LABFILES #01 by ADDICTLAB

SEPT/2009 AD!dict

Lab Files #01

T A L E N T A N D P R O J E C T S F R O M A D D I C T LA B . C O M

IN THIS ISSUE:

OpenLab3.0: Fashion, design & art talent from South Africa. + Portfolio: Thijs Verbeek + Fashionweek: Han Mannaert + Business : 10 tips for creative thinking

SEPTEMBER 2009

AD!dict

Lab Files #01

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LABRESEARCHERS

Dan Rosenthal Marike Hechter Jaylily Jabulile Hlatshwayo Jan Van Mol

have ideas?* Independent platforms & accelerators for creative talent.

addic global creat

need ideas?* Ideation & innovation for businesses & organisations

addictlab.com global creative think tank

LABMEMBERS

// LabFiles

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Dan Rosenthal

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Clive Rundle Han Mannaert 3

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LABRESEARCH

SOWETOLAB TELCOMLAB WOMENSLAB

+ confidential research

FASHION

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Creativity=Chemistry

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LABMEMBERS

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Haldane Martin Joe Pine Kasi Custom Rides Solomon Nkhambula

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ILLUSTRATION Thijs Verbeek Dan Rosenthal

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ÂŠ2009 Addictlab.com Addictlab.com nor the publisher are responsable for the visions the artists and contributors have expressed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted either by conventional means or electronically, without written permission of the publisher. Everyone is free to register, send in ideas and get work published after selection by the editorial board. Ad!dict Creative Lab, Creative X-Ray and Addictlab are registered trademarks of Jan Van Mol

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generating innovation // lab research project linked to certain industries or brands // Addictlab brings labmembers together to generate new ideas out of the box.

Thijs Verbeek

ART DIRECTION

discovering creative talent // labmember = creative mind, from any possible country or origin, from any possible discipline, registered on addictlab.com & uploaded work.

LABMEMBERS

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Labfiles is an addictlab.com publication showcasing creative talent from the Addictlab database. editor: Jan Van Mol with the help of Dan Rosenthal, Marike Hechter, Jaylily Jabulile Hlatshwayo Karen Van Godstenhoven

interactive art 33

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address Addictlab.com Delaunoystraat 60 Brussels Belgium Inspiration books Check & buy the Ad!dict Inspiration Books online

eco

women

addictlab.com global creative think tank

art direction

portfolio Thijs Verbeek Skin Alphabet 2006 – 2008

page 9 Pocketbible with portfolio 2008

concept: Thijs Verbeek

142 pages, with 2mm rvs cover, gives the little booklet about 10 times it’s own weight.

photography: Arjan Benning

Large format: 85 x 60mm (for big potential clients) small format: 44 x 30mm (for small potential clients)

page 10 Affiche Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival 2008 Portrait of Lucifer 2005 ‘About 2000 machs had to die. Only 20 passing my lens are allowed to be called: Lucifer Voor dit project bleek het nodig ruim tweeduizend lucifers te doen sneuvelen, slechts twintig die mijn vergrootglas passeerden mogen de naam Lucifers dragen’. Morf (number 10) 2009

DAW_ad_A4_def.indd 1

18-03-2009 14:22:07

Open Lab 3.0 Creative talent Open Lab 3.0 in South-Africa South Afr Recession? Addictlab takes over high value but empty shopspace. As you may know, I have been working on the further development of Addictlab, here in South Africa. An interesting experiment, as it allows me to test certain processes, learn from mistakes and implement maybe later the best findings in other countries and creative regions. Have a look at the OpenLab3.0, a physical yet guerilla style evidence of Addictlab in a public & popular shop environment. In short, this is doing the following: • Select, discover and accelerate local creative talent (What we call LABINPUT) • Collect stories & people for journalists in the different creative scenes. • Educate a large audience about design, innovation and other cultures. • Interact and marshal a large crowd for ideageneration, via interactive tools. (The difference with ‘crowdsourcing’ being that I think it’s important to know everybody in the process - preferably personal-

ly. I’ll do a blog one day on crowdsourcing and the difference with addictlab.) • Create a physical space, as an inspiring lab environment, for companies that need to tap into our lab when looking for new ideas, coherent brand consultancy and innovation. (LABOUTPUT) It’s an amazing space and it has a pretty important commercial value. Yet it was empty. One of the evidences of economical change is the rise and fall of shop concepts, shopping malls etc. Consumers have an abundancy of choice. But when you’re shop/product/brand falls out of their Top of Mind, you better hang on. In tough times as these, it immediately results in empty venues. Causing less people to come, causing even more shops to close down. Empty spaces are the symptoms of economic downturn.

