Jeena van der Heul, Creative Director

 Jeena van der Heul is an Amsterdam-based creative director. Working in advertising for over 15 years, he created award-winning work for various consumer brands at internationally renowned agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, Sid Lee, JWT, Mullenlowe, Fitzroy, and 180. Priding himself on being a strategic and innovative thinker, he researches the intersection of different fields and cultures to problem-solve creatively. With his attention-worthy ideas that work across multiple touchpoints, channels, and funnels, he carefully marries what a brand wants to say and what consumers care about. 

You went to Willem de Kooning Academy, a pretty elite creative school in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, that also works on an admission basis. How did you experience studying at Willem de Kooning Academy? Do you think it’s different from a traditional university or an art/design education?

Back in my days, it was mainly graphic design and advertising focused; there was a big gap between when you finished school and when you started working, as it was still quite difficult to apply what you’ve learned in practice.

Willem de Kooning changed a lot now, becoming a more multidisciplinary school where you work on projects and open briefings that prepare you more for projects you do in real life. But still, I see that it’s tough to apply what you’ve learned in practice, at an agency, for example. An internship would be the closest to the real thing because you work for real clients and on real assignments. That’s also the best way – to learn by doing versus studying it from the book.

Many traditional studies explain the history of art or design but don’t teach you how to apply that to your daily work and have teachers not working in the industry. So, in my opinion, they’re really out of touch with what’s happening. And what I like about Willem de Kooning is that they have teachers who are still active in the playing field; this is also inspiring because they are doing the work, have the know-how, and are on top of things like the latest trends. 

And what do you think of a school like Hyper Island, where you work with real clients from the get-go?

At Hyper Island, they structure the thinking process differently. So, for example, they would ask: ‘If you have a birthday party and your budget is 1 million, what would be your concept?’ and then the other assignment would be: ‘And now throw the same party without a budget, but with the same kind of impact.’ So you already have to be creative to develop something like that.

These types of assignments can be translated into real briefs because, in real life, you also have to be creative with the budget you get. At Hyper Island, you are also connected to a client when doing projects, so you can start building a network and your portfolio from early on, so later, you can get hired by big brands like Nike because you already worked with them and made a name for yourself.

At the end of the day, it’s your portfolio that matters, so you have to put work into building that because that’s the thing the agency or client will ask you to show.

You have over 15 years of experience creating award-winning work for agencies and brands. What is the key ingredient of creating successful concepts & work?

I always say it’s double. The more you know, the more you understand that you know nothing. But I think it’s always interesting. For me, it happened almost at the intersection of different things. As a young kid, I was fascinated by technology, I was into video games and Asian culture. So I had many different interests, and when you combine that, you can use it as a library of information. It’s your perspective on the world, and it creates different points of view.

“Every creative has its own lens for creating work, so you can connect the dots. The more dots you have, the easier it is to connect them, and with more years of experience, it’s getting easier to connect different dots. ”

But you need to keep building the library, it’s proven that we need to keep learning. You don’t stop learning when you finish school, your brain still needs to be developed.

And this is the cool thing about advertising that, for example, you were challenged actually to work on a brief for, let’s say, a car brand. I’m not into cars, but give me two weeks, and I know everything. I can sell you that car. So, for me, it’s almost shape-shifting in terms of getting to know a brand or a target audience, so psychology is also a big part of how people respond. And that’s very tied back to what artists do - provoke an emotion, tell a story. This was always the stuff I liked to do, and advertising is just like a creative playground where you can combine all your interests and use that to create your work. I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else.

Can you describe your typical week as a creative director? What are your main responsibilities in overseeing creative projects and teams?

Most of the time goes into getting an overview of the workload from different creatives to see which briefings there are and which status meetings with clients we have. I also give a lot of time and attention to the creatives when they have questions about a briefing, and I lead strategic sessions. Every day I try to reserve two hours for myself to do research, ideation, and creation.

How many projects do you typically work on, and what qualities do you need to lead a creative team?

We work on a minimum of eight projects. On a typical project, such as a global pitch for a car brand, we work with around 25-30 creatives from different countries because we want to bring different perspectives to the table. It’s a lot of people, and you need to be able to deal with their opinions and emotions.

 For that, you need to have a clear structure, framework, and leadership. It’s very important to have someone with a bold, strong vision that can lead a team from research and concept to the final product. Somebody that is vocal and honest, a person you look up to in terms of thinking, ‘Okay, he can get us there’. Because if nobody wants to make the decisions, then you get vanilla.

The advertising industry is quite structured and hierarchic; there is a Junior, Medior, Senior Creative, and then you have Creative Lead, Associate, Associate Creative Director, Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, and CEO. While in essence, we all do the same kind of job.

