Niklas Frings-Rupp, Miami Ad School Hamburg

Niklas is the co-founder and headmaster of Miami Ad School Europe in Hamburg. Before that he was account director at Springer & Jacoby and Jung von Matt. Thanks to his excellent coaching at the Miami Ad School he's the only 'suit' (account director) ever admitted to the Art Directors Club in Germany.

Actually there are 2 things I liked especially about this week.

First: I really feel honoured being the first writing for Robin’s blog. I was so impressed that he continued writing in his MAS blog for the two years. And I am even more impressed that he continues this tradition with a new one now that he starts his new job at DG.

And second (this is more interesting for people that know me) – I do lose all my penalty points at the Flensburg archive.

The Flensburg archive? What’s that supposed to be? Well, people who drive fast or even race on the Autobahn do know: In most areas of Germany you can’t really speed. There are limitations all over. Unfortunately, we Germans do have to pay a fine when driving too fast and you also get one, two or three points at Flensburg – depending on how fast you were. But these points don’t equal the points at the Formula 1: you shouldn’t feel happy when you get them. You might see yourself as a great fast driver, but the German government doesn’t.

When you collect 18 points you do lose your driving licence for a long time. You might even have to redo your license completely with all the tests.

So what’s the way out? You have to be „clean“ and collect no points at all for two years. Then and only then the guys at Flensburg delete all points that you gathered in the past.

And this week – exactly on the 21st of January – all my 14 points are gone. (14!!! For two years I was very close on the edge of losing my license) 14 points. On the 21th. All gone!!! I have 0 points again!! Virgin again!

Since this is my absolute week's highlight I thought to take the opportunity to celebrate and drive to Berlin judging the „Lead Awards“ - one of Germany’s most important award shows. On the other hand being „not guilty“ is a nice feeling as well – and on the way to Berlin there are lots of speeding radars and many chances to get rid of the driving license again.

So I took the train to Berlin, arrived very relaxed and saw a bunch of nice work – including some work of recent students of ours and feel relieved and happy to be able to still speed, uhm, drive around. Oh, btw: at the Lead Awards you have to give points to the shortlisted works – it’s a good feeling to give and not only to receive.

What a nice week.