THE BULLETIN  March 2010 THE SMART ISSUE
48 sixty minutes
‘Let’s research!’ I invited friends work- latest collection. In return for a fee, or cities needing innovation and 4000
ing in advertising and as art directors we would then bring people together creative minds or lab members around
to contribute to the first Addict maga- from our database to create a whole the world, from Brussels to Soweto.
zine. The research areas could focus on experience around the concept and We mostly create lab topics for research
anything from movies to love or what- find a language that would work with ourselves but sometimes they’re com-
ever. My friends then brought their the magazine’s vision. Instead of an ad, missioned, like the ‘broom lab’. Let’s
photographer friends who in turn you would see for example a project face it – I would’ve never come up with
brought stylists; the stylists brought done with some fashion designer on that myself. A company wanted us to
fashion designers; and so on. Because page 15 and a project done with Nike do research on the next generation
of the open-source concept of this on page 16. There is nothing sublimi- of household cleaning products. The
magazine, it started to develop its own nal about it: if there’s a brand involved, key for conceptual thinking is that
identity and dynamic.” we’ll tell you about it in the content you need people who have nothing
page. It’s very transparent. to do with the project as such. If you
design a broom and you want to think
Can you tell me a bit more about out of the box conceptually, you need
the creative process? people who know how to clean, you
Nike wanted to create something for don’t need people who know how to
the 2004 Olympic Games in London. design a broom.
The company was sponsoring a sprint
In shortol
w
a
s
b
o
rn
i
n
B
el
gi
u
m
,
champion so we created an indoor Who owns the ideas?
Ja
n
V
a
n
M
h
A
fr
ic
a
a
n
d
c
u
rr
en
tl
y
track on canvas and she was running On the one hand, we officially hire
li
ve
d
i
n
S
o
u
t
re
si
d
es
i
n
G
en
ev
a.
I
n
1
9
9
7,
t
h
e
on the canvas while wearing red Nikes. people from our database to work on
fo
rm
er
a
d
ve
rt
is
in
g
ex
ec
u
ti
ve
l
au
n
ch
ed
The only think you see is the steps on a commissioned project. Ideas gener-
A
d
d
ict
m
ag
a
zi
n
e,
w
h
ic
h
q
u
ic
k
ly
the canvas. We recreated what she was ated during these brainstorming ses-
g
re
w
i
n
to
t
o
d
ay
’s
A
d
d
ic
tl
ab
c
o
n
ce
p
t.

doing as an athlete and turned it into sions obviously belong to the client.
Th
e
h
ug
e
g
lo
b
a
l
d
at
ab
a
se
i
s
m
ad
e
an art piece.” But at the same time I will put up the
u
p
o
f
4
0
0
0
c
rea
ti
ve
t
a
le
n
ts
–
f
ro
m
fa
sh
io
n
d
es
ig
ne
rs
,
ph
o
to
g
ra
ph
er
s
a
nd

briefing online without giving the
sc
ie
n
ti
st
s,
t
o
s
cu
lp
to
rs
,
co
o
k
s
a
n
d
Cool. But the magazine wasn’t company’s name or any further detail.
gr
ap
h
ic
a
rt
is
ts
–
w
h
o
,
thr
o
ug
h
a
d
-h
o
c
enough for you, was it? People send in their ideas, which get
in
te
rd
is
ci
p
li
n
a
ry
co
ll
ab
o
ra
ti
o
n
s,
h
el
p
I felt that it wasn’t going far enough. stored in a confidential database.
b
ra
n
d
c
o
m
p
a
n
ie
s,
N
G
O
s,
c
it
ie
s
a
n
d
ev
en
g
o
ve
rnm
en
t
d
ep
a
rt
m
en
ts
.
Th
e
For me the visual stopping power of During the business meeting I present
re
su
lt
s
o
f
th
ei
r
co
m
mi
ss
io
n
ed
a
n
d
the images weren’t the end process – it’s the client with two separate propos-
in
d
ep
en
d
en
t
w
o
rk
s
a
re
d
is
p
la
y
ed
a
t
what hides behind them. So I decided als: those they have paid for and those
a
rt
f
a
ir
s,
g
a
ll
er
ie
s,
a
s
w
el
l
a
s
in
A
d
d
ict
to not only use magazines as an output they haven’t paid for. I make them
b
o
o
k
s
a
n
d
m
ag
a
zi
n
es
.

but also launch exhibitions and find so- sign an agreement that they are not
w
w
w
.ad
d
ic
tlab
.c
o
m

called lab members to physically come allowed to use any ideas sent in via
to the space and display their projects. the website without directly talking
You as the reader suddenly have differ- to the owner.
ent tools to grasp a creative idea. You
can see it in the magazine, but you No wonder you’re featured in our
And then? can also come to the exhibition open- Smart section. Sadly we’re running
In the late 1990s I decided to sell ing, talk to the designer, have a cup of out of time. Can you quickly share
my agency and instead began to do coffee with them, touch the fabric... your favoured project?
customised Addict projects for com- This all added different aspects to When I was in Soweto, three guys
panies. We were approached by brands the story. But it was a very challeng- sent me an email saying, “We believe
like Lee Cooper, Nike and Diesel who ing moment: how do you go from you can be the gateway to our suc-
wanted to feature in the magazine and being a magazine publisher to a crea- cess”. There was an image attached of
reach our readership. But they initially tive laboratory without leaning too a car made out of cardboard. These
misunderstood our concept. When much towards fashion or design or guys are trained car designers who use
I told Nike that I wasn’t interested in advertising? cardboard and their hands to create
having an ad in the magazine, they replicas. It blew my mind. But what do
were like, “Wait, what did you say?” What’s the business model? you do with that kind of knowledge?
So I went to London for a face-to-face We’re consultants not an agency. We I’ll bringing it to art fairs in Milan and
meeting and to explain how Addict have an equal partnership with brands. Geneva. The cars are being shipped as
worked. They would tell us about their We create a bridge between companies we speak.” 
Page 1  |  Page 2