Rebel Times / Business Unusual / No. 01

REBEL TIMES Business Unusual

ṈO˜ 01

The Investor Jacob Kampp Berliner Bi-annual Creative Business Magazine & Insights

REBEL TIMES Business Unusual

ṈO˜ 01 Bi-annual Creative Business News & Insights

Editor in Chief Carla Cammilla Hjort

carla@artrebels.com, instagram: carlaartrebels

managing editor Tony Gjerlufsen tony@artrebels.com

ART DIRECTION Frederik Dollerup Anne Heide Leth

EDITORS AT LARGE Morten Mechlenborg Nørulf, Kristoffer Rom, Simon Caspersen, Phoebe Rose Aust, Sara Schelde, Signe Aarestrup

COPY EDITORS Jessica Braz, Alison Withers Woo Jin Ko, Marianne Martinez Bennedsen

ADVERTISEMENT & finance Rikke Krog Morgensen

ASSISTANT EDITOR Sophie Bjørk Ferdinandsen

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EDITORIAL Dear Reader, Andy Warhol once said, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art, working is art and good business is the best art.”

We rarely consider business an art form. After 15 years as a self-made creative entrepreneur, I must admit that the most challenging aspect has been to turn a creative and conceptual mind into a great business (without compromising my personal beliefs). So in that sense, I agree with Andy Warhol. Doing good business is crucial to our future society, and that is why I believe, we need to approach entrepreneurs as indispensable building blogs for a brighter future. Thankfully, more and more businesses and people are beginning to realize that doing good business is the essence of our survival. I’m 35 years old, and I’ve been a dancer, a filmmaker, a DJ and music producer, a body therapist and meditation teacher and shop owner, and 7 years ago I founded ArtRebels. ArtRebels has since evolved into four great and expanding companies. Of all the things I’ve done, becoming a businesswoman was – as Warhol describes it – a fascinating form of art. Rebel Times is the business magazine I needed, but never found, when I was starting my ventures. I hope it will help inspire you to fulfil your dreams!

What is Rebel Times - Business Unusual?

Foremost, Rebel Times is an alternative business magazine, rooted in our passion for creative and cultural entrepreneurship. It grows out of all those inspiring people who throughout life create meaningful art, culture, solutions and brands. We call it, ‘Business Unusual’, because creative entrepreneurs tend to do things their own way and by their own rules. Creative people are often met with the prejudice of having no sense of how to do business. Hopefully, Rebel Times will help refute this prejudice, once and for all, by telling the stories of successful entrepreneurs, investors and creators, like this issue’s featured Jacob Kampp Berliner, Bjarke Ingels, Lærke Hein, Uffe Elbæk, Cæcilie Trier and many more. It is our mission to inspire all the creative talents out there, who might feel that being creative contradicts knowing how to run a business. We all need to make a living, and in our dream world this means doing what we love and loving what we do. Last year, we founded the community Rebel Academy whose aim is to grow into an international platform for creative and cultural entrepreneurs and self-made talents. Rebel Academy is a place to connect with other entrepreneurial and creative businesses and individuals. It is a place for knowledge and inspiration! If you haven’t heard about Rebel Academy yet, come visit us at www.rebelacademy.org, and remember to get involved if you want to join the movement. 2013 will be the year where we take Rebel Academy to the next level. Rebel Times is one way of sharing educational and inspirational stories and, hopefully, it will fill the gap in an otherwise conservative business market.

This magazine is a dream of ours coming true, and we are excited to share the stories of people, movements and brands that inspire us to do what we do!

Hopefully you will be inspired too!

Enjoy and remember to Fake it till you become it Amy Cuddy / TED.COM

Best regards, Carla Camilla Hjort

REBEL TIMES Contributors Ea Verdoner

Emilie Guldbrandsen

Karen Segall

Writer eaverdoner@gmail.com

Stylist hello@emilieguldbrandsen.com

Artist karensegall.com, artrebels.com/shop/stores/karensegall

TENNA weng pedersen

Kim Høltermand

TORSTEN ROJAS-DANIELSEN

Writer tennawp@gmail.com

Photographer instagran: holtermand

Journalist

LUKAS RENLUND

Dyhr hagen

Peter ørntoft

Photographer lukasrenlund.com

Design agency dyhrhagen.com

Graphic designer peterorntoft.com

FREDERIK DOLLERUP

Hvass & Hannibal

Henrik Haven

Graphic designer ohrlyart.tumblr.com

Artists hvasshannibal.dk

Photographer henrikhaven.tumblr.com

SupermundanE

KLUB 7

Michelle carlslund

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/supermundane

Artists klub7.de

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores /michellecarlslund

NIKOLAJ THANING

HIPSTICKERS

RUTH CRONE FOSTER

Photographer nikolajthaning.tumblr.com instragram: nikolajthaning

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/hipstickers

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores /ruthcronefoster

TRINE STRUWE

OScar juul sørensen

josephine kyhn

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores /trinestruwe

Artist

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/josephinekyhn

PHUC VAN DANG

MASSI AMATIS

MATTIA LULLINI

Artist phucvandang.com

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/redellearinghe

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/mattialullini

ALINA VERNANO

PALE GRAIN

ANNE MIE Bak andersen

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/alinavernano

Artist artrebels.com/shop/stores/palegrain

Photographer mail@annemie.dk

RETELLY

MIKE TYLAK

RUPS CRUZ

Videographers retelly.com

Artist www.miketylak.dk miketylak@gmail.com

Artist

A SPECIAL THANKS TO

CONTENTS Rebel times

≈ 13

10

36

≈ 37

Rebel Universe

black play, white play

Presenting the ArtRebels' Universe

How can you shape your company to be more gutsy?

≈ 19

16

40

≈ 47

FROM HERE TO FAME

The investor

A look into an international street art festival

Meet the unusual but successful investor Jacob Kampp Berliner

20

≈ 31

51

≈ 55

The entrepreneurs

tuesday takeover

The three entrepreneurs - Uffe Elbæk, Lærke Hein and Bjarke Ingels - on how to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit and making businesses successful

The (business) possibilities of Instagram.

32

≈ 33

57

≈ 71

The state of video

from all of us

Curating the future of online videos

Selected artworks for you to hang on your walls

34

72

The essentials

Inspirational websites

Handpicked must-have-items for the creative entrepreneur

10 websites for you to go get inspired!

74

≈ 77

100

≈ 103

the future of marketing

Cæcilie trier

… is about creating culture instead of advertising. Introducing Rebel Agency

Meet Cæcilie Trier – one of the most active musicians on the alternative Danish music scene

78

≈ 81

104

let's make it buzz

Tambourhinoceros

Familiarize yourself with the possibilities of guerrilla marketing

Tambourhinoceros – the record label behind Cæcilie Triers latest release

84

≈ 89

106

≈ 107

they made it in l.a

the end of sponsorships?

Meet four successful Danes who made it in Los Angels

Meet Freddy Larsen (Head of Sponsorships for Royal Unibrew) and Thomas Fleurquin (the man behind Distortion festival) and find out what the state of sponsorship is these days.

90

≈ 91

108

≈ 111

school of creativity

occupied by entrepreneurship

Tomorrow’s creative talents. A visit to Borups Højskole

Meet Rasha Rassem Hussein and her way of using entrepreneurship as a mean for creating a better and independent Palestine in the future

92

≈ 99

112

≈ 113

The art of graphic design

the tool box

Remixing the ArtRebels’ logo by three of our favourite graphic designers

Quick picks for inspiration, learning and productivity

THE REBEL UNIVERSE It all started in 2007 as a community and network for creative souls such as artists, musicians, designers, film makers, cultural activists, web designers, and event makers.

ArtRebels has since then evolved into four amazing companies all growing each year.

The common denominator for everything we do at ArtRebels is our undying passion for supporting, promoting and sharing creative and cultural talent. Our overall mission is to create opportunities for both upcoming and established micro entrepreneurs and social projects.

ARTREBELS ArtRebels.com is our curated web shop community for handpicked artists and visual designers from around the world. We focus on finding and collaborating with both established and new talents. Some of these talents are contributing their artwork in this first issue of Rebel Times and we have made it easy for you to tear out the works and hang it on your walls. Remember when you shop at Artrebels.com you support individual talents.

ArtRebels.com/blog promotes talent and shares inspiration, as do our Facebook (29.000 fans and increasing), Instagram and Pintrest profiles. Our aim is to create Scandinavia’s leading online community for art and visual design.

The investor /

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REBEL AGENCY

Rebel Agency is our creative communication agency. We bring brands to life by always finding new and exciting ways of getting people to connect with them. Our clients include IKEA, Nordisk Film, Hummel, The Municipality of Copenhagen, Red Cross, S-tog and many more.

We always try to push the boundaries of strategic communication and insist on creating innovative and exciting ways of connecting people, movements and brands. At Rebel Agency we don’t believe in advertising – we believe in creating culture and valuable experiences that seek to inspire and excite people!

The investor /

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Trailerpark Festival Trailerpark Festival is our annual music and arts festival. It transpired in the summer of 2007 as a party for a few hundred people in an empty warehouse in Copenhagen. Since it has grown into one of Denmark’s most influential and colourful music and art festivals welcoming thousands each year.

We have always taken pride in its ability to present artists and musicians at a point in their careers where we can push them closer to a mainstream breakthrough – as has been the case with acts like Vinnie Who, Oh Land, Sleep Party People, Specktors, Mike Sheridan, and many more.

Our audience knows that the Trailerpark bill is a strong reference for what to expect of great new acts and musical trends in the following years.

The Trailerpark Art team always represent some of the most current and relevant young artists. In collaboration with the artists we decorate the festival area in unique and inspiring ways. One-off works of art are produced especially for each festival and design-groups transform old trailers into otherworldly hangout places for the audien es. The Black Box from 2011 by Re-Make/Re-Model is a good example of this. Besides Art and visual design we also feature outstanding scenographies and light designs - peaking with one of the first ever 3D interactive scenographies in 2012, a collaboration between the Danish based Dark Matters, Hvass & Hannibal and Arkitektur Ministeriet.

Over the years we’ve presented artists like HuskMitNavn, Anika Lori, Shft, Basco5, Ultra Grøn, Phucisme, TTC, Chifumi among many others.

ARTREBELS UNIVERSE /

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REBEL ACADEMY Rebel Academy was established in 2011 in collaboration with Erhvervsstyrelsen (Danish Business Authority) to inspire and support creative and cultural entrepreneurship.

We live in challenging times and perhaps now, more than ever, we need to come together to strengthen the global economy. Rebel Academy is taking an active role by helping shape a better and brighter future for creative and cultural entrepreneurs. Your commitment and involvement in Rebel Academy is crucial and we hope to see and hear you in the future. 2013 is an ambitious year for Rebel Academy and we initiate 3 new important projects: Rebel Talks, Rebel Times (this magazine) and Young Rebels (educational program for students). Finally we will launch a much more user driven #2 version of www.rebelacademy.org - our online community where you can find useful information, advice, insights, resources and inspiration for running and growing your businesses.

ARTREBELS UNIVERSE /

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Rups Cruz

COPENHAGEN

OUT FEBUARY

FROM HERE TO FAME With passion by the bucket load and a bona fide DIY attitude, Angelo Milano has singlehandedly created one of the most well respected and talked-about street art festivals in the world.

Artist / Ericailcane, Italy

Artist / Dolk, Norway

FAME FESTIVAL Fame Festival is an international street art festival held in the small Southern Italian town of Grottaglie. It was founded by a young local named Angelo Milano who one day decided that it was time to shake things up a little and invited artists he knew to add a splash of colour to the town. 5 years later, Angelo Milano runs one of the most anticipated events of the international street art scene and has brought artists the likes of which include JR, BLU, Vhils, Conor Harrington, Ericailcane, Interesni Kazki, MOMO, Os Gemeos, Swoon, Escif, Sam 3 and countless others to his little sleepy and charming town. Angelo Milano organizes, finances, and curates the entire festival himself. Well, almost. His father pitches in by driving artists from and to the airport and his mother cooks for the whole lot of them. Turning down sponsorship partners, he willingly faces the prospect of bankruptcy in exchange for getting to run his own show. To pay the bills, Angelo Milano uses proceeds from his own company, Studio Cromie, a screen printing studio and publishing house. And yes, you guessed it, Studio Cromie is a one man operation - founded, run, and managed by none other than Angelo Milano.

Words & Photography / Henrik Haven

Artist / Lucy Mclauchlau, Birminghan / UK

The Entrepreneurs

How to cultivate your entrepreneurial spirit and making your business successful

Words / Morten Mechlenborg Nørulf

Creative and cultural entrepreneurship is indispensable to our society. Much of Denmark’s societal development lies in young creatives’ entrepreneurial spirit and a just-do-it approach to business. But what does it mean to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit? How do you make your business successful?

Uffe Elbæk, Lærke Hein and Bjarke Ingels - three entrepreneurial stars - share some inspirational stories and important insight if you want to make it as a creative entrepreneur. in the future is a task that needs your constant attention. You need to be ready to take risks, deal constructively with failures, and turn these into important learning steps if you want to succeed.

Culture and creativity is the root for radical and innovative ideas, and the key to sustainable businesses. Yet it is tough to make it as a entrepreneur in fields like art, culture, design, architecture, and music. As an answer to these hardships initiatives like Rebel Academy - a community for creative and cultural entrepreneurs, an inspiration-sharing forum and a mentor programme – tries to help and inspire hope among young entrepreneurs by giving good advise on how to optimize your talent, and how to turn it into a successful business.

So, what makes a successful creative business? And how do you cultivate your entrepreneurial talent? To answer, ArtRebels struck up a conversation with three entrepreneurs – former Minister of Culture Uffe Elbæk, selfmade entrepreneur Lærke Hein, and the architect who made it BIG time abroad Bjarke Ingels. They have first-hand experience in turning businesses into successful ones, cultivating an entreprenurial spirit and here they share some of these important insights.

Passion for your talent sadly does not guarantee a successful business.

And it is important to love what you do, because when you make it into a business you are going to spend a shocking amount of time doing it.

Creatives must turn their business into profitable ones, which requires a clear vision and profit-motive. Being creative is not the hard part.

Running a business that makes money and will keep on making money

The INTREPRENEURS /

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UFFE ELBÆK “ A strong creative entrepreneurial culture is crucial if we want to maintain the Danish society as we know it today ”

Uffe is the former Minister of Culture in Denmark, a member of the Danish Social-Liberal Party since 2001, founder and previous principal of KaosPilots and creator of the strategy company Change the Game. Uffe knows young creative talent when he sees it and has taught and worked with entrepreneurship for many years.

Creativity and the ability to make business unusual are important within all industries today. In fact, it is almost a requirement. However there is no doubt that one of the industries that creates most new jobs today - both in Denmark and in Europe - is the creative industry.

The Danish government has just completed a major strategic development project within the creative industry. It is worth noticing that the creative industry represents some of the finest numbers in export growth at present time.

