Leaving Duval

It was almost a month ago... I was drinking a beer with Roel and Wietse, two Dutch creatives who are working at TBWA Brussels. While I was talking to them about the agency, I had a moment of clarity that even the wine and beer couldn't mess up: I'm going to make plans to move to another agency. All of a sudden I was really sure and I told my Dutch friends about it. I'm going to leave Duval Guillaume Brussels.

Once I have something in my mind, I'm going to do it and I won't look back. It doesn't seem like a decision that you make spontaneously while drinking a beer but of course it's just the end of a long process. For 1 year I've been working without a permanent teampartner. Instead, I've worked with an intern from the Miami Ad School every quarter. Which has been good, because all of the interns could work just as good as a senior creative. But recently I started to miss working with a permanent teampartner and there's no budget to hire an art-director at Duval. I think it's still a brilliant agency, but at the moment it's not the right place for me.

So these last month I was looking for a job again. I'm improving work, selecting work, sending e-mails to agencies and headhunters, updating my resume, making a presentation and I've also contacted a former teampartner. And because I want to make sure I'm going to end up at an agency that's right for me, I'm going to look all over Europe and especially in Germany. Most of the agencies and creative directors give me a reaction back, which proves that the days that I have to do crazy stunts to get into an agency are definitely over. Instead, my resume and portfolio are enough to give an agency a clear idea of what I stand for.

I don't know which country I will go to. But before packing my bags, I'm going to see first what Belgium has to offer. At the moment, I'm talking to a few agencies that I admire and believe in, most of them are interactive agencies. Which doesn't mean I'm not open to traditional agencies. I will take any offer seriously. No matter which agency or which country it's in.

It's an exciting time. Is my life going to make another 180 degree turn?