Creating, founding, and publishing The Folks of Amsterdam, an independent journalistic platform that encourages authenticity and celebrates creativity. Built from scratch and turned into a successful brand with three sold-out events, dozens of published stories and videos, and a limited edition table book sold in famous independent bookstores.
Co-created with Jerome de Lint, Siji Jabbar, and Paul Roest.
Services
Brand strategy
Brand identity
Naming
Platform & Digital design
Website
Event design
Social media strategy & content
Publishing
PR & relations
Building a journalistic platform from scratch
The Folks of Amsterdam was founded in 2017 as an anti-movement to fast, meaningless, and unauthentic content. The platform is about people, changemakers, believers, and achievers discovering creativity in unexpected territories. Through long-form interviews and talks, creatives of Amsterdam explain their road to failure and glory, giving you an insight into their business story.
Read interviews with, amongst others, Frank de Ruwe (street art Frankey), textile designer Mae Engelgeer, Bas van Abel (founder of Fairphone), Coverjunkie, and many more.
The Folks Talks: sparking the conversation
The Folks Talks is an event where people join the conversation on various topics such as Art & Copyright, Brand Building, or How To Pitch. Featured guests were, among others, Mark de Lange of Ace & Tate, David Snellenberg of Dawn, and lawyer and art collector Aernoud Bourdrez. All events sold out almost immediately.
30” Teaser Videos
By launching 30” video portraits, online visitors could browse through content quickly and get to know Folks in a hurry. To keep things authentic, most videos are a compilation of one-takes, portraying people as natural as possible.
A Limited Edition Table Book
In 2021, I created and published a table book featuring the best stories to inspire folks. The magazine is sold at famous independent magazine stores in Amsterdam, Berlin, the UK, and Zurich, such as Do You Read Me? MagCulture, and the Monocle Kiosk.
The Folks Magazine is the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. And I believe it is far from finished, as people want to open up as much as they want to learn. We're entering a new era where it's all about 'we' instead of 'me'’ and that's something we should continue to encourage. I’d love to share my thoughts and learnings with you.
More info
Founder and co-founders
Founder/creative director - Dorien Franken
Editor at large - Siji Jabbar
Photography - Jerome de Lint
Film and edit - Paul Roest (RubenPaulRuben)
Event partners
Massive Music / A’DAM&Co.
QO Hotel Amsterdam
BNO.nl
Writers
Daphne van Langen
Inge Oosterhoff
Siji Jabbar
Dorien Franken
Read also
Adformatie
Fonk
Medium