Uffe, you think that creative and cultural entrepreneurship is important to society and the future of Denmark. Why is that? A strong creative entrepreneurial culture is crucial if we want to maintain the Danish society as we know it today - a good, solidaritarian and intelligent one. Maintaining this society costs money. A lot of money! That is why it is so important for the Danes – both young and old – to have the desire, the will and the courage to pursue one’s ideas and turn them into reality. To me, being an entrepreneur is more than just creating new jobs. It is an attitude to life. It is a strong desire from within to go out and create your own professional, social and economic platform. It’s about taking responsibility for your own life by creating your own workplace with people you would like to work with.

So it’s crucial for the future of the Danish economy?

THE ENTREPRENEURS /

What are the challenges within the creative industries?

I think the individual sub-sectors within the creative industries could do much better in collaborating and engaging in joint promotional campaigns and initiatives abroad. Take for example the overwhelm-

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What makes a creative business successful in your opinion?

Briefly put, the business and its product must be a direct answer to a real need in society. There must be consistency between what the business says and what the business does.

ing attention TV series such as Borgen (The Castle) and Forbrydelsen (The Killing) generates around the world right now. There is a sense of hype around everything coming from Denmark these years. But is the creative industry awake and alert enough to seize the opportunities the two TV series creates? Is the fashion industry? Is the music industry? Is the tourism industry? Of course I hope so, but my feelings tells me that we could do much better in making partnerships.

The world has witnessed a financial crisis in the recent years. What are the opportunities for an entrepreneur in such times? They are both good and difficult. Good, because there is a great need for new ideas and solutions. Difficult, because it is virtually impossible to obtain financial support, like overdrafts and loans, from the banks. But I am sure that even though the banks are reluctant to provide loans right now there is always a way out. We just have to be good at asking for help and to reach out to each other. And then start thinking together, develop together and work together. Then it will work out - all of it!

Do you think it´s possible to teach entrepreneurship or is it a talent we are born with? Everyone can learn to be a good entrepreneur, although some have more drive and talent for it than others. It is important that our entire educational system gives the students opportunities to develop their entrepreneurial gene. There are numerous reasons and levels of motivation to become an entrepreneur.

For too long, the image of a successful entrepreneur has been on one who is motivated only by profit maximization. But my experience from KaosPilots is that there are just as many, if not more, starting businesses based on entirely different motives. For example, the challenge itself

“ think together, develop together and work together! ” can turn people on. Or a desire to create something good and meaningful for a local community. Or the social and cultural dimension of creating a business with friends.

The common denominator for these different motivation patterns is meaningfulness: your work has to make sense to you and it must be meaningful to be an entrepreneur.

Which personality traits do you think are the most important to become successful in life and business? Perseverance is an essential personal quality you need to develop if you are to succeed in life - both personally as professionally. This means that you are able to pursue yours goals even though you will encounter problems and setbacks, which is something you will a lot! But perseverance goes hand-in-hand with meaningfulness. If you are working with something that does not make sense to you, you will lose your motivation.

What advices will give a young entrepreneur going forward?

Firstly, make sure you have a partner as soon as possible because standing alone with your business will make you weak. If you are two the chance of success is twice as big. So who do you want to work with?

And next, it’s okay to make mistakes under four circumstances: you are able to identify the mistake; you take responsibility for the part of the mistake that is yours; you will learn from what happened; and you will do it differently next time.

How important is it to be a rebel and why? There is more than ever a need for people who are able to rebel against the dysfunctional societal system that we have in many ways today. The way we - and here I think of the entire world - have organized ourselves is a threat to life itself. Right now we are experiencing a number of fundamental crises that run parallel and overlap each other: the financial crisises, climate crisis, resource crisis, food crisis and poverty crisis. These crises are so fundamental that the world is facing one crucial question: Do we continue further down our existing path? Or are we able to comprehend the seriousness of the situation and change our direction, our priorities, our values and ​​ our humanity? Seen from this perspective, we need all the rebels we can get. Otherwise, we will never be able to create a sustainable, solidaritarian, brave, curious and diverse society we all deserve. So get to it!

At KaosPilots we developed a qualification and competence model, which described the professional and personal qualities to become a competent entrepreneur. Obviously it is important that you have good and solid qualifications within the area you would like to work with.

But it’s just as important to be skilled in these four areas: 1) meaning-competence – creating meaning for oneself and the people you work with; 2) relational-competence – creating and using relations and networks including clear communication, conflict resolution etc.; 3) transformation-competence – adapting to change if reality requires it; 4) action-competence – creating visible and concrete results. The interesting thing is that you are often hired because of your profession-specific competencies, like your education, previous training and from which educational institution you hold a degree. You are often fired because you lack skills in some of the four other areas of competence.

Therefore, it is important as an entrepreneur that you pay attention to developing both. No doubt about it!

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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LÆRKE HEIN “ Your mind is like every other muscle in your body, use it or lose it! ”

Lærke is a professional and self-taught entrepreneur with a lot of experience in leadership and motivation.

With more than eight years of running her own businesses, she is equipped with an energetic entrepreneurial spirit and a string of successful businesses.

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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Lærke, could you tell us a bit about your journey as an entrepreneur. When did you realize you were going to be your own boss and how did you manage to start up? I’ve probably always been a “project-worker.” I did things I thought were fun, arranged stuff, served on the student council, etc. So in a way, it was very natural for me to be an entrepreneur. However, it became a real challenge when I was suddenly the boss of a 100 other people.

What is the biggest challenge in your professional life today?

There are many challenges all the time. One of my biggest ones is to be more aware of things that don’t really interest me, like accounting.

Now I like it - it’s a natural part of having your own business.

So, when you think of money how does it make you feel?

It depends a lot on the situation and the project. I have never started up a project for the money, it’s the idea and the energy that draw me in.

But I am getting better dealing with the financial perspective of being an entrepreneur.

My first company was a nightclub back in 2005 together with two partners. It was their concept and idea, but since I already had plans to open a café and cocktail bar with my brother, Jeppe, I joined the company to learn from talented people. The club was called No. 8 and I managed it from 2005 to 2007. I borrowed 100.000 DKK from my parents and 100.000 DKK from the bank, and then I had my first club at the age of 22! After two years, I almost earned my money back, repaid my parents and started up Karriere with Jeppe. My brother was successful with his art, which gave us the possibility to borrow money from the bank so we could get a good start. Karriere bar became a much larger project than we had imagined. One thing led to another and we ended up with 34 international artists and a 700m2 bar and club.

What do you think we as a society can do to create a brighter future and how does entrepreneurship play a role in that?

I think we should be better at giving people a chance. A lot of young students have many good ideas when graduating from school, but they can’t get a job right away. They enter a world of rules and a very tight system, “dagpenge systemet” where they are not allowed to work, not even on their own projects. Maybe it could be possible to give them six months to make a business plan and see if they could succeed by themselves. I’m sure entrepreneurship and innovation gives society a lot of power and energy. Denmark is a very small country and we need to let people think creatively. We need to make it easier to try. Create more internships, make it natural to volunteer, and allow for doing things that really interest us.

“ My goal has never been to become filthy rich, but I’d love to be able to live on what I love to do, so it requires that I make some money ”

What personality traits are necessary to make it as an entrepreneur? You need to believe in yourself and trust in others - let them in so that they can help you. As Einstein said, “imagination is more important than knowledge”. So spend some time everyday, envisioning yourself and where you want to be. Bravery and courage are important qualities when you want to be an entrepreneur these days. Personally I can get obsessed with my work, and constantly ideas and creations fill my mind. If you can recognize this trait from yourself then remember to empty your head for ideas from time to time. In order to innovate and come up with new ideas you need to have a clear mind.

What was the first big challenge and how did you overcome it? Well, Karriere did not go as expected. In 2008, Kødbyen, (the meatpacking district) was dead during the daytime, the novelty of the new project wore off, and I was forced to close Karriere in the day hours. Luckily I had the best staff in the world and a lot of support from friends and family. Financially, I managed to hit the brakes in time and the people I had employed full time were very understanding and agreed to end our working relationship, which reduced my labour costs immediately.

What advice would you give someone starting up? You have to believe in it! You cannot regard it as just another job because it will be your life, maybe not forever, but for some time. It’s kind of like falling in love: you can’t stop thinking about it, and it gives you more energy than you thought possible. Don’t take bigger risks than you can handle.

Listen to people around you and don’t be afraid to ask “silly and critical” questions. Get people involved, do what you are best at and find good people to do the other parts. Be positive, open minded, and stay creative. It is important to look forward. Every morning consider your day, where you are now and where you would like to go. Your mind is like every other muscle in your body - use it or lose it.

Which companies have you started since then and why?

I have started my holding company “WITH Lærke Hein Aps” which includes Rabal and Youngbeats. Furthermore “Here and Away Aps”, “Fischer/Hein Project Aps” and “I like Locals Aps”. Why? It’s a very simple answer: You need to have a company to run your business in.

If there is something you have to do, it often requires that you really believe in it and go all the way – start it up! Just to give you an example of what one of my companies do, I could highlight “Right to Movement - Palestine Marathon”. A very cool project “Here and Away” is engaged in right now. It is the first marathon on the West Bank and Palestine and we want to combine charity from here with information and education away. I created the project to stimulate a multicultural knowledge-exchange between participating nationalities, and especially to educate participants outside Palestine about the situation and life of the Palestinians under occupation.

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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Right to movement, Palestine marathon Here and away – a company co-founded

by Lærke Hein - is behind the project right to movement – Palestine marathon, which will be the first official marathon ever held in palestine.

It all goes down in april 2013 and the mission of the event is to raise awareness about human rights and the palestinian situation. “We have created a partnership with two wonderful girls from "hold kæft og træn" (shut up and work-out). They will be some of the ambassadors for the palestine marathon.

Together we will arrange pop-up running workouts every third week. Here, you see us at the first workout on a freezing cold saturday morning at christianshavn, copenhagen. it was minus 10 degrees that morning… so cool!!!”

Photography / Signe Vest

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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The ENTREPRENEURS /

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BJARKE INGELS “ I didn’t want to work for anyone else so the only desirable choice was to start my own company ”

Bjarke Ingels is the CEO and founder of the renowned architect company Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG. Today, Bjarke and BIG are engaged in projects around the globe with offices in Copenhagen and New York. Bjarke has first-hand experience dealing with entrepreneurship and what it takes to make your business into a successful one.

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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people to understand how much (or rather how little) CO2 we emit.

And it’s going to happen already in 2016 in Copenhagen, in fact we are breaking ground on this project, named Amager Bakke, this spring!

What sparked your idea for BIG and how did you manage to start up? When I decided to start my first office, PLOT, with a friend of mine, Julien de Smedt. I had been working on my dream project, Seattle Public Library, in my dream job for OMA/Rem Koolhaas for a year and a half. I felt I had learned what I came there for and somehow I had run out of options. I didn’t want to work for anyone else. So the only desirable choice was to start my own company.

How do you collaborate with other creative fields? We never design for architects, only for other people and professions, so we always have to find ways to access specific knowledge for each project, like pedagogy, recycling, skiing, exhibition, finance etc. So for each project we always involve people that can contribute with the expertise we don’t have ourselves. Our job becomes to translate all this specific knowledge into architectural consequences.

Did you always consider yourself a businessman as well as an architect? No - not that architecture is the only thing I can do – I was seriously considering becoming a cartoonist, a doctor, a film director or an actor just to name a few but somehow ended up with architecture – almost by chance. However, once I got hooked on architecture there was no turning back. I never had a fantasy about having my own company. I think it is almost a Danish thing that we don’t dream about becoming entrepreneurs or millionaires as they might do in other cultures. But at some point I needed a company to be able to do the things I wanted to do. And then I needed some colleagues, an office space, some hardware and software and suddenly I was the CEO of a mid-size business.

What happens when small business turns into big business?

As an organisation evolves, so does everybody in it. My job has transformed gradually since we started and our opportunities, our network and our challenges have become more and more exciting. So I still look forward to going to work and whenever I come in to the NY or CPH offices I have a big smile on my face – for real.

Do you feel like you make a difference in the world? What we do as architects is that we create the framework for the life we want to live. As life evolves, so should our cities and buildings. And if they don’t fit with the way we want to live our lives, it is our responsibility to make sure we change the city and make the physical world a bit more like our dreams.

What is the main reason for BIG´s fast road to success in your opinion? It’s hard to tell. I guess because we are good architects and that we combine crystal clear analysis with an experimental approach to design. We don’t just do crazy gestures or make boring boxes. We always identify a specific need, solve a specific problem or create a specific opportunity through our designs. So in a way our work

“ As an organisation evolves, so does everybody in it ” speaks to people’s intellectual as well as emotional side – the pragmatic as well as the utopian – the left and the right half of the brain.

Any final thoughts young entrepreneurs could benefit from?

I am not a revolutionary – I am an evolutionary. I believe in gradual development and growth based on the insights and inventions of the generations before me. We take one step further from where they reached, rather than starting over with a revolution every time we feel the need to do something new.

How do you feel about your leadership position? Naturally emerging leadership occurs in a group with the one who is better than anyone else in formulating a shared vision – a vision that realises the concerns and demands, dreams and desires of the whole group. I believe my empathy – my capacity to understand a situation from many different perspectives – makes it natural for me to be able to discover or uncover the shared vision. It’s the ultimate synergy between seemingly opposite viewpoints.

How did you manage to open BIG in NYC and how is it going? I boarded a plane in September 2010, and went around NYC with a friend for a few weeks to find a space. Today we are 60 people and half our turnover comes from American projects.

How would the world look in your utopia? Our utopian future would have power plants that turn waste into energy and people can ski on the roof and non-toxic chimney puffs smoke rings will allow

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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COPENHAGEN HABOUR - BJRAKE INGELS GROUP / Photography / Julien De Smedt

The ENTREPRENEURS /

/ Rebel times

THE MOUNTAIN - BJARKE INGELS GROUP / Photography / Jakob Boserup

The ENTREPRENEURS /

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THE STATE OF VIDEO Online video reached a tipping point last year. With over half of all internet activity now being video-related, brands and curators are racing to define what we need to be watching now.

Words / Kaave Pour & Mathias Arvedsen

referral robots, and we all know that’s not enough. People telling people trumps robots telling people. All signs point towards a new wave of hand-picked video content. YouTube and Vimeo are being reduced to the host platform rather than the viewer due to the astronomical amount of videos. It’s just hard to find what you’re looking for, it’s hard for these platforms to know what you like. With more content than ever, there’s a real need for curators to pick out the content of their choosing. In that way, curating sites, blogs, news sites and video magazines will come to work like updated and better TV channels, where you flip through them according to what kind of channel you are in the mood for.

Online video asserted itself as the undeniable ‘must’ of branding last year. Lots of well-known companies basked in the glow of viral internet fame - we jammed out with Old Spice, grinned our way through dozens of Google doodles, and watched in rapture as Red Bull sent a guy to space. Yep, it was a big year for web videos. Asides from the memorable clips that floated to the top, what do you recall of the rest?

