CreativeAmsterdamcreating opportunities

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Colophon:

CCAAVisiting addressDe Ruyterkade 51013 AA Amsterdam

Postal addressPostbus 28251000 CW AmsterdamThe Netherlands

Tel: +31 (0)20-5241125Fax: +31 (0)20-5241134Email: info@ccaa.nlwww.creativeamsterdam.nl

Text: CCAA, Jeanine Mies, Liesbeth KrumeichEnglish version: Jane SzitaDesign: www.davdigital.com, DAVstudio (BNO)Editorial: CCAA

Amsterdam, March 2008 ©

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Contents

20 Creative Calling Cards from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

1 Walter Amerika Ambassador for the Creative Industries page 8

2 Marcel Wanders Worldwide Wanders page 9

3 Rijksmuseum Art: Anytime, Anywere page 10

4 UNStudio Art Historian with an Architectural Practice page 11

5 Dutch Public Broadcasting Crossovers and mashups page 12

6 WhyRobbieRocks Virtual Society for Fashion Addicts page 13

7 Pastoe fabriek Furnishing culture for society page 14

8 Scope Translating Dutch Design for Industry page 15

9 Kauwgomballenfabriek Creativity bubbles in former chewing gum factory page 16

10 Waagsociety Affective computing and serious games page 17

11 Bureau Pindakaas Tasty Advertising Talent from Amsterdam page 18

12 NDSM Docks Underground Culture in a Former Shipyard page 19

13 Red Light Fashion Amsterdam Fashion Hotspot of the Moment page 20

14 Dutch Game Garden Japanese go Dutch for games page 21

15 U-Design Making creative connections page 22

16 Brandboxx Alpha Locations for Alpha Brands page 23

17 Netwerk 023 Haarlem’s Network for Media, Advertising and the Internet page 24

18 Bureau Broedplaatsen A place to be professional page 25

19 Amersfoort Creative City An Initiative to Strengthen the Creative Economy page 26

20 Beelden voor de Toekomst Old Photos and Films Stay Viewable page 27

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Creative Amsterdam

20 creative calling cards from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

In this brochure, you’ll find a collection of 20 creative calling cards from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. One by one, they tell inspiring tales ofhow Dutch talent is conquering the world, how the region is stimulating creatives to new heights of innovation and entrepreneurship, and howattractive these creative industries are becoming for foreign companies.

Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as an international creative hub

The creative industries are the trump card of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. This region belongs to the top five creative cities in the world,along with giants like London, New York and Los Angeles. Almost one in every three Dutch jobs in the creative industries is to be found here.Thanks to the scope, quality and diversity of the creative industries, the region is developing into an international creative hub.

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The creative industries comprise three sectors:The arts: the performing arts, the visual arts, theatre, galleries, and museumsMedia and entertainment: publishing, radio, TV, film, video, gamingCreative business services: advertising, photography, design, fashion.

Creative talent has plenty of room for manoeuvre in a service economy like the Netherlands. Of the region’s total employment,85% is in the service sector. Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is especially strong in business and financial services. More andmore banks and head offices of international companies are opening their doors in the region. This is not only because of easyaccessibility, thanks to nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, but also because of the region’s innovative character and pleasantliving climate. For creative business service providers, including designers and advertising agencies, the presence of such largecompanies means an enormous potential market.

Conversely, a thriving creative sector itself brings new entrepreneurship, innovations and employment. So international talent isattacted and retained.

Creative Amsterdam: creating opportunities

Creative Amsterdam is a one-stop shop for the creative industries.Creative Amsterdam offers national and international companies access to the creative potential of the region. Conversely, italso helps the region's creative companies find the right facilities to stimulate their entrepreneurialism.

Further information?www.creativeamsterdam.nl

The Netherlands, March 2008

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Walter Amerika has almost 20 years of consumer and corporate brand building experience for clients like Heineken, Grolsch,Vodafone, PepsiCo, Douwe Egberts/SaraLee and Schiphol Airport. Over the last few years, he’s applied his skills to promotingcreativity itself, as a lecturer at the Design Academy Eindhoven, as creative industries adviser to the management centre DeBaak, as president of the creative board of Creative Amsterdam, and in countless other related functions.

So why does he devote himself so passionately to promoting the creative industries? “I think that after sustainability, creativityis the next good thing,” says Walter. “It can contribute a lot towards making the world a bit better, more beautiful, and moreeffective. We’ve come out of an industrial society and we’re moving into a knowledge-based economy, which hopefully will continue to develop into a creative economy, one of intuitive thinking. Of course, you can use creativity to put things on theagenda, as Al Gore did with his film, An Inconvenient Truth. In its most simple form, it concerns better architecture, betterhomes, better lifestyles for people. In 2008, for the first time in the history of humanity, there are more people living in citiesthan in rural areas. Think of Mexico City. Architects, designers, and communication experts can make a big contribution toimprove urban living.”

Walter cites the social climate, the creative diversity, and the enormous willingness of the government to stimulate the creativeindustries as major boosters for Amsterdam’s creativity. For example, plenty of spaces are made available, sometimes in oldheritage buildings, for new companies to establish themselves cheaply and effectively. There is not only fashion in this region,but also new media, design and architecture. That creative diversity is an important plus.

Walter was in advertising. So how does he see the industry 10 years from now? “The new office model, whatever that will be,is going to emerge partly from this region,” he says. “In New York, there are a number of offices much more into the field ofcooperation with consumers and social networks. They steer much less from the client end and stand far closer to the end-user, the consumer. Exactly here is where bureau 2008 started, which undoubtedly will be no traditional advertisingagency. Agencies and brands are looking much more to social networks, where consumers are uniting. That means not onlyHyves, but things like patient networks too. At Fiat, they have just let an enormous number of people test the new Fiat 500.Lego had done that too. Ultimately, you try to get as many outside influences as possible for the product.”

Walter AmerikaBrand and Marketing Consultant

Most proud of:Continuing to be occupied with creativity all

day and everyday. Creativity is not yet an

everyday thing, it isn’t always understood by

everyone.

Dream job: Developing the Creative Industry Sofa,

which I’m working on now. In imitation of the

farmers who set up their own bank, the

Rabobank, we’re trying to set up a support

and financing club for the creative

industries.

