The creative directors that didn't hire us because of him must feel really stupid now. Peter, you finally showed the world what you're worth! To use a quote from Hunter S. Thompson: "Some may never live, but the crazy never die".
P.S. Also congratulations to Menno Kluin for winning his third Bronze Lion for this ad: http://www.canneslions.com/winners_site/outdoor/win_4_1_02668.htm
posted by Robin Stam at 6:08 pm
2 Comments:
Yep, Congrats Peter!
And as for Menno; He has also won a gold one for outdoor (Stuffit Deluxe campaign). Great ain't it?
Grtz, Ingo
Very sharp Ingo! Menno had the modesty to leave that one out when I congratulated him for his bronze Lion ;-) But here's the link: http://www.canneslions.com/winners_site/outdoor/win_2_2_04813.htm
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