Bart Claeys

28 years old

Antwerp

Male

About

Founder of

Blog - see all 8

I enjoyed a short visit to Salone del Mobile in Milan last year and this year I'll be present again! Within two weeks Milan will be totally focused on furniture and product design. As a designer or product developer you defenitely have to be there! Not only new collections from the bigger brands are presented, but also independant and young designers show their work. Salone Satellite is where you find them, in my opinion the most inspiring part of the fair. You can meet and talk with the people behind the designs in real life which makes things very interesting.

Some people think Salone del Mobile is only about the fair in the magnificent Fiero Milano buildings, but actually that's the most boring part of the whole trip. Besides the fair there are plenty of other locations in the city where new and sometimes experimental designs are shown. And of course, at night, it's party time, all related to the scene!

If some people want to meet up, contact me! Ryanair.com flights are still cheap but hotels are obviously full booked. Last year we could still find a very neat place through couchsurfing.com, this year we hooked up with the Belgian delegation of furniture designers.

A few seconds of fame Mar 21

At work, just before I left to London, my colleague needed a student-alike person to perform in a tiny little movie for a banner campaign (just a few seconds). I was too busy doing other stuff so I tried hard not to be selected. But that didn't work as everyone at office pointed to me as the most student-alike person. So I gave up and helped them with the little movie. Suddenly, after a week I started receiving mails from friends that I was appearing at some very popular sites (stubru, humo, kinepolis...). I didn't realise that this little movie would be used for banner campaigns, I neither realised that people would recognise me! Well they did :( The campaign should be over within some days. Next time I think twice before performing in a little movie!

Ideas Academy - Home sweet home Mar 18

After a delay of two days we finally got home by Eurostar. Because of the delay they gave us 1st class tickets so we had plenty of space and enjoyed a nice meal! The past two days in London were totally lost because of the uncertainty that we could get back home. Checking in and out to hotels, phonecalls to plane and boat services and wandering around in the big city with our luggage wasn't that enjoyable. If I new we're only gonna leave at sunday evening I could've planned two great days in London!

Ideas Academy - Fire Mar 16

I should be in Belgium right now, but destiny decided it was not ready to go back home yet. No trains left Waterloo station because of a fire. We decided to go back to the Saatchi bar - called Gum - to have some beers and ended up in a Indian restaurant with a small group of other Ideas Academy attendants. Tomorrow evening we're going to try to get home by Eurostar again, but I doubt it'll work as many trains were cancelled and we're not the only ones who want to return home. Mainwhile we're staying at this great advertising hotel called, MyHotel in Charlotte street, Bloomsbury. The weather is great so we can enjoy a nice free day in London tomorrow.

Ideas Academy - Day two Mar 15

Today it didn't go as smooth as yesterday. With a team of thirty people - mostly art directors and copywriters from Brussels to Moscow - we already generated tons of ideas so it gets harder to come up with new things. Many creatives stayed with print or ambient concepts so there was still loads of possibilities for online ideas. And this is where our group focused on, with success because the idea didn't get filtered out. Like yesterday we ended the day at a good restaurant in Charlotte street. Those who think you can't eat well in England are wrong. You can, but it's not cheap.