THE WORKSHOP
In the spring of 2022, Luke and I set out to create something real—an IRL workshop in my studio at NDSM in Amsterdam Noord. The idea was simple: gather a group of artists and experiment with co-creation, without overthinking or chasing perfection. We started finding words that resonate with us and have the power to create entire worlds. To discover these words, we employed few meditation techniques that served as a self-prompting exercise. Once the artists identified their chosen word, they began translating it into their artwork.
The workshop was rooted in exploration. We wanted to see what happens when you drop your ego and let different styles collide. No carefully planned outcomes, just pure, unfiltered creation. As someone who’d spent over 15 years in the creative industry, I was feeling disillusioned. The creative process in advertising has become a game of safe bets, where bold ideas are sanitized by marketing teams and decisions are driven by algorithms. Rarely do brands take risks; most are content to stick to what worked before in a loop of sameness.
Creatives, meanwhile, had become hunters of what’s cool rather than creators of something new. Moodboards filled with other people’s work, endless decks polished to perfection—yet little room for true artistic expression. The bold decisions, the breakthroughs, the raw, untamed ideas were often lost in the process, smoothed out until they were indistinguishable from everything else.
Our workshop was a rebellion against that. We wanted to tap into intuition, not trends. We designed exercises that encouraged participants to look within for inspiration, to create quickly and iteratively, leaving no room for hesitation or perfectionism. We wanted to break the mold, to get artists out of their comfort zones.
Over the course of two nights, participants worked with everything from watercolor to VR, from code to performance, creating in ways they hadn’t before. It wasn’t always polished, but that was the point. The work was raw, mystical, weird, and utterly beautiful—a snapshot of a moment shared by a group of artists exploring what’s possible when we let go of the need to control the outcome.
This zine is a window into that experiment. It’s not just a collection of art; it’s a reflection of those spring nights—an expression of the untapped creative force we found together. I’m proud to share this work, and even prouder to call these artists my friends.
CONTRIBUTORS