Are you even sure you saw the best video of 2012? What Retelly believes, a new Copenhagen-based video magazine, is that this powerful medium is in serious need of curation. Photo-sharing is highly curated through Tumblr and personalized sites, and now it’s video’s turn.

Simply uploading your video to YouTube is not curation. Keywords and tagging means you turn your video into the hands of YouTube’s

The STATE OF VIDEO /

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BRANDS BECOMING BROADCASTERS

Brands are racing to get a chunk of the online video viewership. The most successful brands and potentially future broadcasters will be the few and innovative ones that thrive to move from promotional to storytelling content. Not so long ago, brands traditionally relied on imagery in everything from catalogs to TV ads to engage consumers and convey desirability. But static images and written descriptions and 30 seconds “buy this, buy that” sequences can’t compare to today’s alternative: a well executed interactive video experience online. Some adventurous brands are just beginning to explore new platforms for video advertising, including smartphones, tablets and Internet enabled televisions.

These platforms offer enormous potential in terms of interactivity and creativity. As we move into this new wave of content marketing, we will see more brands using video to create and share content. The challenge will be budget and talent. Goviral released its first Social Video Equity Report, listing the top 100 most powerful players in branded content in 2012. On a list filled with global brands and industry heavyweights, Red Bull managed to beat stiff competition to secure the top spot for social video strategy.

RED BULL AND THE REST

So why is Red Bull so damn great? Was it all in the Stratos jump? Actually, many of the brand’s videos are much more subtle. Instead of flashing their brand everywhere, Red Bull takes the opposite route. They get that nobody likes an ad. Their long-run key to success is making videos

Stat box

that audiences actually want to see while removing as much branding as possible. Brands need to accept that conventional marketing and everything that goes with it make people run away. By using video, Red Bull is ticking alot of boxes. Through their unique connections with customers, they’ve driven their brand value and profile through the roof - literally! The company invested heavily in media creation of course, but it’s produced a remarkable return. Their videos are unique, feature authentic characters and make a lasting impression. So what can other brands learn here? Simply, don’t skimp on the creative. A creative, well-executed video will return its investment many times over as viewer engagement climbs and converts into action.

THE RETELLY WAY

Let’s face it, the internet is a wasteland. A zillion hours of home-made YouTube clips hasn’t exactly produced another Hitchcock. Instead, we find ourselves drowning in a sea of cat videos. Retelly provides an escape from all that. Videos are sorted into eight categories, like Adrenaline, Documentary, LOL, or Places - enough to keep a curious person occupied for hours. The videos are selected to make viewers emerge feeling energized and inspired. The internet promised us that once content access was democratized, the cream would rise to the top.

Though today’s reality might seem clouded, sites like Retelly are doing their part to recapture that worthwhile dream.

See for yourself at retelly.com

Online video in / 2012

182

456

105

6.3

Million online viewers

Million creative videos watched

Billion video ads watched

Minutes average creative video length

24

2.9

50%

20%

Seconds average video ad length

Billion dollasspent on video ads

Of tablet users watching video content

Of smartphone users watching video content

TOP 10

Video brands

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Redbull

Google

Disney

Nike

Samsung

Old Spice

Prada

Coca Cola

Nintendo

Adidas

Stat box Sources: The collective findings and data shared are sourced from industry leaders and experts, mainly Adap.tv, comScore, eMarketer, Forrester Nielsen, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Pew Internet, and SundaySky’s forthcoming 2013 Smart Video Index. Top 10 video brandsSource: Goviral’s Social Video Equity Report, 2012

Excerpts of sewn tapestries / Hvass&Hannibal

THE ESSENTIALS By Emilie Guldbrandsen

Handpicked must-have-items for the creative entrepreneur

8.

1.

2.

12.

9.

3.

13.

4.

11.

5.

6.

7.

10.

1. LAPTOPSLEEVE Wood Wood 950 DKK 2. ARTLINE & OVERLINER Creas 19 DKK & 29 DKK 3. MARKERS Stylefile 250 DKK 4. BUSINESSCARD HOLDER/MONEYCLIP Shamanic 275 DKK 5. PHONE iPhone from 3.000 DKK 6. POST-IT 20 DKK 7. “DAMN GOOD ADVICE FOR PEOPLE WITH TALENT” Phaidon 65 DKK 8. FOLDER HAY Copenhagen 149 DKK 9. NOTEBOOK Urban Outfitters 70 DKK 10. GUM Stimorol 9 DKK 11. WALLET Commes Des Garcons 750 DKK 12. CALENDER Letts the original diary 99 DKK 13. WATCH Ole Mathiessen 6.595 DKK 14. HEADPHONES AIAIAI 550 DKK

14.

BL ACK PL AY White play Making interesting business and business interesting Words / Tenna Weng Pedersen

There’s two types of play in business today. Companies are defined by their play-it-by-the rules white play or no-rules black play. The thing is, we need a combination of both players to make a successful company. In this article, we take a look at the concept of white play-black play and how you can shape your company to be more gutsy.

THE CONCEPT OF BLACK PLAY / WHITE PLAY

White play is a game where everybody knows and agrees on the rules. Take ‘Hide and Seek’ for instance: Everybody knows and agrees how to play ‘Hide and Seek.’ You have the map and the compass – figuratively – and everybody knows how to navigate a white play environment because the rules have already been made. While white play is easy to follow with simple and logical rules, its flipside is that it quickly becomes repetitive and boring.

Black play is play where you do not know the rules. Like the time you ran away and developed the rules as you went along. It was an adventure! Everything was negotiable and you experimented your way forward. You made up how to navigate as you met new challenges. You invented the map, the compass, and the rules as you progressed. This is how we should strive to develop our business: try out new rules as we navigate; experiment our way forward; reinvent how we work and develop new methods for thinking, designing and producing products, as well as the way we manage our businesses. Why do we need to play black?

BLACK PLAY WHITE PLAY /

Black play is interesting because it challenges old ways. When working outside the normal standards and expected ways, you begin to innovate and have more fun. Tina Bruce explains in Play Culture in a Changing World about Matti Bergströms, a neurophysiologist and professor at Helsinki University, findings: “the brain stem, the cortex and the limbic system are the parts of the brain that correspond to play acting. The brain stem feeds chaotic impulses to the limbic systems whereas the cortex stands for order.” Bergström discusses play dominated by impulses from the brain stem (black play) and from the cortex (white play). It is clear that Bergström´s black play corresponds to Caillois´ ilinex [defined as “momentarily destroys the stability of perception and inflicts a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind”] whereas white educational play mainly corresponds to competition and imitation.” Within this conflict between chaos and the urge to make things orderly we have the potential to develop new methods. If we can create some amount of chaos

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for years without being challenged. White play is looked upon as safe and easy to track results from. However it also has the ability to paralyze creativity, innovation and destroy the ability to stay flexible and adaptive. Which is more important today if we want our businesses to compete in a world of fast and constant change? The most important thing to remember when you start and run a business is that you find the perfect balance between white play and black play. Sometimes you don´t need to do both by yourself. As a matter of fact, it´s often a more beneficial idea to create teams where some players think white and others think black. However it will only be a success if both parties stay open and respectful of the other. Remember that white players are best to bring into the game after you have done the first round of black play. Innovation happens when there are no rules to begin with. You might set a dogma to play from but don´t follow rules. Your white players are great to take into the game when you need to structure all the new ideas and test them against a real life audience. White players will, by their nature, be very focused on whether or not the black play can be realized and capitalized.

If you are a white player but find yourself bored by your old ways, you may want to consider challenging yourself. If you are a black player, you might also want to keep these ideas in mind moving forward. The same goes for all of you who already run a business: remember to ask yourself whether there is enough black play in your way of doing business. If not, you may want to go through our list of rules.

yet figure out how to make order, we can create really amazing companies and products. When we make a conscious choice to play black we often find that by challenging the old ways we come up with new ideas to develop our business. These ideas we would have missed if we had kept on playing the same old white play.

Many creative people and businesses are often by nature or perhaps even more so, by instinct, thinking and acting within the ‘black play’ mind frames. They make up rules as they go along, often because they don´t know what the rules are. It´s a known fact that schools within the creative fields, like design, art and music often fail to teach the students how to transform their creative talents into businesses, which leads them forced to figure it out as they go along. This is often referred to as learning by doing, which we call black play. This can actually be a great way to learn how to navigate in life and business, however it is also often a very expensive way to learn, literally speaking. Therefore, it also makes sense to know your white play frames sometimes.

Notable examples of companies and organizations utilizing black play include Apple and most of the Silicon Valley startups: Google, Facebook, Twitter etc. They also include organizations with enigmatic leaders. Think Richard Branson at Virgin, the late Steve Jobs at Apple, or even at a political level, like Obama, Clinton and Merkel. These individuals all harnessed black play, whilst surrounding themselves with white players, to make change by following their own journeys and seeking out their own paths.

Black play is mostly needed in big and middle-sized companies, where white rules and methods have been laid out and followed

What you need to pack, when preparing for black play Courage ›› People might think you are weird in the beginning – you might think that you are weird! Don´t worry too much. Just do it.

Patience in large portions ›› It may take awhile to get people to play with you. If it takes too long, you might need to turn the white play button up for a while. Remember it takes some people a while to feel safe in new surroundings.

Curiosity ›› Think of the play as a lab, or an adventure with no certain goal. We play for the play itself. Experiment with different approaches. Try different ones and see what comes out of it. Just remember that curiosity did not kill the cat – boredom might have, but not curiosity! It’s something only boring people tell you.

Trust ›› When we play, we expose ourselves to danger, because we do not watch out for it. Therefore you need people to feel

safe. And for them to feel safe, you need to feel safe. So you can show them that everything is going to be fine. I´m here to catch you if you fall, or even fail! It´s OK to fall and fail, that’s part of playing.

Creative thinking ›› Prepare to press the white button once in a while – it might be too abstract or uncertain for people to enter a pure ‘black play universe’. People need to be guided by the hand in order to be able to relax and play freely.

Reflection skills ›› Observe and refine: Think about what is working or not working in the way you play and ask why.

Analyze where the barriers could be and make them disappear.

Now push the black button

In summary, these are the things you need to do to push the black button: Gather courage, patience, curiosity, trust, creative thinking and reflection skills. Go find a relevant white frame to let the black play evolve within, and invite people to join the play. Let go of your need to control the play, and support the playing itself. Keep your eyes open for interesting and unexpected turns in the game and use this knowledge to develop interesting and relevant business models, products and services. Dare to challenge your surroundings with interesting ideas and products that make people smile, think, learn and build relationships.

CHANGE THE RULES. GET PEOPLE TO PLAY. ENJOY PLAYING IT BLACK! BLACK PLAY WHITE PLAY /

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THE INVESTOR Jacob Kampp Berliner ... is one of the most unusual investors I have met. At the age of 36 he has already invested in and co-founded more than 10 start-up companies, and knows what it feels like to go from being a young inexperienced salesman to suddenly turning over millions of DKK. Words / Carla Cammilla Hjort Photography / Lukas Renlund

investing in a record label, he admits that he has thought about closing it down but has since realised that Fake Diamond has the flexibility to act differently from other labels, and that releasing music through Fake Diamond brings happiness and joy to everyone working there.

Turning even a small profit was a sign to keep going. “We have signed some amazing new acts and I’m very excited about the future of Fake Diamond these days,” Jacob tells me with an enthusiasm that seems to make up a significant part of his personality.

He is the brain and driving force behind numerous cool companies like the independent record label Fake Diamonds, the internationally hyped fashion brand Soulland, hot spots and cafés like Granola, Pixies, Taxa and Central Hotel & Café, and recently he opened Gallery Steinsland Berliner, a contemporary gallery in Stockholm, together with director Jeanette Steinsland. Not surprisingly though, Jacob makes most of his money from a company he started in 2009, dealing and exchanging green energy stocks. Nordic Power Trading, as the company is called, became a rare opportunity to make big money on big risks.

Another optimistic venture project is his investments in the acclaimed fashion brand Soulland, founded by the young entrepreneur Silas Adler in 2001. Jacob and Silas met at a nightclub and experienced an immediate platonic man crush. This is the case with most entrepreneurs I know. Such encounters often turn into conversations about opportunities and collaborations, and this night out was no exception. The pair decided to meet up again, and after a few meetings and practical paperwork sessions, they became business partners. Jacob invested a few million DKK in the company and became CEO and head of sales.

Silas was finally able to focus on being the creative director, and since their “marriage” was sealed and new strategies were executed, Soulland has grown over 100% each year.

It was never about making money for Jacob. While most investors only look for great returns on investments, it appears to be something more personal and passion-related that drives him into his business ventures.

Looking at his impressive track record and investment portfolio, one could argue that he makes both random and unwise decisions, at least from a profit-oriented point of view. However it seems like Jacob has found a way to make it all work by balancing his investments between a hard-core high profit business and high-risk passion projects.

I met with Jacob over a cup of “to-go” coffee from Granola to talk about business, investments and life in general. I was both inspired and intrigued by this successful, empathic man.

“We have a very clear 2015 plan, but it’s not only about growth and numbers, it’s about moving the clothing brand we love in the right direction and exploring the possibilities as a Danish fashion brand. A very important thing for Soulland is to move men’s fashion forward and not compromise integrity for the sake of making money. These have to be able to go hand in hand.

Soulland & Fake Diamond Jacob founded Fake Diamond without having any experience in the music industry, but his passion for music combined with his network of very talented musician friends sparked the urge to start a cool independent label.

“It’s extremely hard to make it big in the fashion industry. From the outside we might appear to be a huge success, and we are experiencing very fast growth. Right now our focus is mostly on entering new markets, tackling one country at a time. We are especially excited and proud about our future collaboration with Colette in Paris, being the first Danish brand to achieve this.”

“I started Fake Diamond because I witnessed some of my very talented friends becoming more and more frustrated with the way things were being done in the music industry. It’s an uphill battle in the music business, especially for a lot of the major labels, but there’s a new way and that’s the one we are trying to travel and co-create.”

From cleaner to millionaire Talking to Jacob feels a bit like taking a ride on a rollercoaster. Our conversation is fast-paced, incoherent and often shifts between multiple topics at the same time, but he seems to feel at home with this kind of impulsive communication. He intuitively connects the dots before they are even laid out and I sense that this is one of his great strengths, keeping a calm overview even when he throws a hundred balls in the air.

