Shit design. (Pardon my french)

One of the things we can do with the Addictlab concept, is set up collaborations with schools and have their students work on one of our research themes. Preferably in a out-of-the-classroom surrounding, and on a project that is far away from their normal habitat.

Have a look at the ongoing Kidsresearch.

Some examples?
Take labbie Silke Rombaut.

She contributed with her great Kids Cage concept on her labfile.



But look a her 'Shit Down' concept, a bold design statement in the beginning of your career.. But on second thoughts, not bad. Useful it is, since you need kids to train to do their little thing on a toilet in stead of in the Procter and Gamble device. These house breaking rules are not that easy. (I have two kids, I know). Yet I'm not too sure about having a huge fecal look-a-like in my bathroom, but ok.






Second remarkable concept is by Labbie Dagmar Stozek
She is clearly a fan of the prestigious Nip Tuck series, and who can blame her.
She created a very strong image, with a lot of impact and 'stopping power' as we say. During the Labbie workshop they can think of concepts for products, but also reflect on the matter at hand. Which is even more important.



And then a nice one by Marilyn Verwimp. This flower changes color, indicating the right temperature of the water when the baby needs to take a bath. A concept with a possible commercial value..



We do welcome schools to take on similar projects. Do not hesitate to get in contact and have your students become our labbies.

Aanvallah! - A football blog.

So here we have it. The Dutch soccer team defeated Italy with a 3- niks score. And it could have been worse.

I'm not a football freak. I did play some, ages ago, at the infamous S.K. 's Gravenwezel. And the only time I wore a teams colors was when I drove my motorbike to go see Lierse becoming Belgian champion. An exhibition of fan behaviour from that magnitude, in my case, that needs some explanation.

I had an advertising agency, MotuNui, and we had arranged for my client Daewoo to be sponsor of the Lierse team.
A Korean client, at that time, was a sort of adventure for my then pretty young company. We had no 'car' experience what so ever. Still that's what made it a success I guess. (We gave a way 100 cars to test drive, added free petrol for a year, all things you wouldn't do with a car back then. We used FMCG marketing concepts for cars, which became an example for the competitive brands.)

Setting up sponsorship with a football team seemed a good idea to increase brand name awareness. The first match of the season, with big boss Kim attending (50% of all Korean people are called Kim) Lierse was defeated, with a humiliating 8-0 against Anderlecht.
Everybody thought our sponsor deal was wasted money. I thought I wasted my client.
Who could predict that at the end of that soccer season, that small team would actually win the cup. There are blurry images in my mind of Korean marketing responsibles dancing on their own cars. (You have no idea how a couple of years in Belgium can actually destroy your good manors :-)

So, yes, that's why a drove my bike and Petra - both with yellow scarfs - to that last remarkable game.

Football, since then, was never that good. Today, the Belgian soccer team is perfect in sync with the Belgian government. Blatantly incompetent to do the job at hand.

And what did we see yesterday? The Netherlands performing pretty well. Holland, playing as a team! Let me repeat that : 'as a team'. Done with the primadonnas and ego's of the last century.
You must know that there is always this sort of rivalry between Holland & Belgium.
Lately, the Belgian Flemish speaking part has some problems with the French speaking part, and vice versa, leading up to thoughts to bring Flanders together with Holland.
Thoughts that can only emerge after watching a boring football game in a burning sun when your face itches from the orange paint and your intestinal flora are being infected with a liquid substance called dutch beer.
Since no two cultures are more different: The Dutch eat sausages out of a wall and drink a pint of milk with it!)
But hey, if it's about a national football team that performed yesterday, then yes, we would welcome them with open arms. It's not that we still have a Justin Henin or Kim Clijsters to keep our country together. But that's another story.


Now how did I started writing this blog? Dutch labmember Jeroen Tebbe mailed me this morning that his 'Aanvallah!' concept was getting more and more international response.

'Aanvallen!' is what you would yell if you, well, charge to take over another country. Yet the Allah! at the back is a pretty good tongue in cheek discovery to add another level. It's a way to get Dutch muslims united with the Dutch soccer team.

A social integration project using football. Didn't I say that creative thinking can actually change our world?




Jeroen Tebbe's labfile

Your silence blows my head off.

Dutch labmember Jeroen Tebbe has uploaded another great concept on Addictlab.com.

Here you have something ordinary and small, and let's admit it, a bit gross. Any thought of another human beings ear smear is not what I consider a feast. But ok, ear plugs are quite necessary and helpful, from a medical perspective that is.

So you take Jeroen's creative brainwaves, and hup, this little device becomes a communication tool. He uses a tongue in cheek humour that I can appreciate a lot.
The iDEAF should be a hit on the workfloor.

What am I saying, in your day to day relationship aswell.
The first one, for when she really isn't talking to you. Kind of saying: Talk to me, your silence is blowing my head of.
And the second one more for the opposite, when she talks too much. It would mean : Shut up, screw you...

Ok, I'll stop. My imagination is taking me too far.

Addictlab Labfile