Businessman, art-director, managing director, designer, noisemaker: whatever Peter van der Helm is, you know for sure that he's never sitting still. After winning his first award at the age of 24, he continued to surprise people. He started his own agency from scratch and is now co-operating with the network agency of Andy Law. Two years ago, he proved all his critics wrong by winning a Cannes Lion in the category outdoor.

First let me introduce myself. Robin and me are former colleagues, we used to work together at McCann-Erickson. It was my first job as a junior art-director and his first one with me. Both very stubborn, but always having a beer at 17:00 sharp after a day of fighting. Of course Robin came to be one of the most succesfull copwriters in the world. Respect. Here we are just trying to make a living and having fun at the same time. Which usually pays off.

Eh....what happened in my week.....eh.....just came back from Brasil. Although 'just'.......a few weeks back actually, but right in the middle of producing the images for the campaign which we shot in the middle of the Amazone. So, I'm still after-enjoying. The Forest Stewardship just became our new client in the end of last year. Working extensively for both Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth has proven to be a good thing. Because of this, and because we eliminated all the other agencies in a pitch they choose us. Nice client, nice work. About the work.....it was hell getting it. After talking to 7 photographers in Brasil who all tried to convince me that digital Photography is the way forward I got a bit angry and bought a Mamiya 645 myself. Of course I love photography and worked extensively in school with it, but I do not consider myself a photographer. So my phonebill rose to immense-never-reached-before heights when giving myself a crash course photography with one of my favorite Photographers (Rik Balder) on the telephone whilst standing 20 meters above the ground in a tree on the edge of the Amazone testing the camera before the real work. All good, the pictures came out swell.

Last week we started production of the material consisting of a long-lasting campaign under which we attach several short ones to reach the public we want. The campaign consists of postering, ads, a viral idea and in-store happenings together with the partners that sell FSC certified wood (do-it yourself stores, gardening stores, etc.). We even revised their old pay-off. Can't tell you to much about it, the campaign will start in a few months. With this mail some of the pictures....bad scan but you get the idea.

Next to that we had a presentation at Group 4 Securicor which is the biggest security company in the world. We we're already working for them, and now they asked us to do their overall campaign. It took us already 6 months to revise all their problems and the results will be shown in the campaign we are tinkering with now. Security business seems boring but I can assure you it is not. My nephew works for them and after talking with him I even wanted to be a security officer! Seems I'm stuck to my desk telling everybody how great it is. But it is! Can't tell you about it yet......the concept direction and the strategy got approved and now it's on with the rest. Print is something they are in already and the internet will be playing a big part as well. Not to forget Radio and TV which we will be shooting at the same time, but first things first. Rome wasn't build in one day either. Aran, one of the sketch artists Robin knows as well is a regular face in the office so he was here last week (and weekend) sketching for G4S. The client approved everything we did the day after the presentation and now we are focusing on the next one this Friday. Expecting the campaign to launch end of March if we can run that fast.

Also, I had a jurymeeting for the Art-Directors-Club-Netherlands this week. Last year I got so angry with the results (of the annual award show, red.) that I sent them a disappointed e-mail the day after. So if you want to get in the jury....open your mouth it seems.....Maybe my mail had a bit to do with a tragic death in my friends circle that day or it was the bottle of wine. Or maybe I was just pissed of that our Cannes winning idea didn't win local. No matter what it was, it made me send them a really long e-mail. Which was, to give an example, about not giving the 'a little less gravity' commercial or Nike from Wieden & Kennedy silver and not gold. After speaking with some people where the reply was "I can do that also with that budget". This makes me laugh because NO YOU CAN NOT DO THAT WITH THAT BUDGET and it's hardly a way to judge things on. This is exactly why they get that budget because they CAN do that. They make those kids run to the store and buy the shoes and I loved the commercial.....superb idea. I think the Dutch advertising world is much too busy with the Dutch advertising without looking what great work is done for overseas....even within our boundaries. But the jurymeeting was nice, they put me in interactive, no idea why. Good discussions and I'm looking forward on judging the actual work.

Also I had some meetings with young creatives since we are growing very fast. This took a lot of my time but I am allways willing to make time since I know how hard it was to make my first work. Besides, I consider myself to be a young creative still.....hope it never dies!

This week we had a new Designer making testruns here, her name is José Meulemans. She did some really good work on the FSC campaign and was a lifesaver in making work for Powerplate International. She was art-director ar FHM magazine so we can make dirty jokes about women all day long without her being offended. Our chief designer Jan Bol had some time of working on an album with his band Junkbeat. Came back last Monday with a strange smile on his face.....looking forward to hear the results.

Tomorrow my day will consist of FSC and going to make agreements with a radiostation. So it's pretty busy. If you want a relaxed job, don't work in advertising. If you're not able to deal with things going wrong, don't work in advertising. If you want to have a job where you get beaten, spit upon, talked about and which is personally rewarding..... do work in advertising.