Despite signing some of the most popular Danish indie acts like Oh Land, Balstyrko, EaggerStunn, Giana Factory Darkness Falls and Complicated Universal Cum, it turned out to be almost impossible to make money. It has been six years since Fake Diamond was founded, and 2012 became the first year the label made a profit, if 7000 Danish kroner can even be called a profit. When asked about the challenges of

“ A very important thing for Soulland is to move men’s fashion forward and not compromise integrity for the sake of making money. These have to be able to go hand in hand ” The investor /

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Uffe became a couple when I was a young boy and they stayed together for six years until he came out. But even after his self-realisation we all kept living together as a family. It was indeed a modern family,” Jacob explains. He laughs a bit and continues, “At the age of 20 my brother and I went to San Francisco together with our parents, who were to start up Chaos Pilots in the States [the first entrepreneurial higher education in Denmark co-founded by his dad Uffe Elbæk). Even though I was admitted to the school I decided to turn down the offer.

Having both my dad and mum work for the school made me feel like I didn’t earn it. A bit like kids with rich parents. It’s never as satisfying achieving things in life if you don’t have to work for them. Instead I started working at a bar at night and selling extremely cheap Mexican furniture during the day.”

I want to know how it all started, and find out if the rumours are true about him coming from a rich family. The rumour is promptly put to rest. His mother is a coach and his biological father an ex-serial entrepreneur who went bankrupt, now working as a taxi driver. I’m in for a surprise when I realise that the one he calls dad is actually Uffe Elbæk, a unique and unusual figure in Danish politics and someone I’ve admired for years for his rebellious entrepreneurial approach to life, business and politics. It’s a small and interconnected world we live in and suddenly everything makes sense, but I still need to understand the bigger picture. I’m a little puzzled as Uffe Elbæk is openly gay, so I ask Jacob about this and how Uffe became his dad. “My mother and

“ I also came to understand that my goal in life was to live a new day every day with myself in charge, surrounded by people I admire and get inspired by” The investor /

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The unusual Investor When listening to Jacob talk about being an investor, I realise that this man can do anything he puts his mind to. I sense a fearless calm around him and it’s obvious that he’s not afraid of failure. I even sense that to him, there’s no such thing as failure. Instead he considers less successful ventures to be great learning experiences.

I was curious about how Jacob's adventure as an entrepreneur started: "After San Francisco I moved to Copenhagen. I had a bunch of shitty jobs like night cleaning, gardening and selling popcorn at festivals. I was always looking for new jobs to try out different things. One day I went to a biker club in Skanderborg for some beers, and at the bar I met the owner of the Danish fashion jewellery brand Pilgrim, and I asked him for a job. He said I could do sales for Pilgrim in Sweden, and some weeks later we signed a contract. I was provided with a car and 16 000 Danish kroner a month, and started touring Sweden from one city to the next selling the jewellery. Business was booming, so after a while I established my own independent company which became the agency for Pilgrim in Sweden, and soon I had three jewellery shops and 30 employees. I made a substantial amount of money during those years, but since I had never aspired to be wealthy, I started investing in all kinds of cultural and arty projects, laying the groundwork for some of my businesses today."

"For me it’s about the project and the people involved, not only the numbers. When I was younger I had a big need to find one thing that I could excel at, one thing I could be the best at. But as the years went

by I slowly began to realise that in my case it was not so much about being great at one thing, but being good at many things. I also came to understand that my goal in life was to live a new day every day with myself in charge, surrounded by people I admire and get inspired by."

“I always invest in projects that I can benefit from in more ways than just economically. When I first started investing I didn’t think so much about the money – I just wanted to have fun. However, as time passed I began to understand that it’s a lot more fun to invest your time and money in something that can develop and grow. I’ve lost a lot of money in the past but I have learnt a lot and all educations cost money.”

Jacob once told me that when he made his first large sum of money he felt a little embarrassed because most of his friends were still hanging out, skating and doing graffiti. I asked him to explain this dilemma and how he turned it into his investment path.

To me, investing money in projects/companies is not only about making more money. Jacob agreed with me and told me that "it’s about making more of everything – money, knowledge, connections. Or it's about making new solutions or setting new standards that can bring changes to an industry."

"It was an ambivalent situation. On one hand I was happy that my business was doing well, but on the other hand I had no need to flash it around. I also realised that I like to start up new projects and love to learn something new. When I had been in the jewellery business for a while, I started thinking that it was too narrow and realised that I had become stuck in the same routines. And since I had chosen not to get an education, I began thinking that my way of gaining new knowledge and insights could be to get involved in other areas – especially the cultural scene with things like art, music, fashion and lifestyle, along with the energy industry that I have since also invested in. My involvement requires me to constantly stay up-to-date with what's going on in those business areas, and besides that it has also required me to learn how to run a business. I have learnt things I didn't know before and it is my own little way of getting an education.

Another reason for me to begin investing in all of these cultural businesses was the fact that in the jewellery business I was around a lot of people who I honestly didn't have much in common with. I felt like I needed to widen my horizon and collaborate with like-minded people.

One day I met this guy in Copenhagen who told me a café was for sale in Vesterbro – I went down and bought it the next day. I missed hanging out with fun people, people that I could relate to and that I had something in common with. And when I decided to invest in the clothing company and in the record company, I first of all did so because of good chemistry with the people involved. Obviously I also saw that the businesses had the potential to develop."

The investor /

So which ingredients are needed to turn a great idea into a great business? "Hard work, fun, lots and lots of hours and dedication – some of the ideas I have turned down have been because the other people involved weren't ready to put in enough love, hours and hard work.

Before you invest you need to make sure that the person or the organisation behind it is completely dedicated and focussed not only on the product or project, but also on the development of it."

Since Jacob is engaged in so many different projects and companies I wondered if he ever turned down any projects: "I have turned down Many – a new Danish-produced HiFi system, a lady shaver, a fashion store chain, a special plastic glove, a dumpling company… Either I didn't understand the product or I didn't understand the people involved. I think that most investors invest in the people more than the actual product. If the people behind the business have what it takes to succeed and there is a strong connection, the likelihood of the investor investing is much bigger. If you have a strong brand, a strong product and a strong team, the chances of making it are reachable. I have only one rule: I don’t work with idiots – people who vote for the Danish National Party or those who are only in it for the money.

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mon understanding of the business and its future. Also, your personalities should complement each other – you should consider an investor as a partner in a professional marriage. When the business grows you need to make sure that all your legal agreements are in place. Always get an adviser to make sure your investor is the right one for you. Not all investors have an understanding of passion, so if you get someone who only thinks about making a profit, it might destroy your company.

It has happened too many times."

Jacob have chosen to invest in some seriously high-risk projects. Perhaps he is a bit of a gambler? "Haha yes, I must be! In the past I loved it when investments were very risky. Today I just like when it’s a bit challenging, like entering the music business when it has never been worse – now you have to fight hard for it. I also make sure to balance my high-risk investments with more solid business opportunities. In that way I have the privilege of involving myself in very creative and fun projects without the fear of going bankrupt. I tried that once and I never want to try that again!"

Finalising my conversation with Jacob I have one last questions on my mind: Where do you go to look for an investor?

"There’s almost only one solution and that’s in your own network, or by chance. Get out there and remember that every person you meet on your path in life might be the perfect opportunity just waiting to unfold. Of course you can look for investors in other places, for example online, but unless you have a really strong concept or an already proven business model, you might as well not waste the investor’s time.

It would be great to have some sort of network for investors like me. On one side of the table you have money and experience and on the other side a pool of great ideas and aspiring talents. Maybe that is something Rebel Academy could look into?"

Jacob’s phone rings and I strike up a conversation with his beautiful girlfriend Cecilie. We talk about having a family and combining it with a busy lifestyle. Jacob and Cecilie have an adorable 13-month-old daughter, and as Cecilie informs me, Jacob wants to have two more children before he turns 40. It surprises me that it’s him who is so keen on having more children, and I can’t help but wonder how he finds time to be a father and husband while running 10 companies. But somehow, almost magically, I get the feeling that this is a family that just goes with the flow and makes the best of life.

It’s getting late and Sunday afternoon has turned into night. But before leaving, I want to know what advice he can give all those creative entrepreneurs looking for investors.

I realise that ending our conversation with a question like that is perfect. Without even being aware of it, Jacob sparked an idea in me. As a matter of fact I’m leaving this day filled with inspiration and high energy. I hear from friends, family and partners that this is something Jacob knows how to do – Inspire and ignite passion in those around him.

“First of all, look for more than money – you will need someone who understands your business. You need to make sure you have a com-

“ I always invest in projects that I can benefit from in more ways than just economically”

The investor /

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Portfolio Le Shop Soulland - Men´s wear clothes Cafe Granola - Cafe @Vesterbro Central Hotel& Cafe - Coffeeshop and Copenhagens smallest hotel Taxa - Cafe @ Nørrebro Cafe Pixie - Cafe @ Østerbro & nightclub Gallery Steinsland Berliner - contemporary art gallery in Stockholm Hang The Prints - Limited art print web shop Nordic Power Trading - Power stocks Fake Diamond Records - indenpendent record label Jacob´s Laundromat - Coin laundromat Sex culture Magazine Mandatory

Snow Blind 002 / Matthias Heiderich

TRAILERPARK FESTIVAL 1,2,3 august at cph skatepark trailerparkfestival.com facebook.com/trailerparkfestival

A LOOK INTO THE POSSIBILITIES OF INSTAGRAM from a creative perspective the capabilities of instagram are often overlooked. limited to a square format and only accessible through smartphones, instagram as a photographic format poses interesting challenges, but when looked at with the right eye it can create intriguing and beautiful results. utilised by top brands, fashion houses, newspapers, designers and manufacturers, instagram is one of the fastest growing social medias and, by showing the human side of a business, is a useful tool for branding. fashion brands such as asos, stella mccartney and gucci use it to promote their latest campaigns with ‘behind the scenes’ marketing strategies while individual artists use it as a tool of self-branding giving their followers and fans a controlled sneak peek into their lives on their own terms. instagram allows businesses and brands the ability to give their followers a sense of an insider’s access to their company that is carefully controlled and marketed. the use of hash tags and trending pictures makes it possible to attract like-minded followers by linking to similar brands and expand clientele by cross-networking, whilst its social networking aspect of commenting and tagging also allows for acommunity interaction to develop amongst followers.

Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann

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TUESDAY TAKEOVER

Hijacking ArtRebels’ Instagram

Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann

ArtRebels created Tuesday Takeover, to utilise our Instagram page as a platform for showcasing creative talent. Tuesday Takeover invites photographers, designers, musicians and creative souls to hijack our Instagram account for a day and take between five to ten pictures for us. They can be of whatever the hijacker wants, whether it is images from their portfolio, a documentation of their day, a look into the way they work or a personal artistic project of their own. The Tuesday Takeover project is thus not just an artistic project but also a way of networking within the creative community and gaining more followers both for our artists and for ArtRebels.

We chased down two of our hijackers, photographers Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann and Kim Høltermand and asked them how they use Instagram as a medium for both self-promotion and artistic outlet.

Words / Phoebe Rose Aust

Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann

How long have you been using instagram (or smartphone-based photography) and how many followers do you have? I’ve been using Instagram for more than a year.

I created my account just before I went to India in November 2011. At this moment I have a little more than 21500 followers.

How do you feel about taking pictures on your iPhone? That I like very much. I’m always carrying my iPhone, so whenever my eyes find something interesting I’m ready to capture the moment right away. I always perceive the world as pictures that I want to maintain.

Does the restricted format of Instagram help or hinder your images? In the beginning I found it a bit annoying. But now I kind of like it. I think that square is a cool format and I’m thinking of it while taking the pictures, so it’s not a problem to crop them later on. Do you see it as a social tool or a photographic tool or both? I see it as both a social and a photographic tool.

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I follow many of my friends who are using Instagram to document their every-day life. And I also use it to follow a lot of photographers all over the world who take interest in the same sort of pictures as I prefer. It’s extremely inspiring to follow their creativity and professionalism. But I also find it funny to see what my friends are up to. That’s why I use it as both a social and a photographic tool.

Can you see iPhone photography functioning as a serious photographic or artistic medium in the future? Yes, very much so. It’s a way of working which is just as professional as working with more expensive and fancy cameras. I think that iPhone photography gives you a lot of freedom and promotes spontaneity. The technical possibilities in smartphone photography makes it just as artistically satisfying as working with a DSLR camera or the like.

How does Instagram compare to other social media

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like Facebook? The good thing about Instagram is that it’s focused exclusively on photos. Facebook is much more complex and confusing to use. I use my Facebook account to communicate with my friends, while my Instagram profile is open for everybody all over the world.

Would you say it’s a good tool for self branding, networking and to promote your work? Yes, indeed. I’ve made very good contacts with people all over the world through Instagram, I’ve been offered several international tasks and people who run galleries have asked me to exhibit my Instagram work. It has been very helpful for me. I’m careful in selecting the photos I post on Instagram so that I’m only posting the photos that I like myself and think viewers will appreciate.

Kim Høltermand How long have you been using instagram (or smartphone-based photography) and how many followers do you have? I have been using Instagram for a few years now and reached 10k followers yesterday which blew my mind. I have recently been selected as a suggested user at Instagram which skyrocketed my number of followers.

How do you feel about taking pictures on your iPhone?

I love it - it makes me take more photos than I would normally do with my DSLR and allows me to experiment a lot more and see how far I can take my style and technique with my iPhone. It really has opened my eyes more to the world around me. Do you use Instagram as a way to promote your work and to self-brand? Yes. Every time I have a new series or any news about my photography I use Instagram to tell my fans about it. I am even thinking about launching new limited projects in the future via Instagram but that’s only in the concept stage at the moment. Does the restricted format of instagram help or hinder your images?

It helps me push my skills - I have to put all my talent and knowledge about photography into this little square and that really makes me push myself and my talent.

Kim Høltermand

Do you see the world the same way as you see it through a camera lens? Yes. When I move around in the world my eyes always scan the surroundings - looking for motifs that catch my eye and mind and could make it into my iPhone. What could be better about Instagram?

The filters and the edit possibilites could need an update - the world has seen enough “Rise” filters. I rarely use Instagrams own filters but use apps such as VSCO CAM and Afterglow and then import into Instagram afterwards.

Do you see it as a social tool or a photographic tool or both?

Both - but mostly a social tool. My feed consists of creative people from all over the world which both helps me inspire my own photography but also gets my own work out to the masses. But also a photographic tool due to the fact that I push myself when I do iPhoneography.

Can you see iPhone photography functioning as a serious photographic or artistic medium in the future? Yes definately.

In time I wouldn’t be surprised if you could make professional images with your smartphone and share with the world with the touch of a finger. It wouldn’t get easier than that. I’m definitely embracing the world of iPhoneography to come. How does instagram compare to facebook? Can you give some pro’s and con’s of each? I’m starting to like the simple approach to Instagram than Facebook but I use both to self-brand my photography. My fans can follow what goes on in my life and behind the lens more via my Instagram feed than my Facebook feed which is more “family” oriented I think. How do you promote yourself and your work through instagram? Would you say it’s a good tool for self-branding and networking?

I try to upload images from my life - I have a lot of fans that enjoy seeing what goes on in the life of a world famous architectural- and landscape photographer and I try to give people something to see, a more intimate look than my professional work. How would you rate Instagram as a business tool? Higher than I used to do – I’m still learning the way of Instagram but I am sure that it will be one of my preferred ways of self-branding now and in the future.

