ABN AMRO x Dutch Design Week

At First Day of Spring, I worked on an ABN AMRO capsule campaign for Dutch Design Week in 2018. Despite the bank’s considerable contribution, their association with the event was largely under the radar. Our brief was to boost their status as a partner, we built a campaign on the Driving Dutch Design programme (DDD) aiming to help young, talented designers overcome obstacles in becoming successful entrepreneurs through masterclasses and coaching.

Each year, DDD selects 20 studios and designers to be a part of its curriculum. Our campaign revolved around three of these so-called ‘drivers’ and the comments and unwanted advice they received about the work they do and the careers they chose. This generally negative commentary holds back creativity. The campaign – dubbed Real drive is unstoppable – delivered video, out of home and long-form content, focussing on how designers refute this sort of feedback and how they reshape it into a source of motivation, rather than deprivation.

I was responsible for the interviews, produced the voice-over copy for the set of branded videos, and wrote copy for an accompanying out of home campaign (featuring digital OOH and billboards) shown across the city of Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week 2018.

1200x630_5bb4acd50fc5feb9d87370964281930a36bc396655ace.jpeg — Bouke Bruins

“During my studies, I’d often hear people say: ‘*You can’t earn real money with design’,* or ‘*You won’t be able to buy your own home being self-employed’*. These types of comments became a motivation for me to develop myself more broadly and to work even harder.”
Read more: NL | ENG

1800x1010_5bb4adbb586128c491a5de221620e660633efa590e341.jpeg — Mieke van den Hout

“Sometimes people think the only reason that I’m a designer is that it’s fun, that I’m just doing arts & crafts all day long. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s serious, hard work.”
Read more: NL | ENG

1800x1010_5bb4b1a20f0af3851094c97d4b9b8bf29861a80ada3e9.jpeg — Staalslagerij

“People sometimes can’t believe that we can live off what we do. They don’t understand what it is that we make, let alone that it’s actually bringing in any revenue.”
Read more: NL | ENG

ABN AMRO x Dutch Design Week

Bouke Bruins

“During my studies, I’d often hear people say: ‘You can’t earn real money with design’, or ‘You won’t be able to buy your own home being self-employed’. These types of comments became a motivation for me to develop myself more broadly and to work even harder.”

Mieke van den Hout

“Sometimes people think the only reason that I’m a designer is that it’s fun, that I’m just doing arts & crafts all day long. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s serious, hard work.”

Staalslagerij

“People sometimes can’t believe that we can live off what we do. They don’t understand what it is that we make, let alone that it’s actually bringing in any revenue.”

Beton-T

The North Face