Resurrection thanks to recession? So these OpenLabs must be seen as a solution, turning those proofs of recession into a positive story, with PR, brand, marketing & inspirational value for everybody involved. The addictlab methodology

could work, yet it requires a lot of collaborative power, energy, and dynamics. We need people, artists, brands, to really WANT. (I’m not mentioning budget. Money should not be an issue when everybody shares a vision.) A physical space as a metaphysical definition of innovation and hope. I can be very lyric on it all. There will always be incomprehensible things in collaborative processes. I offered a - free - space to Danone, to name but one. I need to calculate the value of my gift: the PR value of collaborating, the

rican talent.

ÂŠJoe Pine

©Poken Africa

brand value in the space, the number of people who would be in contact with their brand & product. We’re talking about an A location space, so lots of traffic. We already had national radio doing an interview. It didn’t happen. Timing? Vision? Budget? Lack of Respect? Ignorance? - It’s in those moments that I like to take over the company, and force it in the right direction. But it’s ok. I’m over it. I understand you need two to tango. And I have other things to do then to win someone else’s battle. Certainly when I offer it for free. Then again, during last week’s opening, I was touched by a whole bus of visiting Soweto based artists coming to the design mall. Read: rich environment. I need to be thankful to everybody helping out, like Marike, Jaylily, Sean, Dan, Joanna, Haldane, Clive, Michaella, Open. There was an interesting mix at the opening, yet I will be looking with the help of those great labmembers here to see if we can organise a specific brand/innovation related workshop. Having this space now, opens up even more possibilities. From a content point

of view, we could do this all the time. We have the great talents to showcase. And companies need now more then ever innovation to get out of the dangerzone. We have this space only temporary. If your company or others you know are in need for new ideas, we can bring in creative talent almost immediately to start thinking completely out of the box. This gives us a unique opportunity for our brainstorming sessions. As far as the selection we made for this OpenLab, I believe they all are very talented and useful in most creative processes, but more specifically there are labmembers that can be very valuable for your company when you’re active in : - Automotive - green-eco design - womenslab - branding & marketing - business travel - SouthAfrica 2010 - kids When interested, do not hesitate to get in contact.

Would an OpenLab in your region be a good idea too? Have a place? A network? An empty space? [The temporary Addictlab space at the Design Quarter in Johannesburg is now closed. With a little help, we’re looking at opening one in Soweto]

©Poken Africa

©Clive Rundle

©Dan Rosenthal

©Kasi Custom Rides

©Haldane Martin

@Kasi Custom Rides

ÂŠaddictlab

ÂŠHaldane Martin

De Ar

design

art

OpenLab 3.0

Why big agencies need to be afraid of 3 guys coming

from a township in South-Africa.

When you receive an email, stating that you would have ‘a valuable input in clearing the path to our destiny in terms of developing the work we doing’ then you most probably think it’s spam. In this particular case, it was genuine. by Jan Van Mol

Kasi Custom Rides: Ernest Sibeko Jabulani Ngwenya Sibusiso Justice Dhladhla

Every now and then, I get completely blown away by human ability to create. It’s a rare yet strong emotion, that brings me happiness, since I realise the addictlab concept of discovering great creative thinkers from any culture or discipline is actually working. It makes me proud, and it makes me frustrated, all at the same time. Frustrated since I see the restrictions of what it is I can only do. Even when it’s my eternal Addictlab pledge that we need to do all - and preferably more - that is in our powers to push their talent. Meet Sibusiso Justice Dhladhla, living in a township called Thokoza in Ekurhuleni, working in a group called Kasi Custom Rides, made out of three members namely Sibusiso Dhladhla, Jabulani Ngwenya and Enerst Sibeko. They use paper and cardboard to build cars. The models are about 7Ocm, with perfect curves. The windows go up and down, the rooftop window slides in the roof, the seats can go out, the wheels turn when using the steering wheel. All out of cardboard in a perfect physical visualisation of autocad computer wireframes. Made by hand, not by processor. When they arrive by taxi and humbly present me their concept, my brain activity is at its highest, my mind is in a thousand places. This is why I do what I do. If only they could benefit from the projects that I have

been doing in the car industry. Visiting the design center from Rover and looking at the CAD and the clay models, when doing all campaigns for Daewoo in Belgium. Working on idea generation for BMW or Lexus, setting up projects with Chrysler or Renault. They should have been involved. They need to be involved in the future. Any car company that is not busy getting broke and/or looking for innovation (I guess this covers them all) should call me now. PR or AD agencies working for car companies looking for innovative ideas, should see me tomorrow. Car manufacturers, call me now and invite them to come. Because I don’t see just a car. I see living proof of a much needed serious reshuffle of how companies should use their creative resources. It’s time to stop showing creative respect to agencies who do not respect creativity. It’s time to have respect for authentic creative skills and use creativity in a much needed win-win system for all: client, brand, environment and thinkers. Let this be yet another call to companies to use creativity for all the good purposes. For their own benefit, sure, but also for the benefit of the people and society that surrounds them. As for now, I will do whatever I can to accelerate their talent. In case you wonder, no, no one is paying me to do this. And I’m not even sure what I will get in return. I will exhibit them in our Open Lab. I will

