Client Services Director,
CARTILS, Amsterdam
Gaston van de Laar is the Client Services Director for CARTILS, an international brand design agency with offices in Amsterdam and London.
Gaston has over 20 years of comprehensive design and branding experience and is overseeing all strategic and creative output and responsible for client relationships.
He frequently gives lectures on branding and publishes in leading magazines. Before joining Claessens|Cartils in 1996, he established his own design consultancy working for various companies, amongst them Shell and Heineken Breweries.
He holds a degree in Industrial Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology.
Heineken differs from competitors such as AB Inbev and SABMiller in that it is more of a branded house rather than a house of brands. Comparing HEINEKEN with other big multi-brand conglomerates, the company has a single global flagship brand.
No doubt, Apple's apps seem to become a new medium for brands with an official launch of the long-awaited iAd platform for mobile and "tablet" advertising. The "smart" future gets closer—you may receive comprehensive information in one intergated brand...
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On October 20, Apple officially announced the release of a new MacBook Air that introduces an utterly innovative concept of the portable computer.
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“For an average consumer the value of branding is down to making the right choice”

Sara Jones, Creative Director at brand development and packaging design agency Anthem Worldwide, shares her round up of the top five print innovations, which have the potential to create real standout, as long as they’re used to enhance –- rather than ‘be’ -- the brand idea.
If you had to choose the ultimate business super power, what would it be? Big budgets, global reach, an innovation pipeline full to bursting, a PR machine capable of generating positive press 24/7? Without hesitation, I answered “agility.”
Cheryl Swanson, Head of Toniq, once again explores the consumer trends for different age groups in the USA.
Before we had Apple Macs, Photoshop and a myriad of other programmes, design centered on tradition and craftsmanship, on the physical and the tactile. Yet now, we see the worlds of digital design and physical craftsmanship joining to create new expressions and celebrations of the power of making.
There’s a natural relationship between the style of our daily surroundings and how we feel. A great space can make us feel better, more hopeful and even more productive. And we often use our own space to express a vision of ourselves.

