From Studio de Ronners:

Rotterdam’s beloved Jeugdtheater Hofplein embraced a new look to match its bold vision. Our studio explored how to best capture a community as diverse and playful as Jeudgtheater Hofplein.

Studio de Ronners crafted a bold and vibrant branding for Jeugdtheater Hofplein, perfectly capturing its free-spirited and energetic essence. The Arlen typeface, used in this identity, brings expressiveness and reflects the youthful and creative energy of the theater’s community. Its playful yet contemporary style aligns seamlessly with the mission of the theater, creating a visual language that resonates with its audience.

The second sans is ABC Monument Grotesk, mostly used in the Heavy weight. This font appears to have provided the basis for the logotype as well.

Browse the complete magazine for the 2024/2025 season (pdf)

Visual identity for Molendrift, an organisation of ambitious and optimistic pioneers in healthcare, working in the north of the Netherlands. The rebranding consist of a new website, a brand book, print materials, signage, postage stamps and wayfinding.

Studio6 is used throughout in a single weight. The visual identity was designed by Studio de Ronners with illustrations by Megan de Vos. Slash 2 worked on the website.

The NIPKE logotype, set in Nip Sans—a redrawn and revised version of Arial Narrow Bold.

NIPKE is a beer and liquor brand initiated and designed by Studio de Ronners. The name is based on the Dutch word ‘nippen’, meaning ‘sipping’. Studio de Ronners writes:

NIPKE bundles our most outrageous ideas and experiments in taste, aroma and design. We founded the brand as an outlet for anything that doesn’t fit our regular work. In close collaboration with professional partners, we develop beers and spirits of gastronomic quality. NIPKE is also an exercise in uncompromising marketing: we go against all standards in alcohol branding and packaging to create a product line with a distinctive look and feel.

NIPKE products are enjoyable and drinkable, but they are also exclusive, coming in limited and hand-numbered bottles. This exclusivity is represented by the design, which makes it clear that this is not your average drink. With its bold lettering on back-to-basic monochromes, NIPKE can be seen as a kind of anti-branding, not obviously aimed at ‘selling’ the product. The raw style shows that this product is the result of lab experiments. It’s a collector’s item. The labels as well as the packaging are sophisticated, but they also exude a DIY punk attitude that goes against the predictable norm.

As part of NIPKE’s uncompromising branding, the idea emerged to use one of the most overused typefaces, which comes free with Windows: Arial (1982) by Robin Nicholas (1947—) and Patricia Saunders (1933–2019). You might be surprised, thinking the NIPKE typeface doesn’t quite look like Arial, and you would be right!

Together with Studio de Ronners, I revised—and redrew some letters of—Arial Narrow Bold, to change it from a typeface many people are tired of seeing, to something with a bit more intrigue. I removed the calligraphic influences (the curved leg in R has been straightened), I fixed some letters (I felt the weight distribution and curves of S around its spine were awkward), and I exaggerated some features. One of the most obvious changes is the enlargement of bowls—such as in P—and the widening of circular glyphs.

As a result, Nip Sans (English: “Sip Sans”) has a much more open and polished appearance compared to Arial, as well as a slightly erratic rhythm due to the large counter spaces in circular glyphs. To better understand what I’m talking about, have a look at MD Nichrome by Rutherford Craze, which features this effect in a more exaggerated way.

Also, Nip Sans features 4 stylistic sets with which you can activate characters of different extents of exaggeration or deemphasis. With its design and optional features, Nip Sans is decidedly more playful than Arial, with a bit of a DIY punk attitude.

☞ The NIPKE brand won bronze at the European Design Awards 2020.

A comparison between Nip Sans (black) and Arial Narrow Bold (yellow).

NIPKE No. 1 (Herr Heino) features Nip Sans, Neue Helvetica Medium (Weizen + Juniper + Lagering), Gloucester Extra Condensed (Herr Heino), and Haarlemmer Medium (OLD GENEVER, 42% VOL., 500 ML).

NIPKE No. 3 (Dibbes) features Nip Sans, a horizontally compressed/distorted Times Regular (DIBBES), and a horizontally compressed/distorted Times Bold (TRIPEL BEER + JUNIPER + LEMON + CORIANDER + GENTIAN ROOT, MOUTWIJN, 39% VOL., 500 ML.). The trolley is a custom design by Remmelt Deriksen.