Biggest opportunity for the creativeindustries: To ensure a really sustainable and

multicultural society. By ooking at things

more conceptually, by making links, and by

showing the good sides instead of the bad

sides.

www.walteramerika.blogs.com

Walter Amerika Ambassador for the Creative Industries

9www.marcelwanders.com | Photography: Inga Powilleit

Marcel Wanders’ international breakthrough came 12 years ago, with his Knotted Chair. He developed this piece, made entire-ly from rope, together with the Technical University, Delft. Since then, the technically innovative but simultaneously warm, roman-tic design has become a classic. Marcel mainly designs products and interiors, and nearly everyone has seen at least one of hisworks, whether they realise it or not. His work is inventive and very broad: he designs everything from cars to coathangers, andmakes both one-off pieces and large series. In 2005, his Carbon Chair won a prize in the Elle Decoration International DesignAwards, and the year after the same awards crowned him Designer of the Year.

Marcel takes issue with the large role that technology and industry presently plays in design: “You don’t design for industry,but for people,” he says. “You must be able to understand people’s dreams, not just design things so that the industry canmanufacture them in the easiest way possible.” As an example, he points to the sofa, an object with hardly any detail andwhere the customer can only select colour and fabric – and then waits 12 weeks for it to be delivered. “This is the way the system works. With Moooi Boutique, I’m working on a sofa that can be delivered immediately, with covers that are very different from normal. I’m trying to change the industry with this,” says Marcel.

Amsterdam is the base for Marcel Wanders and his team of 32 employees, but the world is their working area. At least half ofthe team comes from abroad, and the office works with global suppliers, from Italy to India and China. What’s more, 95% ofMarcel’s customers are outside the Netherlands. “We work on some of the world’s biggest projects,” he says. “Beautiful projects for which we find the most talented people to work with. Amsterdam is a fine place to live and work. Maybe here andthere you’ll find a better place, but it has a strong attraction, and people who work here have a great time.”

As well as a pleasant lifestyle, Amsterdam offers good opportunities for Marcel Wanders to excel at his profession. Within thecontext of Europe, it has an advantageous location. Furthermore, he points to the good transport infrastructure, which makes iteasy to visit international clients: Schiphol Airport is practically on the corner. Finally, business here works fast and well –something the Dutch perhaps overlook, because it’s under their noses. “You can react rapidly where business is concerned,”says Marcel. “If you work worldwide, you see how well organised many basic services are in the Netherlands. Try sendingsomething by post in some other countries.”

Marcel WandersIndustrial designer

Most proud of:Learning to walk. With scarcely a single

lesson, after two years you don’t fall over

anymore.

Dream job:Develop nice plans for Amsterdam, for

example to create a super-hip going-out

island on Pampus, an island near

Amsterdam – you arrive at 8 o’clock at night

and leave at 8 the next morning

Biggest opportunity for the creativeindustries:Contributing to the success of Amsterdam.

marcel Wanders Worldwide Wanders

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Rijksmuseum Art: Anytime, Anywhere

Jan Willem SieburghBusiness Director,

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Most proud of:The simplicity and the impact of the

Rijksmuseum’s widget.

Dream job: To do something spectacular and compelling

for Amsterdam. For example, make a stretch

of the Prinsengracht canal available for boat

hotels designed by Dutch designers.

Biggest chance for the creative industries: Nowadays you can’t predict what will

succeed and what won’t. You couldn’t have

planned the Prinsengracht concert or

YouTube. The Amsterdam Region must give

things the chance to blossom.

Since 2005, people all over the world have been able to admire a masterpiece from the collection of Amsterdam’sRijksmuseum on their very own desktop. The Rijksmuseum was the first museum to offer a widget, a tiny computer programthat allows you to view a different work from the collection every day. The ‘reverse side’ of every work provides more information about the work and the painter. It’s been a big hit, going on the enthusiastic reactions on the website: “Thank youfor opening your e-door to this little corner of our computers,” and, “It’s a very good idea, to punctuate each day of our life witha new work of art.”

The widget is part of the Rijksmuseum’s plan to reach visitors in as many different ways as possible during the renovation period up until 2013. Nevertheless, a large part of the collection remains on show and there are also special exhibitions asusual. “During the renovations, we’ve decided to do a whole lot more,” explains business director Jan Willem Sieburgh.“Thanks to new initiatives on the website, like the widget, web visits have grown explosively over the last few years. We’veopened a branch at Schiphol Airport, and we’ve launched a magazine, Oog (‘eye’). We want to make more surprising encounters possible than just in the museum. With the web, the magazine and the Schiphol branch, we have an enormouslyextended range and visibility. Moreover, we also present parts of the collection in nine satellite museums, in the Netherlands,Belgium and Germany.”

Last year, despite the renovation, the Rijksmuseum reached almost normal visitor numbers. 960,000 visited the Philips Wing,and 200,000 visited the Schiphol branch. In 2006, the special Rembrandt Caravaggio exhibition attracted 400,000 visitors. Themuseum’s presence at such a transit hub as Schiphol is greatly appreciated. Travellers are frequently stressed and overstimulated at the airport, and in that hectic context, the changing Rijksmuseum collection on the Holland Boulevardbetween the E- and F- piers forms a kind of retreat. “People experience it as a kind of oasis,” says Jan Willem. “It’s like chocolate for the eyes”, as one visitor wrote in the guestbook.”When the modernisation is complete, the 1885 building will have all the necessary facilities to receive at least 1.5 million visitors per year in comfort and safety. The inner courtyards, which were closed in due to space shortages, will return, againgiving the building its ‘lungs’ of light and air. With regard to the classification of different objects, textiles, paintings, porcelain,clothing and weapons will all be shown in combination. The accessibility of the collection will be improved, thanks to modernmedia such as audiotours and iPod options allowing visitors to compose their own tour.

www.rijksmuseum.nl | Photography: Arie de Leeuw

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UNStudio Art Historian with an Architectural Practice

Caroline BosDirector UNStudio

Most proud of:Our office of 80 passionate employees,

including 20

different nationalities.

Dream assignment:To create a new airport model for the

future. UNStudio is a specialist in public

network projects and is very interested in

logistics, movement, and people flows.

Biggest opportunity for the creativeindustries: To invent creative, sustainable solutions.

A grass roof is a way out, sustainability

should be integrated in the

architecture.