Kim Høltermand

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Kim Holtermand

Nikolaj Thaning Rentzmann

From All of Us to all of you On the following pages we have selected some artworks for you to tear out and hang on your walls

At ArtRebels we collaborate and represent many talented and creative artists. ArtRebels.com is a curated community for hand-picked artists from around the world. We focus on collaborating with both established and new talents.

FROM ALL OF US /

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You Made Me - Two / Supermundane

The Illusion Of Destiny / KLUB 7

Somebody’s Working Whle You Sleep / Mattia Lullini

Let’s Dance / Michelle Carlslund

A Hallucination Of Infatuation / Oscar Juul-Sørensen

Form Light Pink / Trine Struwe

In Our Heads #1 / Josephine Kyhn

Bear Like Whut / Hipstickers

Mask / Karan Segall

Flora / Phuc Van Dang

Orbital / Massi Amatis

Luna Moon / Alina Vergnano

Gilleleje / Louise Huus Kjeldgaard

The Rise / Pale Grain

INSPIRATIONAL WEBSITES Sara Schelde is the online manager of artrebels.com.

We asked her to share with us her 10 favourite inspirational websites.

01

IT’S NICE THAT

02

HAW-LIN

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WEEKDAY CARNIVAL

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SHIP OF FOOLS GALLERY

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CARGO COLLECTIVE

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BUT DOES IT FLOAT

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TRENDLIST

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THE FOX IS BLACK

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CONVOY

10

THE BURNING HOUSE

01. itsnicethat.com // The best from the art and design world 02. haw-lin.com // An online mood board with eyecandy en masse 03. weekdaycarnival.blogspot.dk // Home and interior blog with great inspiration for your home 04. shipoffoolsgallery.com // exhibitions / Dutch gallery where you can find art that makes you smile and has a great set of balls. 05. cargocollective.com/#/ featured - A selection of the finest upcoming and established talents with Cargo Collective sites 06. butdoesitfloat.com // A visual conversation about art taking place inside a browser window 07. trendlist.org // Explore trends in graphic design - and stay trendy! 08. thefoxisblack.com // an art blog seeking to discover and share the most interesting and inspiring parts of contemporary life and culture.09. convoy.tumblr.com // All you need for interior, apparel and lifestyle inspiration. 10. theburninghouse.com // If your house was burning, what would you take with you?

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by Mike Tylak

Mike Tylak

THE FUTURE OF MARKETING We live in interesting times. Today it’s possible to market your business, product or service without a million dollar budget and an advertising agency to spend it. The world of communication has undergone a cultural revolution. The future of marketing lies in peoples’ support – not in the budgets.

Welcome to the era of rebellion.

Words / Simon Caspersen

Unless human civilization isn’t your thing it won’t be a surprise the world of marketing is changing faster than a speeding bullet.

With the digital revolution the power balance in the media landscape has shifted - and the animals are taking over the farm. Today the people themselves control many of the communication channels available. This creates previously unseen challenges for businesses on a grand level. However, the opportunities and potential rewards are equally great for those that know how to navigate.

The silent revolution

Give first

Advertising has accelerated to a point where the market is over saturated. Instead of even trying to absorb the 3,000 to 20,000 marketing messages we’re exposed to on a daily basis, we instinctively turn to people we trust for inspiration and advice. A first hand recommendation has always been the most influential type of communication. But in this era it goes beyond simply calling your cousin for advice or hearing about a new movie at work. Today we pick up recommendations from our entire network through, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We google “Macbook pro vs. air” and weigh the pro and cons from fellow consumers. We follow bloggers we identify with and get inspired by their recommendations. We engage in online communities that share our specific interests. We are connected like never before and “Word of mouth” is turbo charged. Consumers are ignoring the traditional world of marketing and instead they listen to people they trust.

So, what is the future of marketing and how can we create successful businesses in this new era?

There’s no sign the revolution is over, quite the contrary. In all likelihood we will see the people becoming even more empowered – and even pickier. Their attention span will decrease and as marketers focus still more on new media platforms, the consumers will isolate themselves further from brands that send out useless noise.

We have to fully accept that marketing happens solely on the premises of the consumer. People today want to be entertained, inspired, captivated, turned on, have a sense of belonging, a way to show who they are and what they believe in. And the future of marketing is providing that content. Instead of being the commercial, be the show. Instead of being the online banner in the margin, be the content people are sharing. Instead of being the ad in the magazine, be the feature story.

In short, marketers need to spend their time on providing valuable content for people.

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The future of marketing is not solely about budgets, it simply is about the idea of “giving first”. Whether your approach is interesting events, hilarious online videos, relevant blog content, useful services, engaging competitions or something different, the key is to embrace the concept of ‘giving first’. Give people a reason to support what you do. And make sure what you do is worth telling others about.

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Photography / Kenneth Nguyen

”If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people they’d punch you in the face” Hugh MacLeoud, author and cartoonist

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The agency

The case

I work as a concept developer and strategic planner in Rebel Agency.

We grew out of ArtRebels and Trailerpark Festival in 2008. From the get go, the philosophy behind Rebel Agency has been to use marketing budgets to create culture, add value to the world, and inspire people to support a brand because they genuinely want to. We have always embrassed the idea of 'giving first'.

When I first joined Rebel Agency we were working on a campaign to market a new camera for Canon. Instead of creating a print ad that wouldn’t excite anyone, we launched an international photo competition. The campaign went viral in the target group. Over 600 photographers submitted photos and people interested in photography got involved by voting, liking, and commenting on the photos.

We have an unconventional perspective on marketing campaigns altogether. Rather than seeing them as a form of one-way communication, we see them as a form of co-creative project between brand and target audience. We believe in inspiring the right messengers to spread storytelling about the brand to the right audience in the right context. We create inspiring and relevant content with and for the target audience so we can communicate the brand from inside the target group using its own channels, combining word of mouth, social media and blogs.

Focusing the project on something of relevance to the target group, enables a deeper value based relationship. This increases the incentives for people to engage in the campaign, support the brand and tell their friends about it. Because it makes sense to them.

When I showed up for the vernissage event held for the 3 best photographers in the competition, I was greeted by a completely packed showroom and 200 people lined outside in the dead of Danish winter, waiting to get in. I was amazed. Not a single penny was spent on advertising in the traditional sense and yet Canon got extensive exposure.

People chose to engage, support, share and show up because we built a real experience around the product and made it relevant, interesting, and exciting to them.

The launch campaign connected Canon with their primary target group, told the story of their new camera, and created great brand value. At the same time, we motivated talented photographers to create new artworks for the world to enjoy, provided them with exposure to a new audience, and created new opportunities for them.

You won’t see our campaigns around town and in tv-commercial blocks – you will hear about them from your friends and read about them on your favourite blogs.

An all around win-win. We believe this is the future of marketing.

Let me exemplify our approach.

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“Marketing is dead. The role of marketing has changed now (…)

Marketing’s job is to create movement and inspire people to join you.”

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide

Photography / Anders Skovshoved

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LET’S MAKE IT BUZZ

PRESENTING GUERRILLA MARKETING guer·ril·la or gue·ril·la [guh-ril-uh], noun, adjective Diminutive of the Spanish word Guerra - war.

A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy by surprise raids.

Blue rubber ducks in urban fountains, posters with missing artists, politicians on skateboards, huge flash mobs, “Jagtvej” road signs all over the city and political campaign posters featuring sexy manga girls – you might ask yourself how this could help your organisation or cause? All these initiatives are examples of guerrilla marketing campaigns – unconventional and creative ways of doing advertising and raising awareness about causes, brands or products.

Words / Morten Mechlenborg Nørulf

share it with their social network. And that’s a very powerful, not to mention cost effective, place to be”, says Executive Creative Director Jason Mendes of Saatchi & Saatchi Denmark. “Guerrilla advertising, like any media, can be hit or miss.” But as Jason points out, ”what underpins its success is, the idea. If it’s big enough, it will resonate with it’s target audience and get people to talk about it and, more importantly, share it.”

The term guerrilla marketing is easily traced back to guerrilla warfare – a method using atypical tactics to achieve a goal in times of war. In marketing, the term has traditionally been applied when describing unconventional marketing tools and methods used in cases where resources such as finances are often limited or non-existent. However, bigger companies have realized the potential guerrilla marketing holds in reaching a specific audience – often a young crowd that does not care much for traditional big budget advertising campaigns. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns follow an unpredictable pattern, are potentially interactive, and target consumers in unexpected places. The goal is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking campaign that generates buzz and consequently turn viral.

One of the strongest means of guerrilla marketing is the word-ofmouth effect both offline and online. That is an effect advertisers strive to obtain but often fails at. Guerrilla marketing has proven to be an efficient method for creating a physical interaction and engaging people in the streets.

Both small and large advertisers have discovered Guerrilla Marketing.

In Denmark you can roughly divide advertisers – both commercial and non-commercial – that are using guerrilla marketing into two groups. The first group consists of advertisers with a small marketing budget and no funds for grand TV and advertising campaigns.

These organisations and companies survive by doing things differently and they are often more creative. The second group of advertisers in guerrilla marketing has young and urban people as their main target group. These are advertisers mainly within sport, fashion, film, music and gaming, and they have learnt that traditional media campaigns are not as effective as they used to be. As opposed to the first group, this group have and use many resources on guerrilla marketing and, at the same time, they would like to be regarded as innovative and different by their target group.

The global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi has had great success with guerrilla advertising. You might recall the renowned Flash Mob campaign done for T-Mobile where hundreds of people in the busy Liverpool Street Station in London broke out in a 3 minutes dance session. “When you look at that campaign, you think to yourself “I wish I was there!” … and the next thing millions of people did was

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Photography / Saatchi & Saatchi

Photography / Simon Caspersen

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Photography / Casper Balslev

“Guerrilla advertising is unique because it's live advertising. It's happening right before your eyes.

It’s street theatre.”

– Jason Mendes, Saatchi & Saatchi Denmark

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artist behind the campaign wanted to, indirectly, create debate around the fact that Danish politicians use huge amounts of money campaigning and place too much attention on results from opinion polls. The election posters were a gift to the inhabitants of Copenhagen from the ”Starving Artists Art Foundation” but Copenhagen municipality had the posters removed. However, the alternative election campaign engaged people on the streets successfully and was followed up by a huge viral effect after Fox News picked up the story when the artist showcased the posters on Times Square.

Ironically, museums funded by the Danish state have since bought some of the posters for exhibitions. The Love Party campaign is another good example of guerrilla marketing – especially when it comes to raising awareness about a societal or a political issue.

When speaking about political issues and guerrilla marketing a successful example is the ”Jagtvej” sticker campaign. Ungdomshuset (The Youth House) was faced with a political demand of demolition and in an attempt to gain sympathy and raise awareness about the cause the “Jagtvej” sticker campaign was launched. Stickers saying “Jagtvej” – the name of the road where Ungdomshuset used to be – was placed upon road signs around Copenhagen. Suddenly you had Jagtvej’s all over Copenhagen. Ungdomshuset was torn down but the campaign is another good example of guerrilla actions on the streets gaining attention from the media and society.

In 2006, the opening of the Adidas flagship store in Pilestræde, Copenhagen was marked with hundreds of blue rubber ducks with the text, “I’ve swum too far - help me get back home!” and “Reward for my return at Adidas Original store” placed in fountains. Playful and engaging, the blue rubber ducks made pedestrians in Copenhagen aware of the store opening and invited them to join Adidas on this day of celebration. In this case, guerrilla marketing was used by a big company to create a buzz around an event and engaged an audience that had not planned in visiting the Adidas store that particular day.

In 2012, ArtRebels launched the Trailerpark Festival ”Missing Artist” campaign by promoting and creating a buzz around the annual music and art festival. During the time of the campaign, you could find simple posters, in and around Copenhagen, with pictures of the ”missing” artists for Trailerpark Festival and slips with dates and contact information for tearing off. Another important aspect of the campaign was the synergy that was created between offline and online elements by offering free beers, at the festival, if you uploaded pictures you had taken of the campaign posters in the streets. The low-cost campaign created a buzz around the festival and a viral effect took off through the spreading of pictures online, which engaged a new audience and the artist themselves participated in sharing the campaign.

When messages mix

Never underestimate the power of surprise

During the 2011 Danish Parliament election, we saw two interesting guerrilla marketing campaigns that used the event to create alternative campaign posters. ALIS – a street wear/skate fashion brand and community supporting street culture – made add-on-posters to the political campaign posters. Suddenly high profiled Danish politicians were pictured carrying skateboards and advertising ”more skate parks on the agenda”. The campaign received positive feedback – even from Christiansborg (The Danish Parliament). This award-winning campaign serves as a good example of the unforeseen positive effects that guerrilla marketing can have. ALIS did not expect the campaign to generate as much attention as it did - especially from international online communities.

“Conventional media will always have a certain distance between you and your audience. For example, with TV and Internet there is a screen between you, with print, there’s a magazine, poster or newspaper etc. Guerrilla marketing actually interacts with you in a live and public domain”, Jason from Saatchi & Saatchi explains.

“If guerrilla advertising is done properly you can get maximum results from minimum resources. For instance, if you film the event or stunt, it not only reaches the people you have interacted with, it can go national or, better yet, global if people are compelled to share it.

Guerrilla advertising has the same appeal as the American TV series in the 70’s, Smile You’re on Candid Camera. It’s the real life aspect to it, with actual people (not actors) that we warm to. And lastly, never underestimate the power of surprise”, Jason reminds us.

Mikkel Møller - the creative director behind the project – came up with the idea: “I thought it could be fun to extend the bodies of the politicians on the campaign posters. My first idea was to dress them in naughty underwear but we ended up working with ALIS trying to improve the conditions for the Copenhagen skate community.” A strength of guerrilla marketing – or ambient media advertising as Mikkel refers to it – is that it often takes point of departure in something on location: “Ambient media execution builds on something, modify something or twists something that otherwise always is the same. This enhance opportunities to surprise the target group”, Mikkel says.

Whether you are a small non-profit organisation or multibillion-dollar conglomerate, guerrilla marketing has proved to be effective. All it takes is the right idea and execution.

Another example from the 2011 election using political campaign posters was the Love Party initiative. 1500 campaign posterns were put up in different parts of Copenhagen picturing sexy Japanese manga girls advocating funny, yet politically critical messages like ”more fun less politics”, ”more love less politics”, ”we love foreigners” etc. The

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Lukas Renlund is a talented artist and photographer, who enjoys challenging his audiences’ eye and first perceptions. In many ways his works lie at the intersection of fashion and art photography. His photographs have been exhibited on famous gallery walls and published on magazine covers.

In this edition of Rebel Times his craftsmanship is seen gracing our very own cover, as well as in our main story about the multi-talented, Copenhagen-based entrepreneur Jacob Kampp Berliner.

