Hein Mevissen

Hein Mevissen is an artist, director,designer, photographer and entrepreneur with a Jewish Catholic background. He started John Doe in 2001. He is the inventor, developer and designer of the John's Phone with Diederiekje Bok: they created the phone in 2006 and launched it into the market in 2010. John's Phone is also on display in the Museum of Ideas and Inventions in Barcelona. Some of Hein Mevissen’s design and art work is part of the permanent collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the Netherlands.

John's Phone is a mobile phone that Hein Mevissen and Diederiekje Bok 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.

Mevissen has directed short films and television commercials for European products. He also directed several shorts for MTV, which he has sometimes chosen to film in the United States. In 2011 he directed a short comedy film he wrote with Dutch writer and columnist Leon de Winter and Diederiekje Bok called Bin Laden The musical for which Frank Zappa's keyboard player Peter Wolf, wrote the music. Hein Mevissen immigrated to the United States in 2008.

In 2012 Mevissen was featured as one of the most talented individuals in the Netherlands. In 2008 Advertising Age featured Mevissen as Director to watch. Mevissen is big in charity and helps several charity projects every year with his company Ollimania. Hein Mevissen’s work has been shown in Europe. It is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the contemporary Museum of Art Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Miba National Design Museum in Barcelona, as well as museums in Munich, Germany.

Hein Mevissen won several international awards for his work as a creative and as a director. Including a few times the New York festival Gold World Medal. In December 2013 John Doe got awarded with the highest Dutch advertising award the Golden Loeki for the Olli commercial that Mevissen wrote, produced and directed. 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.

Hein Mevissen is also the creator and designer 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 Mevissen created with Diederiekje Bok 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.