She doesn’t come from the design disciplines, and she studied art history rather than engineering. Yet Caroline Bos has beendirector of the architectural firm UNStudio for the last 20 years. “UNStudio was set up as a multidisciplinary office,” saysCaroline. “It is a collaboration between my husband (architect Ben van Berkel) and myself. During our studies, we were alreadyworking together, on articles for the Volkskrant (a Dutch newspaper) and architecture magazines. My specialisation was architecture. Now, I’m absorbed in planning and city construction. As a non-designer in this profession, I have the role of analyst and critic.”She likes the fact that her work involves the present and future now, rather than just the past, as is the case with art history. “Itworks beautifully when you do unexpected things with the creativity of designers, and supplement these with other contexts, totry to keep the thought process going. Architecture interfaces with economics, human behaviour, human desires, how peoplemove on. You take that into consideration in the design.”The most famous UNStudio work is the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. An iconic design in the Netherlands is theErasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. The office won the commission for it in 1996 – a stroke of incredible luck, because Van Berkelwas not yet 35, and architects don’t often get to build bridges, anyway. It coincided with the city development of Rotterdam, ofwhich the bridge had become a symbol. UNStudio tries to ensure that projects themselves generate new activities. As the Erasmus Bridge appeals to the imaginationand appears different depending on where you are in the city, you view and experience it in other ways. It makes you aware ofyour own situation in the space. People have incorporated the bridge in their use of the city and their social behaviour. Dutcharchitecture has enjoyed an extremely high international standing over the last 15 years, thanks to an incentives policy.Caroline believes the profession has performed enormously well. Architects are showing entrepreneurial spirit and they are eas-ily crossing borders. Critics have also picked up on, and so stimulated, the developments. “Abroad, people find our differentway of thinking, and what we dare to do, intriguing,” says Caroline. “Although Dutch architects form a group, it’s a very rich one,in that everyone has developed separately. There is a certain shared basis, and sufficient wealth to develop a lot of diversity.”Caroline would like to see a large, umbrella-type initiative, like the Olympic Games, to really combine the strengths of the Dutchcreative industries. A big project like this would involve working together towards something, including a concrete vision for theregion on the basis of the project’s impact.

www.unstudio.com | Photography: Koos Breukel

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For quite a while already, public broadcasting hasn’t been limited to simply radio, TV and the Internet. Where else can you meetthe public? That is the question that Michel Mol, director of innovation and new media, asks himself on a daily basis. On publictransport, via mobile phones and via outdoor screens are just three of the many possibilities. For example, Michel is consideringa concept store for public broadcasting, like ZDF in Germany, which has three such stores in this country. Consumers can buyordinary CDs and DVDs there, but also get the feeling that they are at the broadcaster’s. The same thing happens at the MediaPark in Hilversum. The barriers disappear and the public get increased access, thanks to the arrival of the Institute for Imagesand Sound (Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), among other things.

Michel believes in the added value of crossovers between the media and other industries. “We’re in discussions with a projectdeveloper to see if Hilversum can’t also be more present in Amsterdam,” says Michel. “For example, on the Stadionplein inAmsterdam, which is developing into a media area. Public broadcasting can contribute to that in the form of a media café, orwith additional studios, or by showing previous programmes outdoors in pillars with touchscreens. The economy class of KLMwill shortly have screens with video on demand, so passengers can see the programmes they’ve missed when they’re on theway home.”

Thanks to the penetration and quality of its Internet and mobile services, the Netherlands has a great climate for innovation.And there is so much intellectual capital to use, which is interesting as an export product. Michel is currently looking to cooperate with small, innovative start-ups. Among other things, he’s talking to Delta Solutions, a company that can transform aliving room into a studio with a couple of flight cases. Delta Solutions is an R&D-oriented listed company, which is currently wor-king on exports.So what innovations does Michel foresee in the future? “As a public broadcaster, we want to be there if the public starts takingcontent itself using the new services,” he says. “We sit on top of the social networks. We’re currently doing a test with Hyveswhere people can embed a past programme on their own web page. They get the programme, but they can also mark fragments, put them in a new order, and add their own material. So then what you get is mashups: something new that hasbeen made with something old. We’re making the cultural heritage available to the people. And that’s appropriate, given ourmission as a public broadcaster.”

Michel MolDirector Innovation and New Media,

Dutch Public Broadcasting

Most proud of: Creating new public services with play-

ers from other industries.

Dream job:To connect start-ups to larger organi-

sations such as a broadcaster, so they

have a bigger impact, and to see what

great combinations can come from

such a mix.

Biggest opportunity for the creativeindustries: Thinking less in terms of the traditional

compartments of fashion architecture

and media.Decompartmentalising the

traditional industries and thinking

about what they have to offer. What is

the public going to want and expect

from new services?

Dutch Public Broadcasting Crossovers and Mashups

www.omroep.nl | www.deltasolutionsinternational.com

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Two years ago, Cindy Dekkers set up the interactive entertainment company RobbieNetworks, together with her two partners.

She wanted to use her creativity more fully, and discover whether there was a market in the Netherlands for her idea. Since

then, the virtual fashion world Whyrobbierocks.com numbers over 150,000 members, young people between 14 and 24 years

of age. Right now, they are still mainly from the Netherlands, but that will change rapidly if Cindy has anything to do with it.

So how does it work? At Whyrobbierocks.com, you can dress up a top-to-bottom personally styled figure, also called an

avatar. With so-called Robbie credits, you can buy clothes and accessories, with over 5,000 different items to choose from. If

you are happy with the way you look, you can save your alter ego and use it for all your online communication. It becomes a

personal PR platform. Change your clothes, or even design your own clothes, create your own shop, and then wait for the

votes and comments from others.

Avatars, fashion . . . it may sound like pure fun, but Cindy has a serious mission with WhyRobbieRocks: to develop the

creativity of young people with an enjoyable, sociable, non-violent concept. She is setting up a fashion design contest together

with MySpace, for example. With a design tool, users will make their own designs, which others can then vote on. The winners

will be helped to make their collections for real, taking them onto the catwalk to compete against each other for the top prize.