post them on blogs, put them on our homepage and I will get frustrated when I don’t get a call from car or design companies wanting to see how we could get that talent in for design, communication, PR or other projects. I want them to be in Milan next year. I want journalists to write about them. I want companies to pay them the right amount of money for their skills. Christmas should come early this year. The cars were on show at the OpenLab3.0 event in Johannesburg. One of them is in Geneva. The others will be exhibited at the SowetoLab space. Check www.Addictlab.com for more.

OpenLab 3.0

High Frequency

Mind.

Solomon Nkhambula creates unique pieces of art.

soweto lab.com

Made from e-waste, rubbish, Nokia adaptors, Coke bottles and

Buy via info@addictlab.com & support our

soweto lab.com

cultural elements, each radio Solomon creates is a piece of art. Arte Povera on the FM band.

Open Johannesburg interactive project. Open Johannesburg was a partner to the Open Lab3.0. All visitors could add their contributions/ thoughts on 3 huge panels on a wall in the Addictlab space. The past, present and the future, as a crowdsourcing research subject. I did - I am - I will www.openjohannesburg. co.za

LabAmbassador Dan Rosenthal

OpenLab 3.0 The Lab couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have existed without the help of Marike Hechter, Jayliliy Jabullile - a true lab manager - and artist/photographer Dan Rosenthal. Here is some inspiring and strong work by Dan, illustration & photography. Check out: www.danrosenthal.net www.basindeepstudios. com

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OpenLab3.0

Clive Rundle

OpenLab3.0

A fashion vision on South-Africa “You are invited to see SA & Soccer climb itself out of a wall (we’re not kidding). Imagine three models climbing out of the wall. S’true!” This once-off, fantastic fashion installation is designer Clive Rundle’s approach on the subject of South Africa’s brand, as it links to the upcoming World Cup, for Addictlab’s latest research. The large scale and site-specific installation allows a viewer to catch a glimpse of the movie that plays inside the elusive fashion designer and constructionist’s head during his design dreaming process. This is a collaboration between Clive Rundle, Addictlab and Savannah Erasmus, the producer of Clive’s fashion shows.

Over the last 20 years, CLIVE RUNDLE has become renowned for his uncanny ability to embrace chaos and reconcile the unimaginable with the imaginable, the ugly with the beautiful. His design dreaming process culminates in intricate structures that broach and embrace global issues - a kind of intelligence that harmoniously integrates multi-cultural diversity. A bit like architecture in motion. See www.cliverundle.co.za..

the brand of

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Michaella Janse van Vuuren

Chrysanthemum

Voted Most Beautiful Object in South Africa

at the Design Indaba, Capetown

in the mean time on www.fashionweek.be

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In Soweto, dreams are made out of cardboard.

soweto lab.com This might be our most important project since the beginning of Addictlab in 1997. Sowetolab.com wants to discover and accelerate creative talent from Soweto.

Are you looking for a concept that would link your brand to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa? Link your brand to the Sowetolab activities in order to really make a difference.

And you can help: - hire creative talent from Soweto - get genuine stories for press articles - link your brand to Sowetolab.com - generate ideas for the World Cup 2010

mail info@addictlab.com - www.sowetolab.com

When looking for a sustainable sponsorship for 2010 with high PR & ROI value

business/lab // section

Addictlab serves as a source of inspiration for companies, a motor for innovation and an independent think tank on all possible creative processes needed in your company. Here are 10 tips that will help you engage in creative thinking. Contact addictlab for Inspiration ShowersTM, brainstorming sessions and ideation processes.

10 tips for creative thinking. Disruptive thinking is a catchy term. It sounds drastic, cruel, and it needs specialists to implement. But basically, creative thinking is - per definition - tearing you away out of your comfort zone. Think out of the box and more of that. Disruption is thus a more assertive way of describing the creative process. Much needed, I know, since the term ‘creative’ itself has been used, abused and overused the last decennia, defining work done by slick advertising guru’s as well as the activity of group beading at your local crafts center , preferably done by housemoms. What follows are some tips on creative thinking, or disruptive thinking. Since I believe it’s what makes us human, and is thus, per definition, not the sole ownership of agencies.

1. Periscope vision.

Know that feeling of being submerged in your work? Busy, busy? Now, a pretty easy way of looking for ideas is to apply a periscope vision. You dive to the surface from whatever depths your regular job takes you, and you use an imaginary periscope to browse to whatever surrounds you. You’ll be amazed what you see and (re)discover.

