This year’s PromaxBDA Europe conference in Amsterdam is all about creative disruption, and we’ve tried to capture much of that in this issue of Best of Brief.

Our keynote speaker, John Lydon (you probably know him as Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols) was a disruptor before that term even existed. As a lifelong artist and founding member of Public Image Ltd., Lydon continues to authentically and organically disrupt just by being himself.

He told Best of Brief contributing editor David Tanklefsky this about the recent U.S. election: “It’s all so very dull really. It’s like a mad comedy act gone wrong. A very unfair circus.”

You’ll have to read Tank’s interview to find out what else the always-fascinating Mr. Lydon thinks about an array of things.

Like Lydon, Mr. Bingo also is a disruptor, although sort of an accidental one. An artist by trade, Mr. Bingo offered to draw insulting postcards of people and send them along. Surprisingly, people were very happy to pay him to draw offensive (but very well done) pictures with words like “Bastard” scrawled (neatly) across the top. Those postcards turned into a Kickstarter project, with Mr. Bingo raising $150,000 to publish a book. Kareem Taylor had an intimate conversation with him in the casual way that only Kareem can.

A project we loved was BETC’s innovative work for Canal+, “The Kitchen.” In the kinetic spot, television characters become fodder for restaurant meals. It’s hard to explain unless you see it, and Justin W. Sanders dives in to learn exactly how BETC created it.

BBC One also took a different turn this year, changing up its iconic circle-based branding for something much more community oriented, and working with famed photographer Martin Parr to give the new campaign more of a crowd-sourced feel. Ben Cooper checks in with BBC Creative to understand their thinking about the changes.

And while our eyes have been turned toward Europe in advance of this month’s conference, Carmina Balaguer took a turn around Latin America to check in on four up-and-coming agencies in Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica. All of them are creating unique, different and outstanding work as they break out on the international scene.

For artists and creatives like those in the global PromaxBDA community, being disruptive is more part of their genetic make-up than something they set out to do. We’re proud to be able to showcase all of that disruptive, messy, glorious work.

Go here to read this issue of Best of Brief.

PromaxBDA Europe takes place in Amsterdam March 13-14.

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