I only care for the idea; it’s important to go beyond the egos and look at the idea and how other people can build on those, no matter your seniority level.

How important are diversity and inclusion in the creative process?

Very important because advertising is almost a reflection of society; our work is trying to reach different types of people. We need people from different backgrounds and experiences to get more exciting ideas that make the work more diverse. It’s all about making people feel something.

But the advertising industry is still predominantly white and male, so even if you come from a different background, you don’t often see people like you. Certain brands sit in their golden chambers and are out of touch with what’s actually happening.

There is a shift in the right direction, but it’s slow both on the agency and the client side. It can be more diverse. In the Netherlands, there are agencies that build a bridge between people who are underrepresented. For example, I worked for We Are Pi, which is black-owned, with cool programs like Plus Plus One, the first free industry-wide program to create a Diversity & Inclusion critical mass by increasing the pool of under-represented talent.

Kult&Ace is focused on millennials and has built the ‘PACT Worldwide’ community so that brands can connect with millennials from different cultures. Such initiatives are essential.

If you could describe your creative process in three words, what would it be and why?

Chaotic, structured, and energized. I think it goes from chaos to structure. Even in chaos, there’s a structure. That’s the beauty of things. This is the way the universe works. When you scatter a pile of papers, they are spread out. They do not organize themselves. And again, connecting the dots between chaos and structure while keeping the process energized is what matters most.

But officially, a project begins with a creative briefing, followed by creating a campaign or big idea. If it’s a 360-integrated campaign, it proceeds to the production phase, so the steps are always the same. There is a thinking framework you can re-apply, but every time you do it for a different client with different needs & insights. And you can use that library of ideas I was talking about earlier; you know how to structure your thoughts and recycle ideas.

“I always tell creatives that the part they can truly own is the creative process because it is sacred. In this phase, you have the freedom to come up with ideas that are a true reflection of yourself. This is the part where you can have the most fun while getting paid. ”

How do you balance the need for creativity with practical considerations such as budget, timeline, and client expectations? 

It’s a sense check to see if it’s possible to pull it off. Sometimes you have an idea like ‘We’re going to fly to the moon’, which is cool but unrealistic. So you must check with production, a digital partner, or a film director to see if things are possible. And you have to be able to manage client expectations, ensuring that you present ideas that can be done within the given budget.

And in terms of budget, it’s like diamonds are made with pressure, so within budget constraints or even timing, you have to be creative. In these types of projects, you can show off your creativity because you have to develop something with many limitations. With experience, you also know how to bring an idea to life in the best possible way within budget and timeline constraints. You devise a new technique to do it, and this is also where innovation happens. 

Are you especially proud of any particular project or achievement as a creative director?

Mostly we work on commercial projects like Nike shoes, soda, or car brands. But recently, I worked on a very nice project for Free Press Unlimited. It was a pro-bono project, a project for a good cause. We wanted to create awareness around 363 journalists that are being imprisoned around the world.

The team came up with a very cool idea to create a typeface, and within that typeface, they hacked the ligatures. They made a font that erased itself, and it was connected to different kinds of words to promote censorship. For example, a word like ‘democracy’ was connected to a journalist imprisoned for writing about it. When applied to different websites, you can see that some words are being erased, giving a censored effect. It was also cool to use the power of typography to create awareness for this campaign because we’re using what journalists use too – words.

We launched it on the 3rd of May during Freedom Press Day, and we tried to reach as many people as possible, it has even been used in Independent Moscow Times.

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and WePresent published an article where they interviewed 300 creatives about a question on how much of a toll creativity takes on our mental health.  

How do you think creativity is linked to mental health, and do you feel there is a shift in the creative world towards improving your wellbeing?

The downside is that it’s hard to let things go because it’s always very personal. So you spend a lot of extra time developing your ideas or going the extra mile on a project. You’re waking up with it and going to bed with it. Insomnia and working long hours, plus you are not getting paid for the extra hours you work.

Many people in advertising work late hours because it takes time to develop a bulletproof idea concept because you think of something, then put it away and come back to it – it’s an ongoing process. But in the end, it’s not about how many hours you put in; it’s more about how effective you are and your output. It’s about how quickly you come up with the winning idea.

And I see a shift; it’s already proven that a 4-day working week can be as efficient as a 5-day working week. It’s being normalized now; even when I hire people, they ask for a 4-day contract, which is a positive improvement. I feel like the younger generation has a better work/life balance. I find it fascinating because they’d say, ‘Okay, it’s 5 pm, I close down my laptop’.