Find Lukas Renlund | Photographer on Facebook or visit www.lukasrenlund.com

Photography / Ea Verdoner

L.A. dreaming “Everybody comes to Hollywood – they wanna make it in the neighbourhood”.

For those who have lived under a rock for the past 30 years, these are the words from a woman who very much managed to succeed in the city of angels. I’m obviously talking about Madonna. But not only is this a very catchy song, it also seems to be the truth.

Los Angeles is well known as the place to dream big in the hopes of making it “over there” in America. Everybody from all over the world seems to immigrate to this metropolis in the pursuit of becoming a star overnight.

AUGUST ROSENBAUM PIANIST AND COMPOSER, 25 Danish Music Award winner for debut album ‘Beholder’ (2010).

Representing Denmark at the Red Bull Music Academy in New York, 2013. Music Director for Quadron. www.augustrosenbaum.com

Photography / Dennis Lehmann

THE MOB PERFORMANCE GROUP, 26/28 Established in 2007 Julia Giertz and Emma-Cecilia Ajanki have created and toured with their performances and electro pop concerts. The Mob will make two brand new performances in 2013. www.themob.dk

Photography / Nielsen&Omvik

COCO MALAIKA SINGER, 25 The voice of Danish soul group Quadron, whose self titled debut album from 2010 received praise from the likes of Prince, Odd Future and Adele. New release on Epic Records, 2013. www.quadronmusic.com

Photography / Simon Birk

THEY MADE IT IN L.A. Words / Ea Verdoner Jacobsen

W

has a lot of importance back home. I want to think bigger than that.

There’s nothing written in Soundvenue that The Fader (a New Yorkbased music, culture and fashion publication) hasn’t already published.

Julia: It’s so inspiring to see the energy that the artists here display, and how much they do to make it. It seems to me that in Denmark a lot of people wait for the financial support and thereby the approval.

They’re waiting for a stamp that says “The State of Denmark likes you”. Here that doesn’t exist. Emma-Cecilia: In our performances we often make an absurd version of reality. L.A. is that version. I think this place is so unreal. California is weird, exotic and nothing like Denmark. Julia: You meet so many different kinds of beings and experience so many different ways of living here. In L.A. everybody has their own way and means. Back in Scandinavia almost everyone leads similar lives. In L.A. no one lives their life like their neighbour.

Coco: It’s a very bureaucratic city when it comes to the arts because everyone is moving here from somewhere. It’s not important who you are or where you’re from, what’s important here is what you do.

e Danes are no exception to this. L.A. is filled with talented Danish artists who all dreamt of something bigger and better than what was found in this cold land far in the north. Some of these artists include the avant-garde fashion brand Moonspoon Saloon who have been based in L.A. for a few years and surely found room to improve the avant-garde in avant-garde. Danish music darling Thomas Barfoed was also among those who saw the possibilities in L.A., and moved there with his wife, kid and cat, and within a short time established himself on the music scene. Filmmakers such as Simon Bonde and Nikolaj Arcel also live and work there with great success. Inspired by these artist’s stories, many newcomers are following their footsteps in the hopes of the same achievements. I met up with four of these L.A. newcomers to talk about creativity, visions, arts and music – and of course L.A. Currently living in the city, singer Coco Malaika, musician and composer August Rosenbaum, and dancers Julia Giertz and Emma-Cecilia Ajanki share a passion for the performing arts. Coco is the one half of the electronic duo Quadron, soon to release their second album on Epic Records. August is the Music Director of Quadron, and a solo artist and film composer with his own label Hiatus. Julia and Emma-Cecilia are the founders of The Mob, a performance group that combines politics and pop surrealism in their performance art.

These artists all run their own creative businesses, and I was curious as to how they do it. So on one of the few rainy days in L.A. I invited them over to my house in Highland Park for a cup of coffee, some Californian oranges and Danish butter cookies, and to talk about their art and life in L.A. You’re Danes in America. Why L.A.? Coco: To be honest, nobody else was interested in us (Quadron). Our music got a lot of attention from American labels, so instead of sitting around waiting for something to happen back in Denmark, L.A. gave us the possibility to make a new album and a chance at success in the heart of the music industry. This city opens up a world that is not possible to reach anywhere else. The world seems bigger in L.A. When you’re here, Denmark appears tiny and, regarding business, unimportant. An article in GAFFA or Soundvenue (Danish music magazines)

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Creativity is?

Every artist creates in their own way and time, and every thought is put down as part of a process. It seems that creative processes are just as diverse as the people here in L.A. How do you create? Emma-Cecilia: We always tell ourselves not to get too creative, actually. We like to keep it simple and precise, and we try to create a very specific concept when we make performances. Julia: We don’t experiment or test a lot of different ideas. We think and think and think until we come up with the best concept, the one good idea. We don’t just do whatever we feel like and follow a vibe – it must be motivated. August: That kind of perfectionism is not as culturally

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rooted here as it is in Europe. Coco: Perfectionism is definitely an old European quality, and the American music industry looks more towards Europe than we think. We produce more long-lasting, timeless products. Here it’s very user-oriented – more of a quick fix. Labels here usually want something they can profit from here and now – quantity rather than quality. I want to create something whole. I want to tell a story that people can relate to, not just create something that sounds pretty.

ment. It’s not a solo show. Emma-Cecilia: A good collaborator is a person that can expand your ideas. Someone who can take you in a new direction and make you think in new ways. We know we can’t do everything ourselves, so we collaborate with other artists to shape our visual concept. August: It’s good to know your own limitations.

Julia: And to get the expertise that can lift the whole expression.

Now in LA

How does it feel when the process of creating something comes to an end? Coco: It’s scary. You work on it for such a long time and then suddenly it’s a product, and then it’s done – it’s closed.

When I’m finishing a record, I always tell myself that it’s not the last piece of music I will make. Otherwise I could continue trying to improve it and never finish. August: I see my projects and records as benchmarks on a long, long road. When I finish something I try to move to a new project right away. And every time I finish a project, I’m learning something new about my own expression. Julia: It’s all a development. The perfect piece doesn’t exist.

The Product

Why L.A.? Julia: Being a performance artist, it’s hard to make a living in L.A. Our business is based in Denmark, but we come here to be inspired. We’ve had time to collect our thoughts and are starting to plan two performances we will produce in 2013.

August: For me L.A. is a change of air. I’ve just sent a new album to print, and now I’m working on a new collaboration project with Robin Hannibal. I do business both here and in Denmark. In L.A. it’s mainly as the Music Director for Quadron.

Coco: We are making our second album, which is almost done. I feel we’re really defining ourselves now in L.A. and I’m looking forward to develop our artistic identity and selling over 30 million records.

That’s my business plan.

Dreams

Dreams are what make a piece of art, in my opinion. If there’s no dream, there’s no motivation and nowhere to go. Do dreams change in L.A.? Are they bigger? Coco: I’ve always dreamt big. They’re dreams, so you’re allowed to. When I started singing I dreamt of big stadiums where audiences would faint when they saw me. Now I dream of taking over the world with our music. When I miss Denmark and I think about going back, I know that I’d have to give up the glamour in L.A. For example a legend like Stevie Wonder is far, far away from Dwenmark, and you can only dream of meeting him there, but in L.A. you meet Stevie Wonder.

Emma-Cecilia: The only thing that scares me about my dreams of the future is that I’ll wake up one day and not be passionate about what I do. I love my work and creating performances, so the thought of that changing is scary to me.

August: L.A. makes me think bigger and makes me want to move further than Denmark. The direction and growth is limited in Denmark and you can only go so far there. If you want to develop, there are so many possibilities to do so all over the world. And when you take the actual steps towards the place you dream of, you’ve already begun realising your dream. Coco: It requires that you dare to dream for it to happen!

Some good advice? Julia: Work with people you like, people you trust, people you don’t fight with and people you admire. If you find just one you are lucky.

Collaboration

How do you build a strong collaboration? Coco: It takes time to create a strong collaboration. It took Robin [the other half of the Quadron duo] and I a year. Working as a duo involves a lot of compromises and the best results are definitely those which we’re both equally excited about. When we begin a new song, mutual understanding is crucial. Usually we find other songs of reference and it makes it easier to understand the idea and get a sense of the song as a whole. We often use Michael Jackson for reference. No, actually we always use him. When something’s good, it always goes back to Michael. It’s a bit of a joke, but it’s true. Emma-Cecilia: The way it works for us is by throwing away our egos. It’s important not to let any egoistic decisions get in the way of the focus of the product, especially in a process involving people other than ourselves. When I tell Julia one of my ideas, I will know if it has content just by saying it out loud. Julia: Kind of the same feeling as when you explain a dream to someone – you re-experience it’s content.

It must be something else in your case, August? August: You mean, because I’m just me? Yes, I can easily chew too much on my ideas and it’s hard for me not to tie my work to my personal identity, when what I do is always pointing back at me in a way.

A while back I ended up throwing away a whole record because I wasn’t satisfied with the outcome. I was bored with my instrument. I guess when what you do just doesn’t inspire, you need something else, something coming from the outside. Inspiration can also come from doing something new, from playing new sounds or learning a new instrument. It’s tough to create a piece from scratch without some kind of feedback from a collaborator. When I’m creating music for films, I’m more easily inspired and directed. To me that media possesses so many feelings and stories that I can react on. You’re all inspired by something or someone. In a collaboration you find a common expression. Is that different from ”your own” expression? Coco: It’s 100% something else. What we do together is a combination. It wouldn’t be the same without the other, The choices we make are different because we have to reach an agree-

THEY MADE IT IN LA /

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Eye On The Moon / Ruth Crone Foster

SCHOOL OF CREATIVITY In the heart of Copenhagen lies Borups Højskole, a very special Danish folk high school that specialises in creative courses for Scandinavian youth. It is here that a wealth of tomorrow’s talent lies. ArtRebels went across town and talked with the principal and some of the students about creativity, finding yourself and developing your talent.

Words / Morten Mechlenborg Nørulf

is one of these young people. Taking courses in music, art and multimedia, Petter wants to be an architect and he is preparing to do so by joining Borups programme Next Step – a specialisation in graphic design and visual communication. Petter would like to open his own creative business at some point and believes that, “it’s about believing in yourself and if you fail, it’s not the end of the world. You just have to keep trying as long as you have your creative energy with you.”Schools like Borups have always been threatened by politicians who want young people to get an education quickly and join the labour market early, leaving no time for fooling around with creative education! However, reality has shown that young people who actually take a year or two off between high school and their further education tend to know their goals better and are less likely to drop out. That’s why Jørn believes that schools like Borups are very important in helping young people to discover their inner talents and creative direction.

“What may look useless on paper is actually very valuable – both to the individual and society”, says Jørn. The success stories are numerous, explains Jørn: “Many of our former students go on to have successful careers within creative fields, and we are happy to be present and support them at an early stage when they discover their interests and talents.”At the end of my visit Jørn tells me that “Borups provides the framework for young people to unfold their creativity, but it’s up to them in the end to decide what they want to do with their creative talent.”

Jørn Wendelbo – the school principal for 12 years – has a long career behind him in folk high school administration and teaching. With a background in music including having played in a semi-professional band, Jørn knows creativity when he sees it. Having dedicated most of his life to Danish folk high schools teaching music and film production among other things, we thought that he was THE man to talk with to get a glimpse of the young creatives of tomorrow.

“Borups is a place where you can test your creativity and see if you want to work in that direction in the future”.

Talking to Jørn I quickly realised that it isn’t all about enhancing creative talent and making sure that everybody becomes grand designers and artists. To Jørn, going to a school like Borups is much more about finding your inner talent in the first place, although finding that inner talent isn’t always easy. By providing the students with a good structure through good teachers, materials and assignments, Jørn wants to provide a stimulating environment where students can find and develop their inner creativity in a peaceful and enlightened way. And as he says, going to a folk high school is also very much about personal development and learning to become an independent human.

Julie Rubeck Brudvig (26 years old) is currently enrolled at Borups and she is happy to have a place where her interest in music, journalism and film production is lived out and her creativity is realised.

Even though Julie isn’t working in a creative business right now, she can use her creative competencies from Borups in her daily job as a schoolteacher. Borups was founded in 1891 and was the first folk high school in a major Danish city, and today it houses students from all over Scandinavia. It offers creative courses in film, visual communication, graphic design, performance, art, culture, and social science.

With a golden reputation, it is a popular choice among young Scandinavians. Petter Streijffert (20 years old) from Gothenburg in Sweden

SCHOOL OF CREATIVITY /

ArtRebels hopes to see some of this talent out there in the future…

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� There is nothing worse than working nine to five as a bank clerk, if what you really want to do is play guitar in a heavy metal band�

Photography / Ulrik Jantzen, Das Buro

Visit www.borups.dk for more information

THE ART OF GRAPHIC DESIGN Introducing Dyhr.Hagen Peter Ă˜rntoft Frederik Dollerup

We asked three of our favorite graphic designers to remix the ArtRebels logo and talk a bit about their passion for graphic design and visual communication as an art form.

THE ART OF GRAPHIC DESIGN /

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D y h r. H a g e n f o r Re b e l T i m e s .

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P h o t o g r a p h e r. H u g h L i p p e .

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DYHR.HAGEN Tell us about your thoughts behind your ArtRebels remix. Well, the ArtRebels’ identity is very strong, so it was easy for us to take the elements and re-work them. As an agency working mainly with fashion, it was essential for us to work with a combination of both photo and graphics. We think this type of mix will be used more and more in the future.

Is it possible to define what makes graphic design great? For us it´s all about the craftsmanship and the hours you put into your work. But if you aren’t born with the gift of being a good graphic designer you will never truly make great designs. It’s not possible to define what good graphic design is – it’s a matter of taste. But you can argue whether a piece of work does what it’s meant to.

How important is a strong visual identity for a brand’s success? And why? For some companies their identity is everything, especially since companies tend to copy each other’s products. Having a strong visual identity makes all the difference, as we tend to identify with this as well. Just consider what Louis Vuitton’s LV logo has done for them as a brand.

Graphic design is often connected to commercial industries – does graphic design also justify as art? Please tell us about graphic design as an art form and how it may fit into high-end galleries. In my opinion graphic design is a craft, whereas art is more about the idea and thought-process behind the work: You made it because you felt like it, not because somebody ordered it. A brush can either be used for painting your apartment or making a spectacular painting, it´s all about how you use it.

Which designers and creative minds inspire you and why? I get inspired from a lot of things, not just from one exact designer or creative mind. I love photography both as an art form and as a means of commercial communication. Still, it’s one of my inspiration sources.

A client gives you a blank cheque to create your dream project. What would it be and what would it cost? Our FAT Magazine is our playground – here, there are no limits.

We pay for everything ourselves when it comes to FAT. We don´t need to take in ads we don´t like. If I had blank cheque I would print more copies of FAT and give them away for free.

What good advice would you give all the up coming designers out there? If you are not completely dedicated to, and love graphics, find something else to do.

