So here’s a post that is not about cars. I was surfing the web yesterday and ran into my own website. Always a treat. But it gave me the impression I have done little else than slide cars on ice, look at cars from strange angles and driven cars on maffia turf. So I checked my weblog against my calendar and it seems there are a lot of omissions. I’ve been working on an iPad presentation tool together with web maestro Sander Tiekstra. As soon as we can we will show you some results. The visual identity of Drents Archief is also coming along nicely and will be available for a sneak preview soon. Then there’s the CBK Groningen for whom I will be an external advisor for the second time running. A project about the heart of the city needs a gifted student from Groningen. None of these involve cars. Just wanted to let you know.

After all the fireworks of the night before, we decided to go for a toned down black and white look for the ‘Gesprek van Groningen’ visuals. During Groningen’s new year’s party the CBK and de Culturele Onderneming organised a series of interviews about opportunities in arts and culture during this financial crisis. I was asked to come up with an idea for the visuals. Schwung Visuell made these motion graphics to introduce the interviewees. Here’s an example clip:

Gesprek van Groningen, introductie Noisia from Rutger Middendorp on Vimeo.

The CBK project for the Noorderzon Festival reached a significant milestone yesterday. We got to pick the artist that will be cooking up the concept and take the project on. Out of the two candidates (Maren Lösing and Fabian Hijlkema) there could be only one winner. Maren made the excellent choice of presenting not one, but two ideas and Fabian came up with new school Arduino panache. In the end Henk Bothof (Noorderzon), Jolijn Peters (Platform GRAS), Nicoline Wijnja (CBK) and me all agreed: Maren Lösing would be the unanimous winner. I can’t give away too many details, but let’s just say that it’s simplicity is what makes it perfect.

Every year Groningen enjoys the Noorderzon festival. A fantastic end of the summer combination of late night dining, drinking, music and theatre. And for the last couple of years the CBK (Center for the arts in Groningen) has asked a young designer to come up with something interactive to present at the festival.

Jack Brandsma, Marcus Petstra and Tjeerd Veenhoven are just some of the names of young designers that were selected in years past. Every year an external advisor is asked to select and help the designers. And this year, that external advisor is me. Today we briefed Fabian Hijlkema and Maren Lösing. They will present their ideas next month and one of them will get the go ahead. Will keep you posted.

2010 is starting off rather nicely. (You have a happy one too!). On New Year’s Day the introduction movies we made for CBK Groningen were used to great effect.

New Year Krause from Roger Muskee on Vimeo.

And currently I’m working on two treatments: one for a short film that’s highly classified until february. And one for a Bright.tv item on the Porsche Panamera being the ultimate parental vehicle. On the 20th I will host an event on “concept to product in music and design” at the Academie voor Popcultuur. And on the 22nd the snowplagued Floss evening in Leeuwarden will give it another go with me as the host. So february still looks months away.

Ingeborg Walinga of the CBK Groningen asked me to come up with an idea for introductions to interviewees. The 1st of january is traditionally the day of a big new years’ party organised by the Groningen city council. This year there will be a talkshow with 10 interviewees provided by Ingeborg’s CBK. Since there was precious little time, Roger Muskee and me came up with a technical concept instead of a narrative idea. And we’re pretty sure it will give an amazing effect. The shoot was yesterday. And as you can tell from the picture we’ve got some fantastic source material.

Picture courtesy of Ronnie Zeemering.