Diederiekje Bok

Diederiekje Bok also known as Didi Bok (Born December, 1980) is an author , artist and producer and the developer of the John's Phone with Hein Mevissen. She started John Doe Amsterdam in 2001. Famous creations of Diederiekje Bok are mainly her scripts and productions for MTV Europe as the MTV shorts Deutschland Liebt Günther (2005), Das Ist So Togo (2006) and John From Burlington (2010). Diederiekje Bok has also been guest curator of an exhibition in museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 2009, the exhibition of the work of Rinus van den Bosch. For this exhibition, she created and published a book with publishers AFdH called Rinus. Since 2014 she wrote a few successful children's books about main character Olli. In 2014 Diederiekje Bok wrote a weekly column in Fab Magazine about her life in Los Angeles. Some of Diederiekje Bok’s art work is part of the permanent collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the Netherlands.

John's Phone is a mobile phone that and Diederiekje Bok and Hein Mevissen designed and manufactured. It is marketed as being ideal for children, the elderly, and technophobes. and made in the Netherlands and sold by John's (Phone From The Supermarket BV). It claims to be the world's most basic cell phone, allowing the user only to make and receive calls, with none of the features of modern cameraphones such as a camera, Internet access and text messaging; the address book is a paper pad and a pen, built into the back of the device. It is built around the Keep It Simple concept. In 2010 Fast Company wrote that John's Phone made it in the top 12 of the Year's Best Ideas in Interface Designs.

Diederiekje Bok won several international awards as a creative. Including a few times the New York festival Gold World Medal. In December 2013 Diederiekje Bok and Hein Mevissen of John Doe got awarded with the highest Dutch advertising award the Golden Loeki for the Olli campaign. The agency John Doe got the award in a Live television show from Arian Buurman, CEO of the Stichting Ether Reclame who hosts the Loeki awards. At the World Intellectual Property Day Diederiekje Bok won also an award for being the person behind the best brand in the Netherlands for the brand Olli. The award is judged on innovation, decisiveness, perseverance, Protection in the field of Intellectual Property and Contributing to society.

Diederiekje Bok is with designer/director Hein Mevissen also the creator of the character Olli that became a hype in the Netherlands in March 2013 for the second time. Olli was part of a campaign that Bok and Mevissen created to save the Rotterdam zoo Diergaarde Blijdorp. She did also special charity events for Sophia’s children’s hospital in Rotterdam. Bok wrote also a novel and donated the revenue to the hospital.

Diederiekje Bok is also the co-creator with Hein Mevissen of the character Olli that was original created in 2004 as a character for a bottled mineral water. Olli is a cartoon character and a stuffed toy. In 2013 a toy of Olli toy was licensed for another campaign and became again a hype in the Netherlands in March 2013. Olli was used under license as part of a campaign Bok created with Hein Mevissen to save the Rotterdam zoo Diergaarde Blijdorp. Olli became a national hype in the Netherlands in March 2013. After saving the ZOO Olli became the symbol of Rotterdam and professional football club Feyenoord. The original Dutch name, Olli, is a shortening of Olifantje, "little elephant". The hype around Olli is explained as a new way of marketing called brand feeling or emotional branding. Ollimania is the mother company of Olli and many other characters. Ollimania publishes children's books, creates toys and is very active in charity. On September 10, 2015, Ollimania and its creators Hein Mevissen and Diederiekje Bok donated a huge Olli statue to the Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam. They did this to give a smile to the little patients and parents in the hospital. Diederiekje Bok and Hein Mevissen are the founders of Ollimania. Ollimania books are published in The Netherlands, France, England, Germany and Belgium.