THE ART OF GRAPHIC DESIGN /

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PETER ØRNTOFT What is your graphic design background? I received a bachelor's degree in Graphic and Media Design from the London College of Communication in 2007 and a master's degree in Visual Communication from the Danish Design School in 2010. Subsequently, I have worked as a graphic designer at the Danish Design Center, the think tank Mandag Morgen and in the strategic design agency 1508 and here in 2013 I have decided to try my luck as an independent designer.

Why have you chosen graphic design as your form of expression? I started out developing an interest in photography but I felt that it was too static a medium to work with. I quickly became fascinated by graphic design in which the possibilities of combining various media and visual elements seemed endless, and where you quickly could see the results of your work process.

The wide exposure area of the finished result was another draw. Today it is the strength and importance of visual communication in the world that I find the most interesting. Using visual communication as a tool to create transparency, to build structures or systems, or to propagate a case are the types of projects that I find the most interesting.

Which graphic designers should we keep an eye on in the future? Talented designers pop up all the time and I am certain that this trend will continue. I am very fascinated by the Dutch designers Kok Pistolet, the German designer Sarah Illenberger and the famous Sagmeister & Walsh. Besides being very skilled, they each have a strong and unique expression and a redemptive honesty in their design and, in spite of all the many years of experience, I think that they have the ability to constantly push the limits of graphic design and I'm sure they are worth following in the future.

Share your ideas behind your re-design of the ArtRebels logo: Despite the fact that ArtRebels has moved to another district in Copenhagen today, ArtRebels for me will always symbolize a part of Vesterbro’s local environment in relation to art, design and music. In addition ArtRebels symbolizes something not physically tangible but a creative movement or network. By blending the colored rhombuses (that make up the star of the ArtRebels’ logo), with a picture of Vesterbro life, they form a kind of prism evoking ArtRebels as a thought or feeling rather than something physically tangible.

What was challenging about the re-design? It's always a challenge to interpret a logo like ArtRebels’ since it is so entrenched in our consciousness. For me, the colorful star in the logo is synonymous with ArtRebels and it is difficult to alter that without changing my perception of ArtRebels. In addition, creating a sense of movement or feeling generates some design challenges as it involves manipulating relatively intangible elements. Furthermore, it has been a challenge to approach the task in an innovative way since it is a logo that has been interpreted by many other talented designers and artists before me, and it has been present in so many medias in various creative contexts.

The ART OF GRAPHIC DESIGN /

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FREDERIK DOLLERUP What is your graphic design background? In kindergarten, I used to play a lot with crayons, and when I got a personal computer things just escalated from there. I used to destroy my books and the walls with drawings in school. Gave me a lot of trouble, actually. It was not before I went to a creative media school my mind got fixed on graphic design. Before that I only focused on drawing symbols, letters and strange shapes on canvas and making them look nice. I have never really thought of the things I used to make as “graphic design”. It was through teachings I learned how to put order into my creative mess. Controlled mess is good! As many other new graphic artists, I have been engaged in various projects. I have had the pleasure of working on the ambitious youth magazine Alice in Underland, which featured articles with musicians such as Shlohmo, Eloq, and the photographers, Kenneth Nguyen and Gusti Goo. I was responsible for the graphic design the first six issues of the magazine. Furthermore, I have worked with different commercial companies, such as Miinto.dk and Gamereactor.dk.

What inspires you in your daily work as a graphic designer? I get inspired by different shapes and forms around me. Especially the city’s many different shapes and structures inspire me when I am working on a graphic design. On my computer I keep a folder where every visual moment I encounter goes in. Loads of tumblr content is also saved in this inspirational folder.

Sources of inspiration is different from person to person, but the important thing is that you are able to identify these sources clearly. For me, these sources change from day to day and it is rarely something static. So my inspirational sources will probably have changed when this magazine is published, but blogs such as Heptagram.co and butdoesitfloat.com are some I have been following for many months.

Share your ideas behind your remix of the ArtRebels’ logo: My idea was to let my personal graphic touch grow out of the eyes of the Artrebels’ woman, functioning as a metaphor for all the creativity hidden behind the Artrebels’ mask. The illustration has many graphical objects, which is why I have chosen a monotone color scale. It is blue. I like blue.

How does it feel to be the new kid on the block? It’s such an awesome opportunity to work with Artrebels – it’s wicked! They are a skilled bunch of people, which pushes me to do my best.

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Photography / Nina Mouritzen

CÆCILIE TRIER /

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CÆCILIE TRIER Cæcilie Trier is one of the most active musicians on the alternative Danish music scene with her own project CTM plus numerous appearances both live and on record with Choir of Young Believers, Valby Vokalgruppe, Chimes & Bells, Andreas Führer and MANY more. I have the privilege of releasing Cæcilie's project CTM on the record label Tambourhinoceros and took this chance to talk to Cæcilie about the many processes and thoughts behind making new music.

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"I wonder if I dream about music too, I can never remember my dreams but I’d like to know."

Words / Kristoffer Rom

Kristoffer: What does a day in the life of Cæcilie Trier consist of?

Cæcilie: Lately I have spend most of my time at home writing and playing different keyboards, reading a bit and listening to music. It’s has been very interesting. The past year has been very exciting – playing music with a lot of friends like Valby Vokalgruppe and lately Andreas Fuhrer and The New Brown. With Choir of Young Believers, touring the US, Europe and DK since the Rhinegold release. Recording the Variations ep in the summer. A lot of different things, all very exciting. I like to be bored though, it’s a great thing and usually it is the time for important things to happen.

Kristoffer: Does working as a solo artist get lonesome at times?

Cæcilie: I don’t feel lonely – I guess there’s a difference between being lonely and being by yourself. One should spend a lot time alone to think, to get things done or whatever happens when stuff are taking shape, and that’s fine by me. Playing music is also a very social thing a lot of the time, so I feel very privileged to be able to enjoy both aspecs.

What do you do to keep yourself artistically inspired?

Writing music is a very mixed experience… It’s important to me and I like to do it as much as possible but the process is filled with so many mixed contrasting emotions and old skeletons flying around. You’re facing a lot of the less attractive characteristics of yourself every day.

I don’t mean to whine; it’s just how it is. Luckily you get to spend a lot of time relating to all things interesting – i like that – it’s like a pair of glasses that I can spend ages looking through. I wonder if I dream about music too, I can never remember my dreams but I’d like to know.

Well, you asked what I do to keep myself inspired – hmmm, not sure really, I mean, I don’t think you always need to be able to produce something! It’s totally okay to do something else that’s somehow related for longer periods of time; playing other people’s music, thinking, writing, working in a library, whatever. In any case, I find it a hideous thought to be productive at all times; it can’t be good for both sender nor receiver. You just keep going and then suddenly something arises out wandering in the wilderness. It doesn’t have to be slavery or par-

CÆCILIE TRIER /

ticularly intelligent all the time. My dad always told me that it’s 99% hard work and 1% talent. I’m not sure what to think about that. It kinda seems like an old protestant sitting on the shoulders of Scandinavians telling them to provide before enjoying things, while praising diligence and restraint. It’s not cool at all but one’s gotta know that inheritance to understand what’s going on if your head starts spinning over all the time you have to structure all by yourself. In ways, I think it’s amusing but that might be because I tend to butt out if things get too solemn. Like most other people I enjoy to read, to listen to music, playing other people’s music and to talk to people about music.

And then it helps to reside in absolute silence a few hours ever day to make your thoughts fill the silence. I think it’s bad to be stimulated too much, inspiration and impressions are great to a certain extend but when there’s too much it’ll damage your inner life. If I have children in the future I’ll make sure they’re totally bored together. I just read an interview with Scott Walker where he said something like “no silence in a silent world”… It’s just as true the other way around.

I’m listening to a lot of music these days but before we went in the studio to record Variations I didn’t listen to anything at all. It just became more noise on the line. I don’t know if it’s good advice but one’s gotta experiment with different methods. One can try to draw lines between totally intuitive musical choices and what you get might be something else than what you intended and later you might read something in a book that points to some substance in the song that again gives it a whole other meaning. If you write something very personal I think you need to be careful that it doesn’t come out as something very private and thus irrelevant – but it’s a fine line, on the other hand you don’t want to go around the bush, you gotta write something with juice in it! Hmmm… I kinda bothers me that I end up with all of these ”one should…” and ”you gotta” kinda sentences. It’s a bad habbit. I probably do it because it’s boring to talk about on a strictly personal level. my sister’s house my apartment

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RECORDS THAT HAS SHAPED YOU AS AN ARTIST Prince “Around the world in a day”, “Purple Rain” Bob Dylan “Blood on the tracks” Røde Mor Micaela Fucacova & Ivan Klansky “Sonatas for cello and piano Arthur Rusell “Calling out of context Arthur Rubinsteins “Chopin interpretations” Kuku Sebsebe “Munaye” George Harrison “All things must pass” John & Yoko in general John Cale in general Lars HUG “Kysser himlen farvel” Leonard Cohen “I’m your man” Troels Trier “Kys Frøen” Michael Jackson “BAD”

FAVORITE SPOTS IN COPENHAGEN

NEW ACTS TO LISTEN TO IN 2013 Menthol PRE-Be-UN Hand of Dust Vår Vitamin J Late Great Fitzcarraldos Dinner

Assistens Kirkegård The Lakes The old Radiohus near Forum Mayhem Mys sister’s house My apartment

TAMBOURHINOCEROS INDEPENDENT RECORD LABEL

Words / Kristoffer Rom

Independent record label Tambourhinoceros about working with Cæcilie Trier.

Being a young – and therefore – small record label is challenging in so many ways, but of course also very rewarding. Otherwise we wouldn’t bother spending our youth working pro-bono on building a company in a disruptive industry. In between a lot of pretty experimental, niche-oriented music we’ve been lucky to work with artists that is musically adventurous and have commercial potential – and Cæcilie Trier’s project CTM is definitely one of those.

Whenever we plan a release we structure our overall approach, sales and marketing campaigns to that specific release while utilizing the best practices we’ve discovered through experience – the ability to be flexible is one of the great advantages of running a small operation. On the other hand labels that have been around longer than ours have other advantages, for example in terms of financial capacity, international distribution etc.

On Tambourhinoceros we’ve previously been handing artists over to other labels internationally. When we got the chance to work with Cæcilie Trier we felt confident that both the artist, music and timing was right to take on more territories and tasks for ourselves.

So the EP Variations by CTM is also a milestone for us as a business - not ‘just’ artistically. The last few months a lot of our time has been spend on establishing new markets for the label and doing management-tasks for Cæcilie. As a result we released Variations digitally and physically in Scandinavia, Iceland and the Baltics in November, and in February and March we do the same in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. Feedback from the media has been amazing so far. Sales statistics are still underway but we can say for sure that they aren’t bad. But there's still a long way to go in terms of fulfilling the potential of the EP - and in the long run doing our part of establishing Cæcilie Trier as one of the alternative scene’s brightest stars, not only in Denmark but in general. It’s a place we feel she deserves more than most candidates.

Tambourhinoceros /

It’s important to stress that the various collaborations with distributors and promotion agencies that Tambourhinoceros has established over the past few months is for the benefit of our whole catalogue, not just CTM. This aspect on the business side of running a label is really fun… and challenging; being very product-oriented on one side and working for the growth of the collective Tambourhinoceros as a whole including all artists and business area (sales, publishing, management, e-commerce etc.) on the other side.

We use the following sentence to describe ourselves: "We work with artists we know and love, with music that can stand the test of time. There isn’t a definite musical profile as such, except from artistic necessity and honesty."

This is the core of Tambourhinoceros; the point of origin is one of necessity, on both the personal, artistic and business levels of what we do – and if what you do as a creative company lacks perspective on either a personal, creative or business-related level you need to rethink what you do. Luckily we don’t have that problem…!

Learn more about Tambourhinoceros and their artists and releases on tambourhinoceros.net

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ARTISTS INCLUDE: CTM, TREEFIGHT FOR SUNLIGHT, THE NEW SPRING, THULEBASEN, KIRSTEN & MARIE … AND MANY MORE. / Rebel times

make good,

BETTER GENERATION i works to defeat intolerance through educational materials and events

Learn more: www.generationi.me * facebook.com/generationi.me * Adelgade 15, 3 sal. 1304 København K

The end of sponsorships?

The state of sponsorships has changed radically within the past 5 years. The tendency is clear; we are no longer happy with sponsors plastering their unattractive logos everywhere and otherwise not adding any kind of value to the events. As a matter of fact, surveys show that logos at festivals and other cultural events often repulse the audience, thus creating negative brand value instead.

Words / Carla Cammilla Hjort When I first started Trailerpark Festival back in 2007 I was already aware of this tendency. I hated banners myself so from the start I made it clear that Trailerpark should not have ugly useless plastic banners. My team and I had to convince our sponsors that integration with the festival in new ways was a much better solutions for their brands and much more valuable from a marketing perspective. We began brainstorming on how to create value for all involved; the sponsor, the festival, the artists and the audience. In short we realized that most ideas could be broken down into this chain of events:

Instead of getting logo exposure brands became an integrated part of everything from art installations, home build furniture, music and film productions and competitions. The idea was quite clear: Create long lasting, creative and valuable partnerships for all involved. But to convince brands to completely leave out their logos can be quite an uphill battle. Thankfully the era of meaningless sponsorships is ending and brands seem to catch on to the new trends. New solutions combined with the possibilities of storytelling via social media and online communities, turns a sponsorship into a much more fun and meaningful partnership. This is the end of sponsorships and the beginning of meaningful partnerships.

One brand that understands this new kind of collaboration between culture and products is the Danish beer brand, Royal Beer. Last year Royal Beer became the main sponsor of three unique festivals in Denmark - Distortion, Trailerpark and Northside - exposing Royal Beer to new markets and branding them as youthful and upfront. Perhaps not what most Danes would associate with an old school brand like Royal. I chased down the busy grand old man, Freddy Larsen (Chief of Sponsorships for Royal Unibrew) and the notorious festival entrepreneur Thomas Fleurquin who is the man behind Distortion, to find out what the state of sponsorship is these days and what the mutual benefits are.

Thomas, why did you go from having Tuborg to Royal Beer as the main sponsor for Distortion festival? Royal is a cooler brand. International brands are uncool per definition. It's unfair but it's true... Cute local brands feel more real. Also, the people at Royal show a real interest in being involved in the project. At Tuborg, my two contacts were good, but the organization behind them was really tight - not only regarding money, but also with everything else. At Royal they are like a family and they show a real interest for what the festival's intentions are.

What is most important to you when working with sponsors?

Money! Many other factors are important, but we know what we are doing, and we are in permanent growth, so if you are asking me for "the" most important thing, I'm afraid the answer is going to be pretty dry.

