What is this strange place?

Congratulations vistor! You've reached the obscure underbelly of my website. The Frequently Asked Questions -section. Yes. Frequently... Ironically it scores less than 2 visitors per year. Only the truly curious get to feast their eyes on its contents. You must be quite the phenomenon yourself, I can already tell!  Please do continue reading ...

Why did you make this FAQ -section?

As I walk this Earth I meet people. Sometimes they ask questions. Sometimes I answer them. Sometimes I make a fool of myself in doing so. Sometimes I write a better answer here, hours later. Sometimes I hope these people will read my 'improved' answers here. And sometimes I make those questions up myself, for 'reflection purposes'...

What's your story? (be brief please)

After my first creative gig, I had this revelation ... I no longer wanted to be a mere creative. I wanted to be smart. So then I read all these big famous books and educated myself in various fields. By this time I realised smart was the gimmicky version of wise, which made me desire wisdom above all else. It took me forever to become only slightly wiser; but eventually I realised wise … sounds very old. So that day I decided to be young again. Young and creative ...

Euh, a bit more tangible?

Sure. When I first entered art school I didn’t think I was good enough. Then I was offered an internship at the hottest ad agency in Belgium on one condition, they’d fire me if I didn’t perform right away. Starting out in the hallway — not at a proper desk — hardened me. I worked like a madman and in return they taught me everything. Three months later I was hired full-time. Sadly though, my inner scholar was left with more questions than answers and as it so happened this particular internship was only the first half of a Masters program. So I went back to school. There I made the project that would have been my opus: Designing Happiness. A piece dealing with loneliness and isolation in this new social internet age, with privacy, ownership, health, mortality, big data, ethics, ... Basically marrying all the philosophy classes I took with the conceptual ones. But I wasn’t ready. I had gotten so used to having ideas that other people would craft for me, that inevitably my ideas were nothing but hollow shells of what once was a lot of potential and ambition.
So I failed my master, couldn’t return to the agency, and had nothing to show for, except questions. These questions led me to the Belgian Ad School. I learned all about behaviour, marketing, digital, culture and above all: myself.

What kind of work do you want to make?

Strategically fascinating, creatively stupid, manically crafted, morally unambiguous & magically working. Oh and beating the odds, that’s nice too.

You stole that from Droga5!

Well, mine’s a tribute of sorts. They call it Creatively Led. Strategically Driven. Digitally Native. Humanity Obsessed.

So what kind of work do you want to make?

What all creatives want. Intelligent work that means something. You should be able to feel it. Love it or hate it. Intensely. And I personally believe nowadays there is not enough appreciation for the little sparks of imagination and countless hours that make every idea, just bigger. I want to make the kind of work other creatives can envy. Not just for the attention and recognition but also for the amount of fun we had creating it. The kind of work that gets known, respected, illegally downloaded and ultimately; loved. Not just by people working in Ad agencies.

And what kind of work do you actually make?

I'm still pretty far way from where I want to go. I need to make boatloads of work and let other people judge. And take it. Like a man. Or a woman, giving birth. Other people having their way with my babies. And killing them, by the hundreds. Having to watch. Always coming back to offer them seconds. Sorry for that visual.

Why is the name of your website 3 stages of the moon (🌓🌝🌘)?

Squint your eyes and behold! The light sides will reveal my logo, and therefore my initials. The three stages also resemble time in its most metaphysical form, as my website is in fact - a time machine -. Plus there's this mystical relationship between the moon and irrational responses (emotions) which is at the heart of the industry that I work for. It's all very complicated and philosophical but fear not, friend: I have a pretentious art print to explain the whole thing.

Are you a copywriter or strategist or artist or designer or art director or... ?

My twitter description once had the perfect answer for you: "I don't know what I am but dear God, let it not be a buzzword." My next description came close as well: "kind of employed weirdo". On LinkedIn I used to call it "strategic creative". But that doesn’t add much. All the good creatives are strategic in some way. Especially the copywri… That’s it, I’m a copywriter! I even got me one of those fancy Art Directors and everything.
 

What are those vacant circles in your website's footer?

The empty ones are no longer there but I used to call them 'cabinets: art space for rent’. Just send over a design and maybe your work will be featured in the prestigious footer gallery of a website that has less than 10 visitors per week!!!

What are you looking for?

Beauty, Truth and Love. Also: people & places that can help me make the best work of my career. Plus nothing in general. I just like looking.
 

Will you work on less exciting briefings?

I believe there is no such thing as a bad brief. And an idea shouldn't be big to work. Creativity comes in many sizes. Value can be added anywhere, in words, images, video, interaction, UX, FAQs, ...  Especially on a 'non-sexy category' or a briefing that doesn't make sense. But... this doesn't mean I can make great work for just about anyone. The client and team also have a very important role to play.
 

Are those ... emoji in your past?

Yep. Now I can say I have an emoji concept in my portfolio. Damn I'm so progressive! Unlike words, they communicate on a visual level, so let's say...  extra-terestral lifeforms would be capable of understanding it. One day I swear that will come in handy. Besides they make those links look far more clickable. And they gave me an excellent opportunity to write dumb FAQ lemmas about them. Jup, that's why.
 

What tv shows should I watch? (yes people do ask this frequently)

Depends what you're into. I can highly recommend Black Mirror and Fargo. I also like Over the Garden Wall, Master Of None, You're The Worst, You, Unreal, Community, Parks & Rec, Rick & Morty, Gravity Falls, Breaking Bad, House Of Cards (Seasons 1-2) South Park, Game Of Thrones, even West World and about a hundred shows that don't run anymore like Deadwood and The Twilight Zone.

Where did Contact Cow™ go?

She retired after I put 'the work first' on the homepage back in the early 2015s. But she still lives near the old 2014 homepage. It's much quieter there now. Less flying mailboxes and such.
 

Who do you look up to?

People who can inspire others to become their very best. Who can push ideas into the real world. Empathic and kind people. Smart people who stay optimistic. And people who develop their talents further, passionately, with everyone they ever met rooting for them. Even the ones they neglected or offended. But what I respect the most I guess, is people who found ways to overcome their own demons and weaknesses. And people who can beat the odds. Succeeding where most would fail.
 

C'mon... name a few!

Sorry, I'm not going to namedrop. There are a lot of really great people (in this industry). But exploiting their vanity for my own personal gain is not how I intend to build my career...  No, that's not true. I'm a huuuge fangirl and I can't stop yapping about my idols. I actually have a newsletter you can subscribe to just for that purpose.
 

Rempsum?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi eget sapien sed risus suscipit cursus. Quisque iaculis facilisis lacinia. Mauris euismod pellentesque tellus sit amet mollis. Nulla a scelerisque turpis, in gravida enim. Pellentesque sagittis faucibus elit, nec lobortis augue fringilla sed. Donec aliquam, mi in varius interdum, ante metus facilisis urna, in faucibus erat ex nec lectus. Cras tempus tincidunt purus, eu vehicula ante. Duis cursus vestibulum lorem. As you can see this question is not very interesting yet. (Unless you're into nonsensical Latin placeholder poetry. And that would make you weirder than I am.)