Despite the Christmas rush prevailing at many post offices around the world, you should be receiving your copy of the final issue of Lürzer's Archive to appear in 2012 some time over the next few days. For Lürzer's Archive, the year was one marked by highs and lows. In spring, we were deeply saddened by the loss of our company founder, Walter Lürzer, whose charisma and incredible energy were impossible to resist by anyone who had the privilege to know him. Yet Walter would, of course, have wished us to keep on running the business just as successfully as he himself did, and we feel a debt to him to do just that.

The year 2011 therefore saw the publication of "200 Best Illustrators," "200 Best Automotive Ads 2000-2010," and "200 Best Ad Photographers," making it the first time in which no less than 3 different specials have been produced in the space of a single year. What is more, Lürzer's Archive has, with the launch of its own iPhone and iPad apps, now firmly entered the digital age. And we shall do everything we can to preserve the memory of Walter Lürzer by continuing to expand the company's offerings the way he would have liked us to.

In the meantime, let us take this opportunity to wish you Season's Greetings and a Prosperous New Year.

Just a month after our iPhone app was unveiled, Lürzer's Archive can now also be accessed via iPad! You can test-run the app for free at the Apple Store by using it to browse issue 1/2011. From now on, in fact, the iPad will give you access to our entire back catalogue since 1984, an archive encompassing over 50,000 print ads and 8,000 commercials in HD quality.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/lurzers-archive-for-ipad/id476622969?mt=8

Together with Chini Productions, one of our most important African distributors, we recently launched a series of events in Lagos, Nigeria und Accra, Ghana that we are planning to roll out across the world in the coming year: the "Archive Creative Club." At these events, local agency people are joined on Skype by top creative directors from outside the respective country to talk about the best ads from the most recent issue of Lürzer's Archive. At the first such event, which was enthusiastically received by all those who took part, creative input was provided by Gideon Amichay, Creative Chairman at Shalmor Avnon, and Tolga Büyükdoganay, now Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, Frankfurt, and Gideon together with Karpat Polat, President, Creative Director, DDB &Co., Istanbul.

Lucas started his career at a small agency in Brazil's capital, Brasília, the city in which he was born. One year later, he was the most-awarded art director in Brazil and moved to São Paulo to work at Ogilvy & Mather. A few months later, he joined Leo Burnett, at its Spanish office, and was part of the new integration between Lisbon and Madrid, resulting in the creation of one of the most-awarded agencies in the network: Leo Burnett Iberia. After some projects for DDB Turkey, he was invited to join BBDO, Moscow, to help integrate communication for clients such as DHL, Alka Seltzer, Snickers, Mars, M&M's, and PlayStation. Lucas says he has had some great moments throughout his professional path, but above all this he is really honored to be working alongside the people he believes to be the most talented creatives of this new era of advertising, such as Eduardo Marques, Rodrigo Linhares, Bruno Nakano and Ignacio Mendez.

Recognitions: Besides having sat on the Student's Contest 2011 jury and being ranked #1 in the world on our Art Directors list 2011, Lucas has this year received awards at several festivals, among them Cannes, EPICA, Eurobest, Golden Drum, ADC, ADC*E, San Sebastián Festival, CdeC and Inspirational Awards.

Click here for the Personal Showcase of Lucas Zaiden and other creatives

In 2012, Lürzer's Archive will once again be attending a whole series of industry events – either "in person" or through the vehicle of our regional distributors. Next up on the calendar are the following events:

January 26th-27th, 2012
Istanbul Intercontinental Advertising Cup
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Istanbul, Turkey
www.thecupawards.com

January 20th, 2012
Epica Awards
Kino Siska Centre for Urban Culture
Ljubljana, Slovenia
info@epica-awards.com
www.epica-awards.com

March 18th-20th, 2012
Adfest 2012
Pattaya Beach, Thailand
nat@adfest.com
www.adfest.com