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David Kennedy rallied the Portland office and sent over a little token of Christmas love in the form of endless boxes of candy canes and greenery. He even had a photo shoot especially for the occasion. And yeah, that's Kennedy in the photo. Really.
Post by Cari Vander Yacht, creative
Stress about Christmas presents no longer! With our gift guide, not only will your loved ones have presents on the big day, but you will finally be recognized for the thoughtful person that you are. Who needs shopping in Paris when you have the internet!
Recommended by Chris Taylor
Woolfiller is a bundle of multicolored raw wool, a needle and a sponge. You use it to fix holes in your favorite old wools sweaters. Just watch the video.
It’s also a DUTCH product.
This gift is perfect for retro-philes, art junkies, poor people, craft chicks and little sisters.
Recommended by Amanda Feve
Baby, it's cold outside! And while touch screen phones are great, frozen fingers are, well, less so. Do your nearest and dearest a favor, spring for some Glove Tips and spare their digits the indignity of having to disrobe in the cold in order to call/text/take their turn at Words with Friends this winter. There are lots of Touchscreen-compatible gloves out there this holiday season, but why buy new ones when you can just add these bad boys to the gloves you already love?
This gift is perfect for anyone with fingers and a touchscreen.
Recommended by Rachel Mays
Because even protection needs protection.
This gift is perfect for your father.
Recommended by Malia Killings
Microwave Cooking for One. For myself. Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a 1-person feast. With myself.
Recommended by Jordi Martinez
Little printer turns anything on your phone into a small piece of paper - latest news, sudokus, twitter updates, nike runs, etc. Why do I need this? Because doing sudokus with a pen is more challenging. Because the phone doesn't fit on your notebook. Because sometimes I forget I was going to check the news and start playing "Jetpack". Because my phone doesn't scroll when my fingers are full of mayo from the broodje I am eating.
Give it to your significant other so you don't have to justify the expense.
Recommended by Stuart Parkinson
Wikipedia is your god. It is what the internet was made for. You've spent hours on it. It's made you a more interesting person. Help it along a little.
This gift is perfect for strategic planners.
I began my blog post with absolute trepidation, having no idea what I could or even wanted to say to the world. However, one thing I did know was that I wanted it to be Amsterdam centric.
After mulling over a diatribe on the tradition of Zwarte Piet and less weighty fodder such as Amsterdam Christmas lights, which by the way were up far too early this year, I settled on entertainment – or more specifically a selection of movies shot in Amsterdam.
On first research it seemed there were only a handful of movies (or at least ones I knew) that were shot here. However, as all roads lead to imdb I soon found out that there were 906 titles shot in or around Amsterdam.
I have pulled together a selection of the best for your viewing pleasure. By best, I mean the oldest, most well known, weirdest, most surprising, most flattering (or not) to Amsterdam scenery and culture and so on.
For those of you whose movie appetite is not satiated by my ten choices click here for the additional 896. Although, be warned a disproportionate number of them involve war stories and/or drug smuggling and prostitution.
Disclaimer – these movies were not all entirely shot in Amsterdam, though scenes from them were.
1. Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349903/
A favourite of course, with a great, if utterly preposterous scene, where the 12 lower a canal house to break into a safe.
2. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Roger Moore is on the case as Peter Franks (or is it Bond, James Bond) as poor old Mrs. Whistler is pulled from the Amstel.
3. Modesty Blaise (1966)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060708/
The perfect follow up to number three, more spies, diamonds, Brits and both frequent and extravagant costume changes. See an Amsterdam canal house explode and a very young Terence Stamp.
4. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052738/
Perhaps predictable but necessary nonetheless – a major piece of Amsterdam history and source of tourism. Should they both sit in the same sentence? Perhaps not.
5. Amsterdamned (1988)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094651/
Tourists take note, this is what lurks beneath the murky canal waters.
