Our Pioneer in Berlin: Reinier Demeijer-Gorissen

Our next Pioneer is Reinier Demeijer-Gorissen, Associate Creative Director at Innocean Berlin. Through this new format, created in collaboration with Nils Adriaans, we get in touch with people from the Dutch Creative Industry living abroad and ask them to share five personal 'messages in a bottle' – one for every day of the week. We catch up with Reinier to see what it is about the German 'hands-on, down-to-earth spirit' that makes him feel at home, why he loves exploring abandoned theme parks and find out what 'souvenir' he would bring back with him.

What makes you feel at home?

Berlin has always attracted creative people but what makes me feel at home is their hands-on, down-to-earth spirit. One of those ‘spirits’ is Alice Phoebe Lou. She started her musical career on the streets of Berlin and now throws concerts all over the world. However, when she’s in town, she stays true to her roots and performs on the streets again. The creative industry here is working with the same mindset. Excellent work gets produced by many agencies every year. But after a high-five, maybe a beer, everyone takes a white sheet of paper again and tries to create something better. I grew up in a small town near Rotterdam, so this gritty mentality fits me.

What stands out the most there?

Space! Coming from a country where every square metre has a purpose, I’ve always been fascinated by Berlin’s abandoned places. There are airfields, cigarette factories, military hospitals, you name it. It’s crazy to be able to walk through Teufelsberg, an American spy station used to intercept Russian communications during the cold war. Or to wander around in an abandoned theme park. It gives exploring the history of the city another dimension and sparks my imagination. Most of these locations have become regulated over the years. And as the city is evolving at a rapid speed, they might disappear one day. So, run.

What is your Random Pic(k)?

For my whole career, I’ve been working with Marlon von Franquemont. The most ‘we wish we would have done that’ cases are the ones where the creatives did not start thinking in media frames, but ‘attacked’ the problem itself and found a great solution for it. Ideas that easily survive an elevator pitch, often don’t cost much but create a big impact. Simply because they are relevant and engage people.

The case that inspired us to try our luck at Jung von Matt and move to Germany ten years ago, was Save as WWF. Since then, many more great projects have been launched in Germany. More recent examples are Football Pen by Havas Düsseldorf, The most German supermarket by Jung von Matt and one you will probably know – The Tampon Book by Scholz & Friends.

Who’s the best creative over there?

I would like to put this spotlight on Gabriel Mattar & Ricardo Wolff. Just imagine, they chose Berlin above the beaches of Brazil. To make it worthwhile, they live by the words ‘know your client better than they do, so you can solve the problems they know they have, but also come up with solutions to big problems that are still sleeping’.

With this pro-active way of thinking they always find opportunities to create outstanding work for their clients in any media. One classic example is the film Shock for Smart Forfour. And more recently they brought the first Titanium Lion to Germany with The Uncensored Playlist.

So, when they started Innocean Berlin and asked us to join them, we didn’t have to think twice.

A funny side-note: I graduated from the WDKA in 2009 and used a print ad from Funk Sunglasses to support the motivation of my thesis. I found out last year that it was actually an ad by these guys. So, I guess I’ve always been inspired by them, even before we met.

What ‘souvenir’ would you bring home?

Berlin is a melting pot of different cultures and it’s great to be able to learn from them. So, I’ll bring some German pünktlichkeit, Mexican temperamento, Korean perseverance, British humour, and of course some Portuguese Pastéis de Natas. In case you hope to see some Colombian dance moves, I will have to disappoint you, though.

But most of all, I would bring back my partner in crime: Marlon. We’ve been working together for almost 15 years now, but we always keep challenging each other. Whenever it’s time to go back to ‘die Heimat’, I hope we can continue our journey together.