In their third year at the Willem de Kooning Academy, Karel Rebane and Bert Idenburg are not waiting until graduation to enter the field. With their newly founded studio, Bad Brick, they are already producing campaigns, shaping brand identities, and pitching big ideas. What started as a natural collaboration between roommates has grown into a story-driven, full-service studio that wants to bring character back into the commercial landscape.
From classmates to collaborators
Both Karel and Bert are in their third year of Audiovisual Design. They’ve been working together since the first year. “Our first collaboration was a graduation film, Flowers On Concrete,” Karel says. “We naturally divided roles. I focused more on sound, Bert on camera. Because we do different things, we can always refer to each other. It just felt natural.”
Bert adds that they continued working together on various school assignments, including a teaser for a film festival in Major 1.3. Over time, their partnership solidified into something steady and intuitive.
Starting Bad Brick
The studio officially started at the end of summer last year. The turning point came when they were hired to produce a social video in collaboration with Aa Magazine and Dr. Martens. “There was a production company in between,” Bert explains, “but in reality, we were the ones doing a lot of the production work. We thought: we can do this ourselves. It’s more fun, more money, more ownership.”
They wanted autonomy. They wanted to work with friends. And they wanted to do things differently.“A lot of commercial work is clean, bland, no character,” Bert says. “We want to add more of an urban aesthetic.”Karel adds: “We like to highlight the human. Bad Brick is about brokenness, imperfectness. That’s more interesting. It has character.” The name reflects that philosophy: not polished and flawless, but textured and real.
Story-driven and all-inclusive approach
When asked what kind of studio they are, Bert describes Bad Brick as all-inclusive. “People need content in all sorts of forms. We do agency, production, directing. Because we have ownership, we can tune in to clients efficiently. There’s no endless briefing cycle or disconnect.”
They offer both video and photography, handling projects from start to finish. “We try to understand the client,” Karel says. “We’ve already received feedback that we really get what they need. We do the full tailor-made production ourselves.” Clients are closely involved in the process. “We want them to feel ownership,” Bert explains. “That they’re proud of what comes out. It’s a collaboration. We want to build sustainable working relationships.”
What sets them apart, according to Karel, is their background in fiction. “We’re not merely commercial. We bring storytelling experience into it.” For them, the commercial space is a playground and a place to develop short, snappy, story-driven concepts that relate to people.
Currently, they’re working on a launch campaign for a Japanese restaurant centered around matcha and handling all visual imagery for the launch. “It’s quite clean as a brand,” Bert says, “but we want to make it urban. Grounded in the city. That fits us.”Karel enjoyed sitting down together to define the brand positioning. “How do we set them apart from other matcha brands? How do we bring that to life?”
Their strategy? Always think big. “We go from a small idea to a big campaign,” Bert explains. “Often we end up with a smaller job, like socials. But by pitching the big idea, they see what we’re capable of.” “Just offer everything,” Karel laughs. “Then they pick something. Even if we don’t get the full campaign, we often get a smaller assignment.”
Balancing study, work, and everything else
How do they combine it all? “Not sleeping so much,” Bert says.
Both Bert and Karel freelanced before starting Bad Brick, so they had already learned some balance. School schedules often align, but when they don’t, careful planning is required.
Karel explains that his week is tightly structured. In addition to the studio and his studies, he also has a day job and follows a double degree. “I plan everything way in advance. When I see gaps, I fill them. I basically don’t have weekends. But I think it’s fun and stimulating. It’s hard work, but it’s also my hobby.”
Still, they know when to slow down. “If we’re already on a project, we need to finish it well,” Bert says. “But we also try to balance after a busy week. And say no sometimes.”
What WdKA brings into the studio
At WdKA, they’ve learned to think beyond the medium. They both brought technical experience with them already: Karel from music and photography, Bert from extensive camera work.
“At school, there’s a lot of concepting and creative design,” Bert says. “I actually expected it to be more focused on craft. I applied to the Film Academy in Amsterdam before, there it’s more about the technical side. Here it’s broader. More about concept development, research, PR.”
And he appreciates that. “The craft you can always learn by making. But I value the education and critical thinking.”
“It’s a design course after all,” Karel adds. “Design thinking. Ideation, pitching, feedback sessions - everything comes back in our study. And collaboration.”
Looking ahead
For Karel, the future is about growth. “I want to see how big this can get. I’m learning entrepreneurship, which can translate to anything. Starting an extracurricular academy for youth in film, opening a café. It’s about building skills. How far can I take this?”
For Bert, it is about meaningful collaborations. “Cool projects with nice people. Making cool stories and campaigns. Creating something that wasn’t there yet. Making something that fits a need.”
What stands out in talking to Karel and Bert is not just how much they are doing with the studio, freelancing, school, side jobs, but how intentionally they are doing it. Bad Brick isn’t a side project squeezed in between classes. It’s already a serious, story-driven practice built on passion, friendship, and the confidence to think big.