6. Mindhunters (2004)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297284/
Filmed entirely in The Netherlands, including Amsterdam, yes the plot is a ludicrous as the title suggests but they do manage to pass off a school in The Hague as the FBI headquarters. If that isn’t enough it stars Val Kilmer and he was Ice Man for pete’s sake!
7. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367652/
A case of serious mistaken identity and gigolo genocide, number seven is purely because this list was becoming too dark, which this movie isn’t, despite the start of this sentence.
8. Alegria (1999)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123376/
Roll up to the big top to the see movie adaptation of Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria. Yes, you read that right.
9. The Girl With The Pearl Earring (2003)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335119/
Read the book (Tracy Chavelier), see the movie, visit the painting (Mauritshuis, The Hague) and then visit the painter’s hometown. Oh no, wait that is Delft not Amsterdam. At least the movie was shot here.
10. De Heineken Ontvoering (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1846526/
I couldn’t do the list without including a Dutch film and, well, it just so happens that this movie is about a client of ours as well.
Post by Clare Pickens, account director
After six months of sleepless nights, hectoliters of coffee and an unfathomable amount of fun, we finally graduated. The Kennedys experiment came to an end with a bang. And a big one. In typical Kennedys fashion, we tried our hardest to couple the useful with the necessary. So, thanks to Big Rens (the seventh Kennedy), who managed to hang some of our selected works, campaigns and some screen prints on the walls of a jam-packed Amsterdam club we had taken over for an entire night. After the hilarity of the "Youtube Smackdown", we were given our diplomas by Alvaro and Judd. Those were followed by mandatory thank-you speeches, and then we were onto the necessary-The party itself. With an audience of mostly friends and family, we literally shut the club down and had some of our best memories in Amsterdam that night. For the parents reading this, everybody got home safe, in cabs.
Post by Massaer Ndiaye AKA French Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam look forward to launching The Kennedys year 2 at the beginning of 2012. Recruitment details will be available at http://www.thekennedys.nl
10% participation rate. Up 100% from last year. Individual gift highlights: willy warmer, weapon from the Gobi desert, Rogue beer, feijoas, a tweaked out wooden owl and pens that you can eat with. Incredible what €5 gets you.
The Dutch always accompany their present with a poem. With a few small tweaks we made Ebba's appropriate enough to share with you.
Dear Ebba.
It has been quite the year.
And you have been pretty bad I hear.
I didn't expect you to be an angel.
You're hot and from Sweden.
And you chew tobacco so much I think you puttin' weed in it.
I'd hate to see you end up in Spain next year.
Which means you gotta cut back on all that beer.
We need someone to keep an eye on you at night.
Sorry if this goes beyond your individual rights.
So I've gotten you this owl.
I took the liberty of naming him Dirty Foul, the Anti-Spain Mogul.
He'll keep you in line and ensure everything is fine.
Oh and ignore his bewildered eyes.
He's just shocked he gets to hang with YOU for the rest of his life.
Clearly we are creative.
Designing is fun. Coding is fun. But it's what happens in the middle that causes some serious pain - soul sucking pain to be exact.
So The Dam Armada, our W+K Amsterdam tech lab, launched this new product FERRY, which turns a PSD into production-ready assets, easing the process of exporting assets for designers and developers.
FERRY is like those people you hire when you move house - they pack everything neatly into boxes, haul everything into your new place, unpack everything, placing the items neatly in each designated room. Except rather than thousands of dollars, you buy them a pizza.
This little mover just got named to the FWA Mobile of the Day.
There’s a free demo version that will export up to 5 layers out of your designs. Learn more about Ferry.
Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month. Bernath's iPhone weather report wrote that Eliot might want to take his head out of his ass and take a look outside.
from the mind that brought you
Two weeks ago blogger Brianna Graves from IHAVEANIDEA, came to our agency with her detective’s hat and coat (quite literately a khaki trench coat and slick white hat), ready to get to the heart of Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. And suddenly she realised that she'd lost her wallet. At least that’s how the story began.
A classic Wieden belief is to always be positive. Fortunately she was in the right place…
Don't miss how the story ends in the great article she wrote about Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam.
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