I never did this in 15 years; for me, it’s easier to come home and continue working. It’s an embedded behavior because the people I was surrounded with also worked around the clock. But, nowadays, I’m learning to delegate a little bit more and let things go so I don’t lose myself too much in work.

How do you overcome creative blocks or moments of self-doubt in your work?

Luckily, I never had that. I could sell an idea in every campaign I worked on; there was never an unhappy client or a brief I couldn’t do. Of course, you can be overloaded and lean toward burnout if you have a creative block. But creative blocks can also be a part of the process. It helps to get your mind off the briefing; go for a run because our brains work in the background, even when sleeping. You can also try to resolve a creative block by asking more questions and doing more research. Just don’t give up; that is my best advice.

How can young professionals connect with like-minded creatives when they are just entering the industry?

You can apply for programs like Plus Plus One, go on portfolio nights, or find people on LinkedIn. I always try to make time for people when they send me a connection request, especially for upcoming talents. When I was an intern, it was hard to connect with creatives; nobody had time. So John (Vonk) and I, being a creative team, made a website with the name ‘5 minutes of your time’, and then the website would go black after 5 minutes, and we asked for a cup of coffee. So again, you have to come up with something that stands out; a regular application letter won’t do. You have to have the right mindset and approach so that at least you get an introduction somewhere. 

So let’s talk about Artificial Intelligence for a second. By now, we all probably know about ChatGPT — everyone’s saying it’ll revolutionize how creators make content. It can write blog posts, emails, press releases, interview questions, scripts…the list goes on. There are many ways creators can use ChatGPT to remove guesswork, improve their workflows, and grow their audience. 

Do you think AI could take over your job or will work to your advantage?

I don’t think it will replace a creative job, but it will replace a person that isn’t working with AI. I find it a bit scary because it’s getting good at certain things we couldn’t do before, but I also see it as an extended tool for creativity, and it helps to do something more efficient. Especially with copywriting, ChatGPT can do amazing things, but at this point, some companies are firing people because of this technology. So, there will be a shift, like with every new technology comes a counter-movement.

Hopefully, AI will also create new jobs; in an ideal world, AI could do all of our jobs, and we can be more creative, like making music and going on holidays. That would be an ultimate dream scenario. But in the first wave, it will take a lot of jobs, as also happened when print media went into digital media. Just think about all the jobs or things that require language; it’s a lot! If that can automatically be done by artificial intelligence, it writes better and can write in ten different ways or tones of voice. That’s why people say this is one of the biggest kinds of revolutionary technology since electricity. This is the next spark that is going to be world-changing.

What ethical considerations do you think creative directors should keep in mind when utilizing AI in the creative process?                                                                          

Right now, at all the major agencies, we cannot use it because of legal reasons and how the AI models are trained. There are a lot of law cases against AI because of copyrights.

So for personal use and presentations, it would be okay, but you can get a client in trouble because you don’t know where certain content or images are coming from. And when you are a brand, and you use example AI and the AI spits something out that isn’t aligned with the brand values, you must adapt it to fit your brand. On a global scale, it’s still pretty hard to adapt the workflows, so it needs a bit more time. 

How do you use AI-powered tools to enhance your creative work?

I use ChatGPT as a copywriter and do marketing research with it, so it’s like a sparring partner. You can also create stunning designs, but the end product should always be original, so you can use it as a reference to visualize an idea, creating key visuals. It’s perfect for the mid-journey for pitch presentations, but we never use it as a final product to keep the originality and for legal reasons. 

How do you stay inspired and maintain your creative energy in a fast-paced and demanding industry?

I get inspired by getting a new brief because, with every brief, you create new kinds of connections in your mind. It opens up new doorways, and you learn something new. And you get excited by learning new things, you know?

So for me, this is the kind of cycle, constantly reinventing yourself, learning something new, and then creating something on top of that. I think this is a very unique formula that keeps your brain very young. That’s cool.

What are your final words of advice for young individuals who would like to become creative directors in the future as well?

There will always be emotions and politics. And you will always want to make your idea the way you want it, following your vision. But multiple ways lead to Rome, and I think the best way to get there is with kindness. To get others to work for you or get what you want.

It can happen quickly that you get frustrated because it’s your idea, and you don’t want to give it up, but being kind and not stepping on someone’s toes when getting things done is the best way to get there.

To have longevity in this job, you must also get inspired and trust that you can delegate the work to others. Create your own little family of people you can reach out to. And people always will recognize a good kind of idea; it should feel like a collaboration, where at the end of the project, you can say, ‘We did this!’ even though it was a bumpy road, we made it, and now everybody is happy, and we can move on. That should be the energy, high and positive.