Note:
In late 2010 we opened the doors of Dolly Rogers HQ to a group of students visiting from Falmouth University.  We were going to write a blog post about the visit ourselves but found out someone had already beaten us to it. One of the visiting students, Chrissy Styles, wrote a fantastic summary of her time at Dolly Rogers on her blog. So we we decided to invite her to share her experience at our office on our site.

Enjoy!
Chris.

Last November, I and 30-something other students from University College Falmouth went on a study trip to Amsterdam visiting design studios. For many of us this was the first opportunity we’d had to visit a working studio and expectations were pretty high.

I won’t lie, after three days of visiting studio after studio, I was getting a little disheartened. I understand that designers are ridiculously busy people and having to entertain a load of students for an hour or so is a bit of a hassle, but if you’re not enthusiastic about your own work, how do you expect us to be? I can’t remember how many slideshows I sat through, knowing that I should be interested but slowly nodding off all the same.

Dolly Rogers were the last studio we visited, and when Chris and Jennette bounced into the room (complete with a ukelele) there was a definite sense that they might be different. Instead of presenting to us, they made us do the presentation. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Powerpoint Karaoke but it is terrifying. Basically you’re given a theme or a prop, a partner, a bunch of random slides you’ve never seen and two minutes to cringe at the sound of yourself talking nonsense about whatever comes to your head.

I HATE public speaking, but I didn’t really have a choice. And although it was possibly the longest two minutes of my life, once it was over I sort of got the point of it. Being a creative is about trying new things, taking risks, and thinking on your feet. It wasn’t so bad, really. I mean, everyone was just as cringe-worthy as each other.

So this is what made Dolly Rogers stick in everyone’s minds. They got us involved, gave us a taste of what it was like to be part of their team and most of all, it seemed like they actually enjoyed having us there – it wasn’t a hassle to them. Although that might have had something to do with the fact that watching a load of nervous students make absolute tits of themselves is, as it turns out, a really really good way to spend an afternoon.

Chrissy Styles.

December 2009, Paris, France
4 months since I’ve been graduated, still unemployed and my mum kept asking me all kind of embarrassing questions about future plans. On Christmas dinner, I suddenly came up with this idea about going to Amsterdam.
Why? (Expat advice number 1 = Never answer that question)

January 2010, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I arrived at Centraal Station in a cold morning and had my first walk through the city under the snow. I was scared, my english was shit and I wasn’t able to ask my way to anyone. I finally managed to arrive 33, Nieuwe Prinsengracht, Dolly Rogers HQ for my first interview.

Since that day, the sun came out and so many good things happened. Working at Dolly Rogers is an every day surprise, it’s hard to describe, you never know who you gonna meet, what they gonna ask you to do. For better or for worse.
I keep the full story for a hollywood production but here is my 2009 task list review:

Ski trip with my boss on the 1st week✓ Get a bike✓ Conceptualize and program a website for a crazy talented violonist✓ Burn out the toasti maker in the office✓ Data visualisation for a great file transfer service✓ Mix at Dolly Rogers barbecue✓ Do a beat for Nike✓ Parade with the bohemians in a chicken suit✓ Spray paint the Nike EHQ entry✓ Party hard at Mystery Land✓ Triple X tatoo on my ankle✓ Get my first contract✓ Bring the Dolly Rogers crew to Paris for “la fete de la musique”✓ Get a flat in the Redlight district✓  Try a few dutch lessons✓ Get my bike stolen✓ Create a facebook app✓ Perform at NDSM with my mate Mihas✓ Speak better english✓ at least better than other frenchies✓ Not fired after 6 months✓

Finally Christmas again, my mum is coming over.
I love my city, love my work.

Merry Christmas from everybody!

If we were to write the Ten Commandments of Dolly Rogers for sure one would be “Celebrate life and friends with barbecue.”

Without over-intellectualising it, the BBQ is for us the ultimate sharing experience – a decent party combined with the love of a family gathering. For our third edition we invited an eclectic group of friends, clients and neighbours to join us for a good ‘ole fashioned Dolly Rogers style hoedown on our rooftop. We’re talking good quality meat from the markets, marinated in juicy flavours, wood cooked chooks and lots of fresh veges… that’s how we roll!

Everything was prepared with love during the day by “le chef” Chris and his 2 “commis” Charin and Jacob. At 5pm our first guests arrived… the rest is all love, good grub and me on the decks pumping music for the entire neighbourhood. During the night our office transformed into an old-school block party on the roof.

4am, 13 crates of beer later, the last BBQ soldiers are gone… We’ll clean it tomorrow.
Check out some of the pics here.

Some folks say that we get to have all the fun, we’d have to agree.

Together with our partners at Oy, Nike asked us to give a heroes home coming welcome to their employee athletes who took part in the 2010 Étape du Tour. This year a group of 34 cyclists trained for six months to combat the infamous stage from Pau to Col du Tourmalet, including the treacherous final climb which has become part of cycling folklore.

Inspired by Nike’s innovative Chalkbot, we headed out to their European headquarters in Hilversum and sprayed congratulatory messages to all the participants, showing the encouragement and support of their friends and colleagues. With help from our mates at Goed Bezig, we managed to pull off a pretty impressive and iconic environmental display. Check out more images here.

The latest work to come out of the Dolly Rogers studio is this fresh identity we designed for the digital platform of a brand spanking new, super fast file transfer service called Wetransfer. The business brains and developing genius behind this entrepreneurial venture is our mate Nalden together with the brilliant folk at Oy Communications.

We were stoked to work together with them on designing the identity and website which has already been listed as one of StumbleUpon’s top 5 rated websites.