WhyRobbieRocks offers advertisers the chance to reach a young target group in a different way, namely with in-game

advertising. Brands can be built into the game in a way that is useful to members. So the Rabobank looks after the

virtual economy, for example. It also has its own chatbot, a Rabobank character who can chat with the target group. O'Neill put

its newest collection online, so members can choose to try items on. This gives O'Neill information about which items are most

popular. Cindy has learned from experience that avatars don’t actually act very differently online than they do in real life.

O'Neill subsequently pays on the basis of the number of impressions.

WhyRobbieRocks Virtual Society for Fashion Addicts

Cindy Dekkers

Co-Owner, RobbieNetworks

Most proud of:

My alter ego!

Dream job:

To become the international avatar

supplier for all the social communities

of MySpace, Google and Yahoo, for

example, so that everyone uses

Robbie for their online communication.

Biggest opportunity for the creative

industries:

Organise export possibilities using the

Internet, with virtual workshops and

assistants, so that creatives can get

their concepts rapidly realised

internationally.

www.whyrobbierocks.com | www.robbienetworks.com

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Top-quality minimalism has been the design signature of furniture manufacturer Pastoe for the last 94 years. A specialist incupboards and shelving units, with a similarly elegant line in sofas, tables and other pieces, Pastoe bases its products on thephilosophy that furniture should be a long-lasting investment. Therefore, it must continue to look good long after it was made,as well as being ethically sustainable. For its designs, Pastoe attracts international talent, including Japanese designer ShigeruUchida and Belgian designer Maarten van Severen. The result of the cooperation with the German artist Elisabeth Lux willshortly be unveiled at the design fairs in Milan and Kortrijk.

Of Pastoe’s 60 employees, half work on production in the factory as craftsmen: cabinet-makers, fitters, painters and laquerers.But production is only one of the activities taking place in the monumental factory building. Since 1982, a part has been arranged as a showroom. Under the name, the Dutch Design Centre, it showcases national and international interiors brands, including Arco, Gelderland and Montis from the Netherlands and Kvadrat from Denmark. The centre attracts around 40,000visitors annually. In addition, the Dutch Design Centre hosts several events in the field of design, such as Utrecht Manifest, thebiennale for social design.

This recent development in the direction of less production, more showroom, is set to continue when Pastoe moves productionto a different location in the neighbourhood. The move will free up the factory’s entire 12,000m2 of space, which will then be filled a new programme featuring creativity and interaction, with, for example, an art exhibition space, restaurant, theatre, and adesigners’ lab. The Pastoe factory dates from 1918 and boasts a multi-layered construction and an unusual roof which createsparticularly beautiful light effects. The location is on a waterway (in the past, this was essential for timber transport), allowingfor the creation of a waterfront terrace. Pastoe’s Director, Remco van der Voort, says of the plan for the Pastoe factory: “In many places in the Netherlands, emptyfactory buildings are being renovated and prepared to house creative entrepreneurs. People have already worked in thePastoe factory for years, and it has received a lot of publicity. That’s unique. The factory was always there, it’s still there, andthere it will stay. The Pastoe factory is becoming the factory of the 21st century: a transparent podium, where different groupscan share knowledge, skills, ideas and experience in a creative process that must eventually contribute to economic, culturaland social renewal.”

www.pastoe.com | www.utrechtmanifest.nl

Remco van der VoortDirector, Pastoe

Most proud of? Pastoe

Dream job? To direct a Rem Koolhaas project, like

the TV tower in China. Or produce

furniture designed by British architect

John Pawson for the Novy Dvur

Monastery in the Czech Republic.

Biggest opportunity for the creativeindustries?Developing not only technical, but

aesthetic sustainability, of form in the

function of beauty, both at home and on

the street. The more we create beautiful

objects and buildings, the less we need

to throw them away or demolish them.

Pastoe fabriek Furnishing culture for society

Pim JonkmanCo-Owner Scope,

industrial design agency.

Most proud of:The unusual position of Scope in the

design world, which speaks to people so

that they want to work here, even if they

move house to live further away.

Dream assignment:Communication equipment, tools…. In

short, the products and product lines of

companies that really want to go

somewhere with their brand and product

portfolio.

Biggest opportunity for the creativeindustries:To ensure that companies have Chief

Creative Officers as well as Chief

Executive Cfficers. We can possibly

help with that.

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The assignment: make a hospital bed that looks lovely to lie in. That’s a piece of cake for design office Scope. In the words ofco-owner and designer Pim Jonkman: “We connect our skills in designing beautiful things to the needs of the market. We usedesign to achieve the maximum impact for the client. For example, to make products dynamic, businesslike, or comprehensible.”Cocoon is the name of the bed that Scope devised together with npk industrial design. Its pleasant appearance is partly theresult of the gentle, curved forms of the head and foot, unique in hospital beds. Moreover, the inside of the bed, the patient’sside, is a different colour. And it goes without saying that the bed meets all further requirements for use: it has moving partsand can be used in compact spaces.Although this Scope creation resulted in two design awards, the IF Product Design Award in 2007, and the Red Dot DesignAward in 2008, the office expressly avoids creating designs purely for their aesthetic value and the appreciation of fellow designers. Infact, Scope is more interested in the aesthetic preferences of consumers. Therefore, the office has undertaken aquantitative consumer research project in association with the Technical University, Delft, which has resulted in a set of designguidelines.“We want to base our continued development in the interface of strategy and design,” says Pim. “For this reason, we askedconsumers what they think is beautiful, and what they think isn’t. From this we’ve ended up with so-called ‘common designmechanics’, which reflect what broad groups of Dutch people find beautiful. Now we’re looking to see if the same goes for all ofNorthwestern Europe. Through the research, we also know what works for specific target groups. If you use curved angles, forexample, you appeal more to older, highly educated people.” Pim is extremely happy about the international reputation of individual designers like Marcel Wanders and Richard Hutten, andthe label, Droog Design. “They set the tone for innovation,” he says. “They do interesting, beautiful things which attract a lot ofattention for the Netherlands.” He cites their use of reclaimed materials as an example. “Their ideas inspire us to translate‘high’ design to industry in a pragmatic and practical manner, and to objects that can be sold commercially,” says Pim.

www.scopedesignstrategy.com

Scope Translating Dutch Design for Industry

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Noted international choreographer Anouk van Dijk practises new ballets with her company in a former chewing gum factory.She shares the old factory on the edge of Amsterdam with other cultural and creative entrepreneurs, including advertisingagencies, caterers, DJs, architects and theatre trainers.Lingotto Real Estate, which has given new life to the building, consciously choose a mixed composition for the chewing gumfactory, rather than a monotonous occupation. They wanted to create an inspiring and dynamic shared business space thatwould add a positive impulse to the image and the social quality of the area.In the beginning, however, there were several practical obstacles to this successful combination of several different functions.For example, if a furniture maker was using a saw, that caused a nuisance for others. This type of start-up problem was soonovercome, since the tenants appreciate that they sit in a shared building, and therefore take each other’s needs into account.