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How would you define your relationship to sponsors? Is it a partnership or simply a sponsorship? My two contacts at Carlsberg/Tuborg Marketing were good - but their organization simply didn’t back them up with regards to sponsorships. It is clearly not one of their focus areas - and I am afraid being number one can make you ungrateful, and that's a shame - for Copenhagen and for them. With Freddy and the people at Royal, it's a proper partnership. Because they are interested in what and how we do things, and they are ready to make real investments, and not just in terms of money.

Describe Freddy? I don't understand why Freddy isn't more of a legend. He reminds me of the cleaner in Leon or Mike in Breaking Bad. Never says more than necessary, cool as ice, yet ultra-friendly and then he simply knows the game.

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Royal stage at Trailerpark festival 2012

What would you say to people who claim that festivals having sponsors are sell outs? "Why don't you come down here in the real world - it's not always easy, but it's got real people!" Of course, it is possible to be a sell-out, if greed makes you do ugly things, but saying all companies are bad is being sacred.

I have to agree with Thomas! At Trailerpark Festival we also decided to changed sponsors last year from Carlsberg to Royal Beer and the reasons are exactly the same. When I met Freddy and his team the first time my heart melted. There is something intriguing about this very down-toearth old man that instantly makes you feel like you are in very good hands. And the fact that Royal was willing to commit to 3 years of sponsorship from day one, was just another add on to the feeling of real dedication. But what’s in it for Royal?

Freddy, Royal Beer suddenly decided to become main sponsors for some of the most progressive festivals in DK. Why do you think Distortion, Trailerpark and Northside are a good match with Royal Beer and vice versa? Behind these festivals are dedicated, committed, innovative and creative people who dare to take risks and do things that others don’t. We believe that they will be decisive for the future cultural agenda and we would like to be a part of that. Being part of the innovative, creative and trendsetting

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youth, reflects our choice of festivals. We are good at asking our target group about their preferences, doing market research etc. In the end, we need a positive bottom line in order to survive and teaming up with the right partners and collaborators are very important to our brand.

Are you planning on taking out Carlsberg / Tuborg in the future in terms of branding? We are proud of our accomplishments the last two years and our market share is increasing. That is encouraging in itself but we are still a small fish compared to Carlsberg and Tuborg. And we don’t really mind. It also gives us more opportunities to be adaptable and our decisions can be made fast compared to bigger organizations. We have smaller budgets so our solutions have to be more creative. We like to work with Distortion and Trailerpark because we become a part of two very unique events and they both represent the essence of youth culture.

What advise will you give all the young people who want to make parties and festivals and need a beer sponsor? Make a proper presentation. Make sure that the sponsor can see that they get something in return. Exposure is not always the most important thing.

No one will gain from quick advertisements. Make long-term agreements. A sponsorship is not the only thing financing a festival/party, it should be seen as a complement. And make sure your financials are taken care of and you have a calculated risk factor before you start. Festivals are very dangerous business models due to all the risks involved.

Festivals can suffer immensely if it rains - and it rains a lot in Denmark!

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Photography / Torsten Rojas-Danielsen

Occupied by Entrepreneurship Being an entrepreneur seems like a kamikaze job when you’re young, female and living in the middle of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Despite that, Rasha Rassem Hussein has chosen to dedicate her life to inspiring her generation to challenge tradition and build an independent country, one kilobit at a time.

“I believe that if we are not the ones who are making the difference, no one will and we will never change. So on a personal level I will never leave Bazinga!.

I will never leave Palestine to work for someone else’s company in some other country that I have nothing to do with.

I want to be a part of making Palestine a better place”.

OCCUPIED BY ENTREPRENEURSHIP /

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Words / Torsten Rojas-Danielsen

“I want to Google Palestine and see a picture of an entrepreneur instead of a war or someone throwing a stone”, utters 23-year-old Rasha.

We’re in the sleepy outskirts of Ramallah, the dusty economic capital of the WestBank in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), just 15 minutes from Jerusalem.A few minutes earlier I passed through an old, heavy metallic door in an anonymous-looking grey building. Suddenly the walls turn colourful as I enter a big room buzzing with concentration and the sound of keyboard keys being punched. Conversation is an eclectic mix of Arabic, English and computer code. A young woman greets me at the door. She’s wearing jeans, and Vans shoes plastered with miniature logos of Twitter, Gmail and Skype. Her hair is covered in a grey and pink veil. There’s a big print on her T-shirt. “YouTube” the iconic logo reads.

“What Israel is trying to do is make us totally dependent on them, so we have to buy stuff from them. In the IT world you can’t do that. You can’t have these restrictions. You can build anything you want”, says Rasha.

The restriction in freedom of movement means that many young Palestinians have never had the chance to leave the country, at least physically, and that’s where the online world comes into the picture. This “loophole” for the technologically adept like Rasha has caused the universities of Palestine to experience a boom in applications for studying computer science. Surprisingly, girls make up more than half of the students in this field at Birzeit University where Rasha attends. Getting the young women to make use of their skills once they graduate and get a job is tricky in a society with strong patriarchal and traditional values.

Building a start-up is considered plain crazy, Rasha tells.

“To give you a glimpse about being a girl here – you are supposed to finish school and get married.

Staying out late and having a job is not acceptable for everyone. My uncles don’t like Bazinga!. They hate it actually. They were like ‘why are you starting your own business? You are eventually going to get married.’ I was like: ‘why should my life end when I get married?’ I want to have Bazinga! even if I do”, Rasha says.

“People always say Google it. I say Youtube it because I love videos and I hate reading”, she bursts out.

Rasha doesn’t care much for school. That’s why she skips as many classes as possible to develop apps and run her company. Rasha, a computer engineering student, co-founded her company a few years ago.

Along with four friends she’s now running Bazinga!, a start-up catalyst for young Palestinian computer pros. Their business idea is to shape the ideas of other talented young people into tech companies, and to create jobs. But it takes a lot of effort to turn the young people away from the comfort of working in an already established company.

“They think having a start-up is so difficult, which it is, but we are going to try to make it easier. Plus everyone has an entrepreneurial spirit. You just have to find it, and we are going to help you find that”, Rasha enthusiastically claims. So far the Bazinga! team has thrown several successful events with Google and Microsoft, promoting entrepreneurship in a region mostly characterised by perpetual conflict and unemployment.

Building start-ups is not the easiest thing in Palestine. Traditional entrepreneurs and businessmen face the severe limitations of living in an occupied territory that is not even recognised as a country by the global community. People and goods flow in and out of Palestine under the arbitrary control of uniformed Israeli soldiers at checkpoints and borders.

OCCUPIED BY ENTREPRENEURSHIP /

Rasha’s parents have supported her entrepreneurial effort from the start, but she knows that it’s going to be a long and winding road to success. Her hope is to help Palestine along the path of building an independent economy, which she believes is the only way to an independent country. That’s her idea of patriotism as she has lost hope in the political system and the peace process.

“I believe that if we are not the ones who are making the difference, no one will and we will never change. So on a personal level I will never leave Bazinga!. I will never leave Palestine to work for someone else’s company in some other country that I have nothing to do with. I want to be a part of making Palestine a better place”.

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Quick picks for inspiration, learning and productivity

Books & Magazines Losing My Virginity / How I survived, had fun, and made a fortune doing business my way / by R Branson The autobiography of a businessman and adventurer second to none. Branson has had his hands in almost everything – from airlines (Virgin Atlantic), over music (Virgin Records), to retail (Virgin Megastore). On top of that, he’s managed to break several world records within ballooning and sailing, he has appeared in countless movies and television series, and he’s an outspoken humanitarian.

Inc. / (magazine, inc.com) Founded more than thirty years ago, Inc. is said to be a veritable bible for small business owners. The magazine features amazing statistics, case studies, interviews and reviews about small business owners and startups who have found success and why. Also, you can read offbeat stories such as why learning to tell jokes is good. An international annual subscription (10 issues) will set you back 32 USD.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People / by S Covey This classic is written with the purpose of making it readers better leaders and individuals by using the seven habits: 1 Be proactive, 2 Begin with the end in mind, 3 Put first things first, 4 Think win-win, 5 Seek first to understand, then to be understood, 6 Synergize and 7 Sharpen the saw.

Fast Company / (magazine, fastcompany.com) Focusing on innovation, sustainability, business and design, Fast Company is edgy and hip. The magazine aims to inspire innovators that transcend the boundaries of normal business conventions. It has a nice mixture of raw inspiration, quick tips and long form feature stories showcasing individuals and companies who make and impact on the world through their creativity and ingenuity. As with Inc. an international annual subscription costs 32 USD.

Small is the new big / by S Godin The book is a compilation of 193 “riffs, rants and business ideas” compiled from Godin’s blog, his previous books and his articles in Fast Company magazine. The book’s main point condensed is: Be remarkable.

The Right Mountain / by J Hayhurst

Monocle / (magazine, monocle.com)

The Right Mountain is an inspiring story of a forty-seven year old ex-advertising executive who in 1988 became the oldest member of the Canadian Expedition to Mount Everest. Hayhurst describes the life-threatening experiences and the critical choices that had to be made, and the lessons that were learned as a result. At the same time, it’s also the story about a journey to redefine the notion of success. We all need our own definition of success – one that connects with an understanding of ourselves, and our deeper values and goals.

The Right Mountain is an illustration of what it means to be successful in terms that are right for the individual.

Monocle is the brainchild of Wallpaper (wallpaper.com) founder Tyler Brûlé.

The magazine brands itself as a global briefing on international affairs, business, culture and design. Consequently, it’s a little bit of everything and you can read about diverse subjects ranging from the best places in the world to find retail innovation to how our global leaders are styling their ethnic hair.

Everything is exceedingly well done, very inspirational, and it oozes style. Compared to the other two magazines, subscribing to Monocle isn’t cheap: 10 issues for around 80 GBP. But then you also get a free tote bag.

Documentaries The Startup Kids This documentary is all new and being screened in different countries right now. It is made by two young, Icelandic women, Vala Halldorsdottir and Sesselja Vilhjalmsdottir, and is about entrepreneurs starting up their business – fx the founders of Soundcloud, Vimeo and Dropbox It is cool and it is very inspiring.

Look out for screenings near you or maybe arrange one yourself ? Check out thestartupkids.com for more info.

The Pirates of Silicon Valley This historical-fiction movie tells the journey of two Californian computer start-ups: Microsoft and Apple. It’s a personality story focusing on the rivalry and ingenuity of the two lead personas, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, as these companies grew to be two of the most influential in modern history.

Startup.com The film traces the life and death of dotcom startup govWorks.com. Founded in 1999, the company rode the dotcom wave hard, and had within a year grown into a 200 employee venture with a bankroll of 50 million USD. But as with many other companies of this time, govWorks.com got hit hard when the bubble burst. By 2001 it had let almost all of its employees go and was eventually swallowed up by a larger firm. A rollercoaster ride indeed.

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Communities and platforms

Conferences & Events

The Hub / (the-hub.net)

South by Southwest Conferences & Festivals / (sxsw.com)

A Global community of entrepreneurial people having offices/workspaces all over the world. Their primary focus is on social and sustainable innovation and the vision is no less than creating a better world. As a member you can use the workspaces, join events etc.

Kph / (kph-projects.org) Kph is the abbreviation for Copenhagen’s Project House. The house regularly has workspaces for rent and people work on all sorts of projects, focusing on creative and cultural business.

Rebel Academy / (rebelacademy.org) A community for creative and cultural entrepreneurs. Rebel Academy’s online platform offers informational and informational blog posts and video testimonials by creative profiles. It also arranges talks and panel debates, primarily around the Copenhagen area.

Republikken / (republikken.net) This is a Copenhagen based platform aiming to help new entrepreneurs develop their ideas and start up creative businesses. They offer teaching and inspiration, work café, office space and also have rooms that can be booked for meetings or conferences.

Connectors / (facebook.com/groups/connectorsnetwork) Connectors is a growing Copenhagen based community for new thinking and entrepreneurship. It is a networking centred community based on physical meetings where the participants discuss ideas, inspiration sources and constructive collaborations.

Business Boom Collective / (businessboomcollective.com) Here you can read up on what’s going down amongst the brightest freelancers and up-and-coming creatives from the fields of fashion, photography, art, design and beyond. You can also apply to get your own work featured.

Another annual conference, next time to be held in march 2013. The focus is on music, independent films and emerging technologies. It is a conference but also a festival, where you can see music-showcases, watch film screenings try out interactive technologies and be inspired by a lot of new creative shooting stars.

Startup Weekend /i (startupweekend.org) It is a global network of entrepreneurs and leaders and the purpose is to inspire, share and learn from each other. The Startup Weekend is a 54 hours event where you work on a project, get to know interesting people, work hard, dine and have drinks and work harder and end up presenting your project to the others and a jury. (Our own Carla Camilla Hjort was one of the jury members last time Startup Weekend was held in Copenhagen.)

Crowdfunding There are different digital platforms, where you can crowdfund your project. These are some of them. Get your projects funded by promoting them online and let people donate.

Go Fund Me / (gofundme.com) Here you can crowdfund any project you may have.

ManyMade / (manymade.org) This one is especially for art and cultural entrepreneurs.

Kickstarter / (kickstarter.com) Also especially for art: music, litterature, fine art, theater etc.

Productivity & Clear GetApp / (getapp.com)

TED / (ted.com) TED Conferences are some of the most interesting conferences you can possibly attend. On their webpage it says that some has called it “A 4-day journey into the future, in the company of those creating it” – and that it probably not far from the truth. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and they aim to present the best people working with aspects of this. You might now TEDTalk from the net - short presentations lasting for 18minutes each on different subjects performed by very great and interesting people. The concept is the same at the conference: short but fully inspiring talks. This allows for more then 50 people to talk over the four day event.

Do you need a helping hand from the cloud? GetApp features a little less than 5000 cloud business apps, sporting ratings, reviews and comparisons. The site is divided in categories ranging from finance over operation to collaboration. If there exists a web platform to aid you in your needs, you’re likely to find it here.

Need a nice and easy iPhone app for keeping track of your to-do lists? Clear focuses on usability rather than feature richness. It has a simple swipe based interface that allows you to create, remove and rearrange lists and tasks with a simple swipe of the finger.

Podio / (podio.com) Podio is an online work platform for project management. It is a little like a very extended calendar, where you can overview all the details of your projects and share it with the people you work with. Podio is great, and it is free as long as you’re max ten persons.

Asana / (asana.com) Asana is a task centred online collaboration platform, not unlike Podio. However, Asana has a narrower focus, making it less complex and easier to get started with than the other two. Asana is free for up to thirty members.

Instagram Use this iPhone/Android app to take quick pictures, apply filters, and post them to your online image feed. It works great as a personal inspiration catalogue, and on top of that, you can share them with friends - and the rest of the world.

Do something else!

The best way to get ideas is sometimes to fill your head and then go do something as far away from work as possible – maybe go party, hear a concert, have hot chocolate with a friend. Then, sometimes the great idea will just flow in to your mind, as you are busy doing something else.

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The print of this magasine was supported by

Artrebels.com Rebelacademy.org Rebelagency.dk Trailerparkfestival.com