i have been invited to contribute irregularly to a new ‘inspiration’ column on the amsterdam ad blog together with a group of local creatives and some of my friends, we each post several times a year with an image (related to amsterdam) and a short piece of accompanying text
here below is my first entry, dated march the 16th 2012
There are so many things to inspire us all, for me one of the most inspiring things is not some amazing piece of graphic design or a life-size model of the Eiffel Tower built with match sticks but quite simply: language.
I love to read everyday and playing around with letters is even my job. When i first moved to The Netherlands and couldn’t speak a word of dutch a sign like the one above, would never cease to fascinate me. For an Anglo-Saxon brain this hoarding contains an impossible and unpronounceable combination of vowels and repeated consonants. Type somehow never fails to look really funky if you have no idea what it says. Strange how foreign things always look so much more appealing.
So what’s my point? well nothing special really… just a reminder to myself: never get complacent and remember that the most inspiring things are really ordinary & all around you all day, every day… they might even help you find a place to park your bike.
Martin Pyper
Born in Bristol, UK (The Beatles – Strawberry Fields) grew up in France (Plastic Bertrand – Ça Plane pour Moi) went to art school in the UK (New Order – Leave Me Alone) worked in Cambridge, UK (The Smiths – How Soon is Now), then moved to The Netherlands (Stone Roses – Breaking into Heaven) got bored and moved back to London (The Clash – Should I stay or Should I Go) got bored and moved back to Amsterdam for a year (The Shamen – Ebeneezer Goode) didn’t get bored and stayed for 23 years.
Started me own thing in 2005. (Four Tet – Parks)