2 . Choose your battle.

Here is my ‘quantum leap theory’ for brands, applying some state of the art physics to branding & marketing. I believe you can define your brand as the collection of a series of brand-molecules such as: Sales - Management - Products - Services - Environment - Share holders - People - Brick & mortar - Human resources - Assets - History - Competitors - Family - Social Tissue - Political present - etc etc …

All of those elements together define your brand. Building a brand is thus a very complex task, and goes far beyond the activities in your existing departments of today. This system shows that a brand is a dynamic system, never static. It’s difficult to control, difficult to measure. ‘Branding’ is then looking for a point of gravity of all of those elements, never perfect, since constant in motion, in size, direction, axes and levels. Innovation is thus the application of controlled power boosts to those different aspects/molecules, so that your brand, in its totality, gets to another energy level. idea generation is the same thing: choose your battle, select your subject, and fire away.

3. Add layers of research. Whatever you do, you’re not doing it alone, on an island, without any interference with and from your surrounding. You never are. So looking for new ideas for your business implies understanding the environment your business is in. Add layers of research, and start from a broad spectrum before narrowing it down to the problem at hand.

4. Build a reflex.

I can run around in the red light district of Amsterdam and have an idea for a broom company. I can read a book and have an idea on chocolate taste. Is that disruptive thinking? Or merely creating inspirational links? In our research we try to find links that are normally not there. The more you do this, the easier you are building that reflex.

5. Reset the parameters. An example of Parameter resetting. In this case, we shifted thinking from trying to sell chocolate to trying to create experiences. Inside the book is the chocolate figure. This ‘book’ creates a unique brand experience linked to the story (about ‘Sinterklaas’ on the cover, who has this book with the names of all children that have been good). The concept enriches the experience for children, and... justifies a higher price.

6. Question the question.

In creative thinking, you always question the question. Because whoever asked you something might have a limited view of the possibilities, or a restricted vision of the needed outcome. Lee Cooper wanted us to create a collection with a new sort of jeans fabric they had produced. Labmember Aleksandra Paskowska did all that. Yet she added an extra product: a sleeping bag for two. It was that product that was picked up by the press.

7. Rebirth : start from scratch Sometimes it’s best to imagine a rebirth. Of your company, of your service, your product. Question why you engaged in this or that process again in the first place. This thinking allows you to go back and leave out some of the steps you have been taking throughout the process.

8. Dare to think the unthinkable: neglect your intellect. We are limited by what we know. The more we know, the more restricted we are in our free thinking. So you need to neglect your intellect. Go with first impressions, emotion, rather then ratio. Get out of your comfort zone.

9. Spring cleaning.

This is an important one. In your environment, that one new idea might already be there. What am I saying, it probably is. But that particular concept didn’t show up on the radar. Maybe it came too soon, maybe the organisation was not ready for it, maybe the company structure simply doesn’t have a system to track ideas that come from within. That guy on the work floor has an idea to improve the production. What system is in place to know about that? It would be good for the company, and it would certainly be showing respect to the possibilities of your employees. How do you log those ideas? How do you trace them? Think of it as spring cleaning. While doing that, you bump on things you never realised you actually have. Most to be thrown away, but maybe a moment to rediscover one of the assets you had forgotten about.

10. Marshal your people & your thoughts. As for that idea from the guy on the work floor: install a system for ideas to show up on the radar. Allow your people to be involved and come up with ideas. Make sure some ideas actually are implemented. This encourages free thinking and changes your employees into brand ambassadors. Install a concept squad, and give them a mandate of idea generating power. For more thoughts and services for companies, get in contact with the Addictlab organisation, or mail Jan Van Mol

Cases of ideation for companies. For more thoughts and services for companies, get in contact with the Addictlab organisation.

Subscribe to the following research labs: • Womenslab • Kidslab • Telcomlab • Brand Labresearch • ChangeMarketing • retail lab • yourownlab (eg: beerlab, broomlab,..) info@addictlab.com

Join/Use* Addictlab today.

Have ideas? Register on addictlab.com, upload your work, and follow the different projects we are working on. Need ideas? Companies and organisations can contact us for our different offerings Order your Inspiration ShowerÂŠ or Creative X-RayÂŠ today. info@addictlab.com // www.addictlab.com

addictlab.com global creative think tank

LABFILES#01

addictlab.com global creative think tank

ISBN 978-0-557-67524-1

90000

(1) to discover and accelerate creative talent (2) to offer innovation and out-of-the-box thinking (3) to implement sustainable changes for companies, organisations and society register / upload ideas / Become a Labmember

9 780557 675241