In contrast to many other creative hotspots, the chewing gum factory was developed by a commercial company, and as suchit is living proof that business can make money out of the creative industries. Lingotto saw the potential of the strategically located, 17,000 m2 building. They considered solutions to revitalise the property and make it more dynamic – a rather morecharming, but also more effective (and less expensive) response than to simply flatten everything and start from scratchagain. The complex with its four buildings, each with its own separate identity, was instead redeveloped. In order to encourage social cohesion, they found both smaller tenants (approx. 50m2) and large tenants (above 1000m2), giving the preference tothose who would be present at night and at weekends. They wanted to bring several people together in small and large, economical and more expensive spaces. The location is now on the map, the studios, workshops and offices are full of activity, and there is a waiting list. Lingotto is presently working on the last part of the project: restoring large, industrial loftoffice spaces. Next comes the phase of reinforcing the mutual contacts between the different entrepreneurs. At the incubator,there are enormously creative people who are interesting for commercial tenants, and vice versa. There is a new Internet sitewith all the information on the tenants, so that they can find each other faster and more easily. Informal get-togethers, presentations and meetings are organised in the foyer. What’s more, the tenants are also finding each other by meetingcasually in the corridors and hallways.

Kauwgomballenfabriek Art Factory

CreativityBubbles inFormerChewing GumFactory

www.kauwgomballenfabriek.nl | www.anoukvandijk.nl | www.lingotto.nl

www.waag.org 17

Sadly, a cuddle from mum or dad before going to sleep isn’t always possible when you’re a child staying in hospital long-term. Andyour little sister or brother isn’t there to tickle you, like at home. So to ensure that young patients of 8 to 12 years old can stay intouch with the family in more immediate ways than mail or phone, the Waag Society created Scottie.

With Scottie, the child in hospital and the family at home each get a small toy-like figure, which can light up in different colours andvibrate. So parents and children can communicate in codes that they have agreed together. If the mother at home strokes theScottie, it changes colour and the child knows that mum is thinking of him or her. The patient can return the cuddle – a real result,because children in a hospital cannot easily call or mail at any given time.

Scottie has been developed by the Waag Society, a foundation with a mission to provide “creative technology for social innovation”. Some of their technical applications are interesting for the consumer market and can become developed into products.Scottie is currently still at the prototype stage. An impact study will assess how well it works: for example, the colours have to beclearly differentiated, and so on. The foundation has a commercial company, Waag Products, to bring any potential product version to the market.

Games Atelier, a Waag Society application for education, is at a further stage in the process. With this new educational tool, pupilscan create, play, share and view their own locative mobile games with GPS equipped mobile phones and an Internet application.Students can get lessons on the street, thanks to their mobiles. Using their telephones, they can do assignments in which they doresearch (where was a certain building in former days?) and make their own photographs and films.Games Atelier has been tested, and the results were positive and clear. The Waag Society’s starting point was that serious gameshave an added value in education. This intuitive assumption appeared be correct: kids with a mobile on the street learned moreand better than kids in the classroom with the traditional curriculum.

The future according to the Waag Society? Internet 3.0, or the Internet of objects. With GPS technology and refined applications,we will be online always and everywhere. The objects around us are a part of that, thanks to electronic tags. So in the city wemight get a message telling us we’re close to a museum, plus information on its current collection and other options.

Waag Society Medialab

AffectiveComputingand SeriousGames

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Peggy Stein and Eric Hadderingh’s agency, Bureau Pindakaas (‘pindakaas’ means peanut butter), works on positioning theAmsterdam brand, among other things. They also thought up this global warning for all the creative festivals in Amsterdam:once you get touched by Amsterdam creativity, there is no way back.

The remarkable way in which the office itself has invested in Amsterdam is shown in its bringing the Miami Ad school to thecity. A possible Amsterdam office for this school of advertising, design, photography, interactivity and strategy/planning hadalready been discussed for years. Peggy talked with the owner concerning the possibilities of Amsterdam as a European creative hub, persuaded them and facilitated their arrival. The school is in the same building as Bureau Pindakaas. Miami AdSchool Amsterdam is a marketing tool for Amsterdam.

Peggy also had a personal interest in Miami Ad School: she invests in young talent. Regarding the importance of the school,she says: “We are a private school, supported by the creative sector; the best teachers invest in it by teaching classes. Eachstudent is guaranteed work on finishing the course. The students come from everywhere: Miami, Madrid, Hamburg, NewZeeland, San Francisco, including up-and-coming markets like India and Peru. They all think Amsterdam is wonderful, andoften they don’t want to leave. The students are potential talent for offices all over the world. That’s appropriate given the growing trend for offices to employ international personnel.”

Back to their own approach at Bureau Pindakaas, which is no ordinary advertising agency. With a small group of employeesand a large network of freelancers, their goal is to approach working with clients in a completely different way. To be able tomean something for a brand, Bureau Pindakaas aims to sit at the table with decision makers. They talk with them, try to makethem loosen up. As an office, you must go further and deeper than is normally the rule for offices. Think with the brand. That’sa worldwide development: creativity is being drawn more and more into businesses and the government. But why? “We knowwith our experience as part of the creative industries how you can organise flexible tools and profit from them,” says Peggy.

