When leading Dutch agency S-W-H launched in 1997, technology that is now central to the way in which we consume and communicate – wireless internet, smartphones, social media and TV on demand – didn’t even exist. Fast forward to 2008, and marketers are keeping their ears to the ground, for the next breakthrough could be just a 140-character tweet away. With an eye toward that level of preparedness, S-W-H has rebranded itself as Indie.

The revamp comes at the height of the agency’s popularity – it was crowned Netherland’s Agency of the Year in 2008 and has a strong client roster comprised of local and regional brands such as Nike, Domino’s Pizza, crisis help line Sensoor and baked goods manufacturer Bolletje.

Indie’s new model emphasizes open partnerships with individuals and companies from a range of disciplines including sound and industrial designers, graphic and graffiti artists, social media gurus and entertainers. Indie calls this concept, “The Power of Independent Thinking.” By pairing creative minds outside of the agency with Indie’s own in-house team on a project-to-project basis, both parties work collaboratively to present clients a toolbox of innovative approaches.

Boards spoke with managing partner Mark Aink about the rebrand and the addition of the three new partners to the Indie team: Anneke Schogt (head of account services and operations) and Marcel Frensch and Rogeir Mahiu (senior creative directors).

S-W-H is an established name in the Dutch advertising community. Why the decision to rebrand now?

We’re at the front in a lot of ways among Dutch advertising agencies. It’s a moment where we started wondering whether this was the time to sit back and enjoy it or hit the gas pedal and not be lazy about it. We thought this could be the time to reinvent ourselves and make sure we’re still relevant in 10 years time.

With the new logo comes a new direction. Can you explain Indie’s approach?

It’s partly a new direction and partly building on what we feel are the biggest strengths we have as an agency. The funny thing is the people who know us and learn about the name Indie and about “Independent Thinking” constantly keep telling us, that’s great because that’s who you are. Now suddenly what we are has a name instead of just three syllables. This Indie way of thinking, opening ourselves up to creative talent from all over the world from different disciplines will lead to new ideas, forward thinking and ways of communication that we don’t even know yet. The development of that model, which I think is at the height of the whole operation, is that no company in our feeling is big enough or good enough to contain all the talent in the world. We want to be the platform where the potential is for all the great talent in the world to be combined and do some awesome projects.

Right now, we’re doing a project for Bolletje with one of the most famous comedians in the Netherlands, André van Duin. He’s on the project as one of the creative directors and this will probably be the only project that we’ll ever do with him just to open the windows and give ourselves more oxygen and fresh insights. With his experience, timing and original way of thinking on board both parties inspire each other: he won’t do what he did before and we won’t do what we did before.

Indie will be bolstered by three new partners. What strengths does each bring to the table?

Anneke was with Microsoft for the past few years changing their whole management style and way of working here in the Netherlands. She is used to creating an adaptive organization and an organization which focuses around output no matter where you are or where you work. Marcel and Rogeir were senior creatives here for a couple of years and we felt we needed to build up our base as well. Plus they’re humorous guys, which is important to us because we felt should have a bit of fun along the way! It’s just a stronger base in terms of management.

The new logo was designed by Dutch graphic designers The Stone Twins. What did you want the logo to express about the agency?

It should be iconic, strong and able to hold its place in whatever environment. Whether we do wacky stuff or more neutral work, it should be the same icon that holds that independent feeling. The main thing for us is it should have its own strength and power in whatever context we place it in.

www.indie-amsterdam.com