#DesignIndaba2017: Cool creators forgive their copycats

3 Mar 2017

Dubbed as "the creators of cool", Dutch artists and filmmakers, Lernert & Sander (Lernert Engelberts and Sander Plug) had the Design Indaba audience in stitches with their presentation, "Copycats". At the same time, we were also blown away by their authentic concepts and brilliant campaign executions. In fact, their work is so insanely cool that it's been ripped off and stolen time and time again.

Why are the Dutch always so darn good at what they do? Whether it's conceptualising, presenting, designing, or creating amazing architecture, there's a lot we can learn from them.

#DesignIndaba2017: Cool creators forgive their copycats

With their cheeky sense of humour, they showed us some of the work they've produced over the past ten years and then, of course, the work of the unoriginal copycats out there (who they obviously named and shamed).

Between each of these naming and shamings, they reminded us, or rather themselves, that they're not bitter about copycats (some of them were "cute steals" they say), and that forgiveness is a beautiful thing.

Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That's why it's such a powerful weapon. - Nelson Mandela

Lernert & Sander started off in fashion. They were commissioned by a fashion festival to create a work and decided to source all the clothing from the lost and found boxes at darkrooms (a meeting place for gay men).

Apparently, gay men always seem to lose things when they go to dark rooms. They did a fashion shoot with these items, and had an exhibition at the fashion festival where they placed tags on the items stating that "if this is yours, you may have it back". Little did they know that one of these photos would be stolen by an actual darkroom for an ad...

Everything

The design duo launched a perfume called Everything in 2013 after realising just how many new fragrances were released in 2012. Did we really need all these new perfumes?

They started collecting all the samples and mixed it all together. Everything literally contained all the fragrances launched in 2012. As time went on, some copycat stumbled across their picture and thought it would make a lovely story front - even though they didn't really sell everything...

DI-HIGHLIGHT: @lernert_sander make cool look so simple - https://t.co/wE49hX8iaP �� #designindaba pic.twitter.com/NriI2QcXlA
— Ogilvy & Mather SA (@OgilvySA) March 2, 2017

Here are some more excellent works they've produced that have been copied in one way or another by some random "designers":

Chocolate Bunny

Original

Copycat

Handmade

Original

Copycat

Ending off their talk, they had a choir come on stage to sing a song to all their copycats out there:

Best talk of the day by @lernert_sander !! A choir, singing a song to all the people who copied their masterpieces. @designindaba pic.twitter.com/AbIIoUsnEl
— Wouter Lombard (@WouterLombard) March 2, 2017

You can enjoy the lyrics here, and have a look at more awesome stuff Lernert & Sander is getting up to such as this cool (original) cat:

Hilarious cat music video by @lernert_sander #DesignIndaba pic.twitter.com/tFT35yMuQg
— Chris Rawlinson (@ChrisRawlinson) March 2, 2017

Stay cool. Stay original.

For more, visit our Design Indaba special section for all the latest coverage!

Ilse Burger

About Ilse van den Berg

Ilse is a freelance journalist and editor with a passion for people & their stories (check out Passing Stories). She is also the editor of Go & Travel, a platform connecting all the stakeholders in the travel & tourism industry. You can check out her work here and here. Contact Ilse through her website here.