NIPKE No. 2 (O’ Manta) features Nip Sans, and Heroic Condensed Black Oblique (O’ MANTA & the rest of the typography). Mommeriete + NIPKE (Swampy Wood) features Nip Sans, and a horizontally compressed/distorted Times Bold (MOMMERIETE, Swampy Wood, Porter, 5.7% VOL., 33 CL), and an undistorted Times Bold (SMOKED PORTER).

The Art of Lace is an exhibition organized by the TextielMuseum Tilburg that ran from 16 November 2019 until 6 September 2020. The show presented a selection of haute couture creations, never showcased before in the Netherlands, and all of them using the delicate craft of lace. Lace has seen a revival in high fashion these last few years and has become an essential of the most prestigious catwalks: from Maison Martin Margiela to Chanel, lace is everywhere.

Studio de Ronners was in charge of creating the graphic design of the exhibition. In order to keep up with the theme without being too illustrative, the studio developed the idea of “typographic lace”: something that would only play with the information to display in order not to be too invasive regarding the subtlety of the objects displayed, and on the other hand, a typographic treatment that would still be visible as a kind of pattern of threads mimicking lace. To do so, Studio de Ronners based their design on Cardinal from Production Type: indeed, the typeface on one hand evokes the classicism of haute couture with its elegant caps, and on the other hand puts its italic letters to their limits, with their dancing rhythm and their tight ligatures.

The titles of the explanatory parts of the exhibition are set in Cardinal, and so are the names of the fashion designers exhibited, which are repeated in columns as high as the ceiling, bringing to mind classical lace rolls to be cut and sewn onto any piece of clothing. Regular text is set in Helvetica, which contrasts with the arabesques of Cardinal and offers stability to the more technical explanations.

Brought together by their fascination for the wondrous flower and plant world, artist Denise Collignon and landscape historian and floriculturist Mariette Kamphuis founded Veld & Vaas (“Field & Vase”). Together, they design and create the floral decorations of special occasions and locations, characterized by vegetable materials, folklore, and historical and contemporary (floral) art.

Veld & Vaas presents itself as a symbiosis of two worlds, which formed the starting point for the design of their floral soapboxes (“bloemenzeep”). The packaging is adorned with both serif and sans-serif typefaces; the typefaces Domaine Text & Domaine Display (Klim Type Foundry, 2013), a subtly modified Domaine Sans Display (Klim Type Foundry, 2014), and Campton (René Bieder, 2014).

The colors of the packaging are derived from the content of the soaps/ingredients (marigold and activated carbon), which also come together in a dual-colored version with both types of soap. The result is contemporary and timeless package design, with the inventors’ story printed on the interior.

☞ The Veld & Vaas bloemenzeep won silver at the European Design Awards 2018.

From Behance:

The “Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal” (Dutch Language Institute) researches and describes the Dutch language in all its aspects, such as vocabulary and grammar. Studio de Ronners created an identity in which full name of the institute was incorporated into the logo while keeping it applicable for diverse uses. Two slashes, or virgules where used in the logo, which has both classical and contemporary associations.

From Studio de Ronners’ website:

We chose FF Schulbuch Nord for the logo. This typeface, created by a Dutch type designer has a modern look and is easily readable. DTL Haarlemmer – another Dutch design – functions as the basis for the tags.

The graphic line (marker) can be deployed horizontically as well as vertically, which is a nod to the graphic language in a dictionary. The function of the marker is to explain words, but also to indicate a hierarchy. Studio De Ronners asked for the favourite words of all of the institute’s employees and applied them to personal business cards, t-shirts and other means of communication. This way, the identity also serves as a way to express the involvement of the employees.

Apart from being designed by dutch type designers, the typefaces share an institutional / educational background, that matches well with the Dutch Language Institute. Just van Rossum's FF Schulbuch (‘school book’) is based on mid-20th-century German text books. DTL Haarlemmer is a digital revival by Frank E. Blokland of the hot metal typeface Haarlemmer, originally designed by Jan van Krimpen in 1938 as a typeface in roman and italic, for setting the texts of the “Statenbijbel” – the ‘official’ Dutch protestant bible translation.