Bureau Pindakaas Advertising Agency

www.bureaupindakaas-advertisingagency.com | http://dijksbikesandthestolenwaterkoker.blogspot.com (Miami Ad School Amsterdam blog) | www.miamiadschool.com

TastyAdvertisingTalent fromAmsterdam

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NDSM Docks A Cultural Incubator

www.ndsm.nl | http://robodock.org | www.koningsdesign.nl

The coming of MTV Networks to the NDSM docklands of North Amsterdam is the ultimate affirmation of its success as a culturalincubator. It often goes like this: first artists move into a rough, undeveloped, neglected area, then other cultural entrepreneursfollow, and cafés and restaurants set up shop. The biggest concern now is the maintenance of the authentic character of the former shipyard, which occupies an area bigger than 10 football fields combined. The huge neighbourhood contains facilities likethe Scheepsbouwloods, a hangar-like structure of 20,000 square metres, containing around 80 artists' studios, and two historicship slipways also housing workshops and artists' studios. It should not become too slick, or it would lose its identity.The general public knows the location thanks to its festivals. In the summertime, they take the ferry for a ten-minute trip over thewater to enjoy the Over het IJ Festival, or the technoculture festival, Robodock. The location is eminently suited to such large-scale, outdoor events. There are plans to use the slipway for summer concerts by the legendary rock venue, the Paradiso.

Eight years ago, the local council of North Amsterdam still had no idea regarding the future destiny of the industrial heritage site.A group of artists, theatre people, skaters and architects came up with a plan to make the former dock and shipyard the largestcultural incubator in the Netherlands. A foundation was set up, Kinetisch Noord (‘Kinetic North’), to realise affordable workingspaces and workshops in close cooperation with tenants, in the form of basic, unfinished spaces that the tenants can finishthemselves. The subsidised spaces are intended for artists and starting entrepreneurs in the creative sector. After a certainamount of time, they must progress to other locations in Amsterdam or to the more expensive and luxurious spaces of developers in the NDSM area itself. Spread over the different halls and warehouses, the 250 local artists form a nucleus for underground culture. They are active inthe fields of visual arts, design, theatre, film, media and architecture. There is an inventor, Eibert Draisma, and craftsmen including coppersmiths and metal workers, but there are also, for example, people like industrial designer Wouter Konings,whose projects have included created retail shelving for Nike.The NDSM docks will be further developed in the future as an international centre for the creative industries. With the local council, NDSM residents and developers are making plans for the further growth of the area, to promote it more extensively andplace it even more firmly on the map as a podium for art, culture and media.

UndergroundCulture in a FormerShipyard

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Couture and the Red Light district: the combination was a magnet for the international press. From Germany to China andJapan, articles appeared all over the world about this intriguing combination. Take a walk there nowadays, and you can admirethe latest fashion creations of top Dutch designers behind the windows, rather than the well-known girls of pleasure. Somedesigners, meanwhile, have had offers from Hawaïi, Argentina and Moscow.The Red Light Fashion Amsterdam project embroiders on Turning Talent into Business, in which 16 Dutch fashion designersspent two years being mentored in professional entrepreneurship, getting business advice and taking part in workshops together. When the City of Amsterdam decided to give a part of the window area to the creative industries, recruitment and consultancy agency of the fashion industry HTNK selected a large part of the designers of the Turning Talent into Business program, because of their talent, quality and proven track record.Red Light Fashion Amsterdam gives an impression of the diversity and the strength of the Dutch fashion indentity. From the multidisciplinary Bas Kosters to the glamorous Jan Taminau with his crowd of international customers: the offerings of Red LightFashion Amsterdam are extremely varied, and yet also completely Dutch. The work of Dutch designers is sometimes called'Polderglamour': it's creative clothing, with a practical accent. By exhibiting together, the 16 talents combine their strengths andinspire each other. Their creations are on sale in the recently opened CODE Gallery Store, at 121 Oudezijds Achterburgwal.The initiative was reason enough for lighting expert Philips to get involved. They have provided their newest retail lighting, as aresult of which the creations on show look resplendent in the windows and workshops. Red Light Fashion Amsterdam thereforeoffers possibilities for collaboration. There is also a plan to make a documentary following the designers' lives for a year.Fashion is an important economic pillar for the Netherlands. It is home to the head offices of G-star, Mexx, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger,Oilily and recently also Reebok. They can all work happily here, because of the creative maturity of the international fashion professionals who love to live in Amsterdam, and because of the concentration in and around Amsterdam of subcontractors, PR offices, model agencies and magazines.A webshop is opening shortly, so that the international public that has been captivated by Red Light Fashion Amsterdam canalso buy the designs online. Which brings you back to where it all began; turning fashion talent into business.

FashionHotspot of theMoment

Participating Labels: Bas Kosters | Corné Gabriëls | Roswitha van Rijn | Conny Groenewegen | G+N - Edwin Oudshoorn | Jan Taminiau |

Daryl van Wouw | Sjaak Hullekes | Sebastic | Mada van Gaans | Ignoor | Jeroen van Tuyl | ...and beyond

Red Light Fashion Amsterdam

www.redlightfashionamsterdam.com

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Although America and Japan are the biggest players in the games industry, the Netherlands has huge potential. Over the pastfive years, the Dutch games industry has grown by 10% (source: PWC), and there seems no end in sight to the current phase ofexpansion. The combination of Dutch liberal culture, out-of-the-box media design, good training and top-notch scientific researchis resulting in innovative entertainment and excellent casual and serious games. Add to this the fact that the Dutch governmentpursues an active policy for encouraging the creative sector, and you have the recipe for the much talked about Dutch gamingindustry. So Triumph studios has developed a best-seller for the Xbox 360 and PC, Overlord. And W!Games has produced a winner forthe Wii. Casual games developer Spill Group attracts over 60 million players to its web sites every month.

Dutch Game Garden is one government-supported initiative to accelerate the growth of the Dutch game industry both nationallyand internationally. It provides wide-ranging support for starting and established games developers. Ronimo Games, for instance,is a promising start-up of former Utrecht School of the Arts and University of Utrecht students, whose game "The Blob" has beenbought by THQ, one of the largest publishers worldwide. The company is currently designing a second game with the support ofDutch Game Garden. The Dutch Game Garden also provides top-class facilities for existing and growing games companies in order to create truegaming hotspots (Ronimo Games is located in a business centre with Why Robbie Rocks, also in this brochure, among others).

According to the Dutch Game Garden, the unique feature of the Dutch games sector is that the companies in the games industrycooperate constructively and don’t consider each other as enemies. Their passion for games means that they prioritise makingbetter games for players above their own importance. There are also good relations with science departments and institutions.This gives the Netherlands an advantage in the field of serious games, where integrated cooperation is essential to create gameswith impact.To promote the Dutch games industry in Japan, the Dutch Game Garden organises a GameJam in association with NLGDFestival or Games. The best Dutch developers are chosen for a weekend collaborative pressure-cooker session to create amobile game for the Japanese market. The winning game is launched in Japan during the Tokyo Game Show. Although theJapanese market is famously difficult to break into, the presence of the Dutch games industry at last year’s show has already ledto some valuable contacts.

