Show us where you work - inside the advertising agency

CR is devoting the whole of the November issue of CR to looking at the creative workplace and on life in the studio or agency...


# this image was floating on thin air somewhere on our servers, I don't know who's magnificent shot it was. The owner can claim this image in the comment section.

CR wants to find out about where you work, what your studio or creative workplace is like, even what the view outside your window is. So if you're a designer in a studio, or you work in an agency, if you're a creative working on your own, we want to see what your space looks like.

I work at Duval Guillaume, but you knew that of course. Duval Guillaume is based in an old factory. The building was completely renewed by Jo Crepain, a respected Belgian architect who unfortunately passed away in december (2008).


# this image was floating on thin air somewhere on our servers, I don't know who's magnificent shot it was. The owner can claim this image in the comment section.

The postal adress of the agency is Antwerpselaan 40, B-1000 Brussels most people enter the building via the front porch on that adres. But that entry is actually the backdoor. Jo integrated the large manor house on the back of the factory when the factory got re-opened. Because the old large manor house houses the reception desk, visitors get a warm welcome. A cosy but chique Jori treats waiting visitors well.

When visitors actually enter the working ground of the agency going passed the receptiondesk they are confronted with the enormous majesty of open space. Most people intuitively look up to see the grandeur of a huge glass bricks roof symbolising the importance of a Team. The roof would collapse if ever 1 brick would break.

@Pietel has a very nice set of the DuvalGuillaume atmosphere

Duval Guillaume is an idea-centric communications agency.

Photo: © Pieter Baert

Duval Guillaume is an idea-centric communications agency.

Consumers think brand, whatever the medium or the message. We blow the line. In media, thinking and titles; hence "Strative".

Only ideas are the carriers of new thoughts and can influence behaviour. Ideas originate from creative processes, not from procedures.

The creative process at Duval Guillaume is driven by brand teams and no departments.

The first medium for any brand message is digital. We believe strong brands - big or small - will have the power to be their own medium.com

Shapeshifters - Kenya Hara

29 April 2009 — Kenya Hara



Graphic designer Kenya Hara is involved in communication projects in a wide range of disciplines, and has won many awards (icograda Excellence Award, Mainichi Design Award 2000, icsid Design Excellence Award, Tokyo Art Directors Club Grand Prix Award, Kodansha Publication Culture Award, Hiromu Hara Award, Yusaku Kamekura Design Award and the Japan Culture and Design Award). His work is deeply rooted in Japanese culture: he was involved in product design to promote Japanese sake and rice, as well as integrated design ranging from space design to graphic design for the Ginza Matsuya department store renewal project in Tokyo. By focusing on tactile perception in the Umeda Clinic signage system, he presented the possibility of a new communication format. As a producer of exhibitions such as the Macaroni Exhibition of Architects and RE-Design: The Daily Product of the 21st Century, Hara has helped direct our attention towards everyday products. Along with several awards for book designs, Hara has established his reputation through his outstanding ad campaigns for muji. In 2008, Hara’s vision of design was published by Lars Müller in Designing Design. Kenya Hara is a representative of the Nippon Design Center Inc. and professor at the Musashino Art University.



Kenya Hara (born 1958) is a Japanese graphic designer and curator. Hara is art director of Muji since 2001 and designed the opening and closing ceremony programs of the Nagano Winter Olympic Games 1998.



Kenya Hara has published “Designing Design”, in which he elaborates on the importance of “emptiness” in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan, and its application to design. In 2008, Hara partnered with fashion label Kenzo for the launch of its men's fragrance Kenzo Power.

Kenya Hara is considered a leading design personality in Japan and in 2000 had his own exhibition “Re-Design: The Daily Products of the 21st Century”.

LAb[au] Lights Up The City

I've live in Brussels for 7 years now, and after a short stay in the city centre. The Dexia giant is back in my backyard. As a student I could see the tower grow and grow, it took almost three years untill it was completed, then that last year LAb[au] did a very cool installation for the opening. There was a lightningpanel in front and you could play and stear the lights that were displayed through the windows of this gigantic (for Brussels) tower, awesome. Now it stars in Creative Reviews latest issue

A few years ago they also had an installation with fishes, which really blew me away.

Read more about the tower-project and the fishes » LAb[au] Lights Up The City

Fractie Sp.A-Spirit-Brussel

The Sp.A-Spirit-Brussel site is finally live and kicking. It is a project I was commisioned a few months ago but because of my departure to Proximity BBDO the finalisation of the project was seriously delayed. Some last modifications were made without my further involvement but eitherway it's still close to what I proposed.

XIO did one hell of a job to implement all the needs and desires to meet my design and concept, Thanks Pascal & the other guy that AS3.0 scripts like a devil (he's ex-TheseDays and running this new web-company in Ghent) !!

KunstenFestivalDesArts

Another publication by Outlandish. This time Sarah Van Marcke made a series for Isabella Soupart.