Dutch Digital Design at Cannes

The Dutch Digital Design collective (an initiative to unite, celebrate and create awareness on digital design from The Netherlands) compiled a series of video interviews from this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity,

Below we’ve included their interview with our founder Wesley ter Har, amongst others, as well as a wrap-up article published on The Drum –

In advance of taking part in the fourth ‘Embassy of Dutch Creativity’ trade mission to this year’s Cannes Lions, the Dutch Digital Design collective of agencies has released a series of video interviews with a selection of the Netherland’s key digital players.

Exploring topics such as Dutch influence on digital design globally, the advantage of a Dutch outlook to digital production and the coming of “a new Dutch Golden Age”, the video series features figures including Wesley ter Haar, founder of MediaMonks, Dick Buschman, founder of Achtung! mcgarrybowen, and Bert Hagendoorn, the founder of the Dutch Digital Design initiative.

Watch all seven of the Dutch Digital Design collective’s interviews.

ter Haar of MediaMonks, a digital production agency with offices around the world, believes the Dutch mentality is particularly well-suited to digital creativity: “There is a practicality and creativity to it, but we also don’t take ourselves too seriously. If you look at the Internet – or digital in general – it is about not taking yourself too seriously. The weirdest things work online.”

In his video interview, Buschman of digital agency Achtung! mcgarrybowen, also discusses the Dutch character as being an important factor in the nation’s digital design output. He says: “The Dutch are Calvinistic, maybe a little bit, so they cut all the unnecessary things off. That can lead to digital solutions being very functional, but I think what a lot of Dutch agencies also bring is that they add a subtle something to it, that takes it from functional to something more likeable.”

Hagendoorn of Dutch Digital Design expands: “The Dutch are very focused on putting the user first. The other thing is we dare to experiment and explore boundaries, to come up with innovative ideas. And the Dutch accustomed to working with different cultures and disciplines. We do not only care about the aesthetics, but also how it works, making it effective.”

To watch all the interviews and read The Drum’s full recap of the series, click here.