Japanese go Dutch forgames

www.dutchgamegarden.nl

www.triumphstudios.com

www.wgames.biz

www.spillgroup.com

www.ronimogames.com

www.nlgd.nl

www.gamejam.nl

Dutch Game Garden

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For the last two years, product, games, graphic, fashion and interior designers from Utrecht (30km from Amsterdam) have allbeen meeting up at U-Design. This network, organised by and for designers, holds meetings aimed at strengthening the designsector. The idea is that the creatives, who are mostly one-person businesses, get to know each other and exchange knowledge.These meetings can also lead to collaboration. For example, a designer can take on a large job that falls partly outside his orher specialism, by joining forces with other designers from U-Design.

The enthusiasm that greeted the network, and the positive feedback from the meetings, shows that U-Design is fulfilling a need.Product designer Pieter van Osch puts it like this: “U-Design isn’t just fun, it’s functional too. At the last meeting, I talked to aproducer of raw materials, and now we’re looking to see if we can work together on product development.”

Networking is one important aspect of U-Design; knowledge development is another. Designers discuss the latest professional developments with each other and stimulate each other’s entrepreneurialism. So one evening had the topic of ‘making strategic choices’ as its central theme. How do you profile yourself as a design office on the market? How do people find you? And whatare the pitfalls of a strong profile?

So just what is unusual about designers in this region? Utrecht is blessed with a large number of high-level educational institutions. These are well connected with the relevant practices, for example in the form of training placements for their students. Thanks to this, design offices can top up their knowledge base with new ideas from education. Moreover, thanks to the excellent infrastructure and small size of the Netherlands, it is easy to make contacts and exchange expertise, even with thetop players in the field. The entrepreneurial climate for designers is favourable, because they get support in so many differentareas.

U-Design projects have included a special day for designers and regular business people to reflect on the appreciation ofdesign, and what the two can mean for each other. Designers, for instance, are able to introduce creativity into ordinary companies, also into areas that are seemingly not design-related (such as strategic problems). And businesses can help designers with their commercial skills and experience. One plus one makes three in Utrecht.

u-design Utrecht Design Network

Making creative connections

www.u-design.nl

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Brandboxx

Motorists on the A6 heading in the direction of Almere can’t miss the striking UFO form of the fashion trade centre Brandboxx.Real estate developer TCN gave architectural firm KOW the express commission of coming up with a landmark with a modernappearance. Since 2002 the Dôme has housed around 60 exhibitors with a total of 150 brands that offer jeans, young fashion,ladies’, children’s and men’s clothing and accessories. Since then, the Dôme has been joined by a second building of 35,000m2,in the form of a cube. A third complex, in the shape of a triangle, follows in 2010.Visitors to Brandboxx Almere quickly imagine themselves in another season. In spring, the suppliers show clothing for theautumn, and vice versa. The large atrium where visitors are received gives an immediate feeling of fashion and colour. Retailersstroll around like shoppers in a mall, and suppliers display their products in showrooms. The most successful suppliers are thosewho, with their products and sales skills, can persuade retailers to include something in their collection. A big change withrespect to the retailers is that most now buy a large number of pieces several times a year, and have them delivered. In thepast, they came to fashion centres to replenish their stock, and took the pieces with them directly to their store (cash and carry).Brandboxx Almere is one of an international network of trade centres all over Europe with a focus on fashion and sport. Thereare there now eight, including centres in Prague, Hannover and Salzburg. There will eventually be 15. Because most brandstarget international customers and increasingly think internationally, they all have a European development director, whereas informer days each country had to its own director to approach the market independently. And brands therefore look to thoseinternational trade centres with the appropriate image for their alpha brands.Arnoud van Raak is director business-to-business Europe of TCN, the developer of the Brandboxx trademarks. His job meanshe is abroad for three to five days of the week. In his experience, the Netherlands is perceived as highly distinctive in the FarEast. “There are Dutch architects behind buildings in Shanghai and Hong Kong,” he says. “They are global performances. I thinkwe are sometimes too modest.” So why does he think other countries choose to work with the Dutch? “We speak other languages,” he says. “As a small country, we have got used to quickly understanding others. We are open to listening to theclient and finding solutions to their needs. That quality is particularly important in the Far East.”

www.modecentrumalmere.nl

AlphaLocationsfor AlphaBrands

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Urbanology is an interactive agency in Haarlem with international customers such as Tommy Hilfiger, Hummer and Boots.Event manager Lesley Brehm notes that these accounts find it “a bit sexy” to work with a Dutch office: “Dutch creatives arehip and trendy and are highly regarded,” she says. “Amsterdam is the place to be. Other countries happily do business withthe Netherlands. And most Dutch offices for their part are happy to work with big foreign names. Urbanology happens to bebased in Haarlem, but that’s only 20 minutes from Amsterdam, and foreign customers experience it as Amsterdam.”

Urbanology is one of the four parties behind Netwerk023 (023 is the dialling code of Haarlem), a network for companies inpublicity, media and the Internet in Haarlem. Lesley organise the bi-monthly meetings and is the moderator of the online community. She explains how the network came to be set up: “The other parties are Wazooky, a search engine marketingagency, the communications office Blutarsky, and GNR8, a training company for students in the creative sector of theHogeschool in the Netherlands and the Media College. All four of us had ideas about making a network so that Haarlemmerscould find each other, and not have to look outside the city. In this way, we can hopefully keep young talent in Haarlem - hence the participation of GNR8.”

As a member of Netwerk023, you can use meetings to network, exchange knowledge and just have fun. In the last meeting,members did some brainstorming about how to put creative Haarlem under the spotlight. The resulting ideas will be proposedto the City Council for possible subsidies. Netwerk023 is a private-sector initiative, paid for by the initiators themselves.Members can use the site to post or request job offers and projects. Everyone is connected to everyone else.

