Tim Arts & Stefan van den Boogaard, Creatives at Wieden + Kennedy, Portland (Oregon, USA)
Are you inspired by the same thing? / Two peas in a pod or completely different?
It’s a bit of both. Of course, sometimes we are inspired by the same things, but we also do have our own opinions, ideas and inspirations. We agree on a lot of things and disagree on a lot of things.
What is your favourite WdKA memory?
We still quote our teachers on a daily bases. Smart things said by, for example, Marien de Goffau or Ivan Gonda or funny things said by our less brilliant teachers. For example: “Nemen jullie even je pilletje. Ik heb er last van!” (Why don’t you take a pill. ‘Cause you annoy me!) or “Jullie hebben schijt aan mij maar jullie blazen me niet weg met goede ideeën.” (You might not give a shit about me, but in the meantime, you don’t blow me away with your good ideas.). We’ve heard that the teacher of that last quote now uses us as a good example of how to work.
Another great memory is the day we officially graduated and received our diplomas. It was the day The Netherlands defeated Brazil during the World Cup in South-Africa. Sneijder scored by heading the ball into the goal after a brilliant pass by Kuijt.
How did your collaboration start?
We started working together during our second year at WdKA, in 2007. We were both very ambitious and driven, that is why we connected very well. We were also both very ugly which also made us connect very easily - it felt like looking in the mirror. Teachers wanted to break us apart and tried to force us to work with other classmates, but eventually, we bounced back and stayed together. So it is a collaboration of almost 10 years now.
How did your collaboration become a success? Was it a long way full of hardships or did it ‘just happen’?
We are extremely honest with each other. When one of us thinks an idea is a shit we just call it that. Everything we produce is owned by both of us.
So, don’t give up too quickly. A good creative team is like a good marriage. You have to invest in it to make it work. Most of the teams that have split up after graduating are now working as shoe salesmen or bartenders (which is also great if you want to become a shoe salesman or a bartender).
A good creative team is like a good marriage
Are you pioneers?
We are the Elon Musk and Steve Jobs of advertising. Only without the greatness. And without the talent. And without the brains. And without money. And without being a pioneer. Actually, we might not be exactly the same as Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. But we do work in advertising. And hopefully, we inspire people. At least our parents are proud of us.
What is the future of your profession in your opinion?
It depends if you look at it in general or a more personal way. In general, creativity will never be taken over by robots or other forms of Artificial Intelligence. So our profession will always be there in some form. On a personal level, we might at some point switch to screenwriting, directing films or being inventors. Or we will have our own creative agency. Who’s to say?
You never leave your house without…?
The keys to open the front door when you come back.
Any words of advice to future students?
Don’t listen too much to teachers. Make the things that you want to make. The things that give you a funny feeling in your stomach when you think of them. If we would have made what some teachers expected from us we would have been jobless by now. Have fun. It will be the best time of your life.
Name your favourite recent project.
We have created a couple of projects for Nike recently which we both really like. We made a statement about the qualifier we use when we talk about Serena Williams, and we tried to get rid of it, we made a campaign that interrupted people and confronted them with their time wasting behaviour. And we created the new tagline, 'it's only crazy until you do it'.
View other projects here.
Media response to the projects Tim & Stefan have worked on.
Tim's interview, Fontanel platform (in Dutch).
