BOB MCLAREN’S SPEECH AT PARADISO

ADCN Co-Founder Bob McLaren addressed the crowd at the 50th Anniversary of ADCN in Paradiso. Read his wonderful speech below.

‘MARATHON’

First I must say what an honour and privilege it is to be here in Amsterdam fifty years after co-founding ADCN. In fact I feel privileged to be here at all considering my freewheeling ‘Madman’ years in Mokum – years of free-love, free weed, Provos, Dolle mina’s and psychedelic nights right here in Paradiso.

I can’t take the credit alone for the ADCN, I had accomplices, Nico Hey, art director, and the H in FHV, and Pieter Brattinga, a renowned ‘Grafische ontwerper’ – both subscribed to the Bauhaus dictum: ‘Form follows function’.

Enticed from JWT in the UK I was Intermarco’s European creative director – and a philistine. I didn’t disagree with that Holy dictum, but I’d worked in the ‘Big Apple’ and ‘Swinging London’, designing and writing advertising, and thought the Weimar equation was missing a third ‘F’ – the ‘F’ for fun.

A New York ‘Madman’ wrote: ‘Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on’. I thought it applied to advertising in Amsterdam too.

I was a sort of ‘culture counter-balance’ in the mismatched trio with one matching mission – to raise the creative standard of Dutch advertising and design.

We met at the ‘Leestafel’ in the American Hotel – it was my birthday April the seventh. At 33 I was the youngest of the trio, and insisted we not take ourselves too seriously when we plotted the future organization. I recall I thought ‘Club’ pretentious, and wanted something more original.

There were few of us working in advertising here at the time, but there were many graphic ‘Designers’ – potential art directors.

My two colleagues bullied me – I gave in on ‘Club’ – and the Art Directors Club Nederland emerged.

I’d like to pay homage to Pieter, and Nico, I know they would have been as proud of ADCN tonight, and as impressed as I am with the very high standard Dutch Advertising has achieved since those dark print ad days before TV commercials, computers, digital devices of all sorts – and the internet.

Sadly, their ‘Marathon’ runs were short leaving me – last man standing – to address you tonight. I use the term ‘Marathon’ because it seems to me, all these kilometres later, that it is a fitting metaphor for a career in advertising – with a difference. The length of a marathon is known, but God only knows how long an advertising career will be – or how far it is to the ‘finish line’.

I won’t presume to project my thinking on advertising and design to you, it is out-dated; technology is advancing so fast – app by app. My ipad keeps me in touch via e-mail, ‘Skype’ and Facebook, but I have trouble keeping up, and you no doubt discuss advertising ad infinitum.

I can only offer you some thoughts on a career in advertising from a now distant perspective. Whether you are an art director, designer, photographer or writer I suggest that you are all metaphorically, ‘runners’ on a ‘career track’.

Some of you are seasoned long distance runners, some are middle distance, and you know your best ‘pace’ from experience on the track. But I would like to address the ‘sprinters’, the ‘Jongehonden’ among you – eager to finish fast.

You may get off to a rapid start, and perhaps set the pace for a few years leading the pack, then as some runners lose their way, get stuck in a rut or burn out, you realize that to finish you must pace yourself, find the rhythm and speed to get you to the finish line.

I’ve run for sixty years on the unforgiving ‘Marathon’ career track – decade by decade – in London, New York, Amsterdam, Paris and points East and West, and I suggest you choose your discipline carefully, if it hasn’t chosen you. Stick with it, and above all avoid compromise. My greatest frustration in advertising was the pressure to compromise, especially from clients.

Forced to concede at times – as you will be – I now firmly believe that the biggest mistake you can make is in being more agreeable than you can be.

Back to the Bauhaus for a moment, Mies van der Rohe famously said, ‘The devil is in the details’. I don’t suppose anyone here would argue with that – it applies to much of what designers and art directors practice – but I suggest that ‘God is in the big picture’.

Often I think designers and art directors are so obsessed with details, the tiny pixels in the picture – that they don’t take a step back to take a wider view, and see what the thousands of pixels make up – THE BIG PICTURE.

It is critical to define the ‘big picture’ before filling in the details.

There are few advantages of ageing into an ‘Oude hond’, but I discovered one. When I was an impatient, energetic ‘Jongehond’ presented with a problem, instead of looking for the big picture, I would chase into half a dozen dead ends following elusive pixels, before finding a solution.

Now that I no longer have the energy I had then, presented with a problem, I step back, examine the big picture, see and avoid the dead ends, and follow the path that I know will lead me to a solution.

Experience naturally compensates for fading energy, helping me to pace myself, and give me more time to run towards that finishing line. I can’t see it yet but as long as the mind functions, and the heart beats I’ll keep running.

Finally, I wish you ‘Jongehonden’ runners a long, successful ‘Marathon’.

It will test you there is always a faster runner on the track with more stamina. There will be blood and sweat along the way – it’s a tough business – but persevere and there will be cheers too as you cross the finish line.

Cheers to the future of ADCN and Dutch creativity!

Bob McLaren

Co-Founder, ADCN

Paradiso, Amsterdam

11 April 2016