Netwerk023

www.netwerk023.nl | www.urbanology.nl

Network forMedia,Advertising andthe Internet

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Every year, around 200 students graduate from Amsterdam’s art schools, including the Rietveld Academy, the SandbergInstitute, and the Amsterdam School of the Arts. It is important for Amsterdam to hold onto this creativity for the city. Theyoung creatives include theatre professionals, designers, painters, set builders, and others.Thanks to Bureau Broedplaatsen (a “broedplaats” is a hatchery or breeding ground), young hopefuls can find affordable wor-king spaces and studios. The office provides the workshops space along with advice on organisation, management, financesand buildings. In this way, it gives future cultural entrepreneurs the chance to build up a professional practise without having tobe overly concerned about paying the rent for the first couple of years. Many young artists have the professional ambition ofachieving commercial success and significance in the creative industries, an area in which progress is generally in fits andstarts.

Anyone who sees the work of Folkert de Jong can immediately tell that he wouldn’t necessarily fit into just any business com-plex. This former student of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunst and winner of the Prix de Rome sculpture award in 2003,makes huge, figurative sculptural installations in which offenders, assassins, religious fanatics, political extremists and spiritualmediums play the leading roles. From a subsidised space in a Bureau Broedplaats building, he has been able to develop into asuccessful artist, with exhibitions of his work held all over the world.He started in a workshop in the port area. This desolate neighbourhood inspired him initially to create multimedia performancesconcerning death, deprivation and war. Now, from a studio in the leafy neighbourhood of Bos en Lommer, he creates monu-mental sculptures from materials like polystyrene, foam, and other materials developed especially for highly impact specialeffects in the film and television industries.The studio spaces of Bureau Broedplaatsen range from sheds and old school buildings, to spaces under bridges. Hangars andschool buildings are perfect for painters and sculptors, who need light for their work. Darker spaces, like those under bridges,make great rehearsal rooms for musicians.Because working space in the city is becoming increasingly scarce, while there are plenty of bridges offering much potentialspace beneath them, Bureau Broedplaatsen is researching to see whether it can profitably exploit such spaces. This seems tobe the case, and Bureau Broedplaatsen is keen to lead the way. The office is also working with neighbouring municipalities inorder to be able to continue to provide large working spaces, which are sometimes difficult to find in Amsterdam itself.

www.bureaubroedplaatsen.amsterdam.nl | www.folkertdejong.com

A place to be professional

Bureau Broedplaatsen Spaces for creatives

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The art academy has been dissolved, but plenty of artists remain. Together with craftsmen, cultural entrepreneurs and consultancies like Twijnstra Gudde, they form the active creative scene of Amersfoort (50 km from Amsterdam). Numerousinitiatives are in preparation for the coming years that will bring these design and consultancy strength more into focus, andmore attractive for companies in Amersfoort.Amersfoort Creative City (Amersfoort Creatieve Stad) is the engine behind this development. This network organisationencourages stimulating and connective activities for and by the creative sector, in order to profile Amersfoort as a creativecity. So, the city council has released the deserted former industrial area of the Oliemolenkwartier for creative use for a periodof 15 years. Thirty creative entrepreneurs from the network have made plans for new temporary buidlings in the area, including Discover!, a place where creatives can work and events will take place, and an unusual shared business spacecalled Mediafusion.

In this facility, education and media will meet to improve the connections between training and work. It will be an incubator, inwhich starting entrepreneurs can establish themselves under the guidance of existing companies.But the Oliemolenkwartier won’t only be a work and meeting place for creative entrepreneurs: the area will also have a clearlydefined, broad public function. The buildings will offer space for exhibitions and events that have achieved success abroad orin the Netherlands, and which will surprise, amuse and inform visitors. The Oliemolenkwartier will form the heart of the creative economy in Amersfoort, and in this way attract the attention of potential clients.

Currently, creative entrepreneurs still meet each other at the networking meetings of Amersfoort Creative City, where new collaborations are often initiated. One of these recently involved ImproVive, a strategic consultancy, and DBRM, an advertis-ing company. Together they are working on a new product: DBRM is bringing the branding skills, ImproVive the strategicones. Here are just a few of the enthusiastic comments following the meeting: “It was a creative and interactive meetingagain. Very inspired by the talks and new insights. Well done!” and:“I found it a very interesting meeting with a large group ofenthusiastic creatives from Amersfoort. See you at the next one!”

amersfoort creative city A New Creative Heart for Amersfoort

www.amersfoortcreatievestad.nl

An Initiative to Strengthenthe CreativeEconomy

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Beelden voor de Toekomst Digitising Audio-Visual Heritage

A small part of the last century's movies, documentaries, and radio and TV programmes stored in the Netherlands is unusablewithin five years. The majority faces deterioration in 30 years - including the Dutch entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, and other more impor-tant historical material. The project Beelden voor de Toekomst ('Pictures for the Future') secures the audio-visual heritage of the20th century for the future. Over the next seven years, 137,200 hours of video, 22,510 hours of film, 123,900 hours of audio,and 2.9 million photos will be restored, conserved, digitised, and made accessible by means of various services.The digitised material will be made accessible for education, the creative industries, and a general audience. The focus in thecoming years is directed towards developing services for educational purposes and stimulating users to become involved.Six parties are working together on Beelden voor de Toekomst: the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, the NetherlandsFilmmuseum Foundation, the National Archive, Centrale Discotheek Rotterdam, the Association of Public Libraries, andKnowledgeland. It is a huge project, with a budget of ?179 million for the seven years.With Beelden voor de Toekomst, the Netherlands is putting itself on the international map: the project is one of the largest inEurope concerning digitisation of audio-visual heritage. The knowledge acquired will greatly contribute to the Dutch knowledge-based economy. Restoring and digitising such largequantities of material is highly specialised work, which is being undertaken by a number of Dutch companies. Industry thusbenefits from the new accessibility of the audio-visual heritage material.Thanks to digitisation, advertising agencies and film producers can access material quickly and reuse it for new services. A partof the project is also considering innovative ways of offering the material in the most useful fashion for teachers and students, so that schoolchildren can use it for online presentations, for example, and teachers can together set up a bank of lesson plans.Media companies and technical partners are working together to develop the necessary online tools. With Beelden voor deToekomst, the participating archives are making a great step towards the online heritage of the future.

Old Photos and Films Stay Viewable

www.beeldenvoordetoekomst.nl

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