Every year, 1.4 million people gather at Keukenhof Spring Garden and Castle in The Netherlands to welcome the arrival of spring with a festival and flower show. Situated in the traditional flower-growing region of the country, the flower garden itself is the largest of its kind in the world.
The historic festival has been running since 1949 and this year, as the team at Keukenhof prepared for another wave of visitors, they worked closely with Amsterdam-based graphic design studio thonik, to create a fresh visual identity for the organisation.
“We were given an interesting brief: we were asked to celebrate the spring garden and its annual visitors while also honouring the castle,” recalls Nikki Gonnissen, co-founder of thonik. “Our strategy was to utilise the power of design to connect the historical (the castle) and the current (the gardens).”
With the castle and garden requiring separate yet connected identities, the designers at thonik chose to create an overarching visual system that could feed into each. The Castle served as the primary source of inspiration for this, with the masonry of its walls used to create a grid-like pattern for the two logos.
“The logo for the spring garden is a stylised and graphic take on a tulip flower – an instantly recognisable symbol for those visiting the gardens, meanwhile, the logo for the castle seeks inspiration in the traditional coat-of-arms shield,” notes Joost Bos, design lead at thonik.
The physical settings of each area at Keukenhof also inspired the colour palettes for the respective identities, with the designers drawing on the pinks and reds of the tulips for the garden, and the greens of the surrounding trees for the castle.
The designs for each identity are carried through to both on-site and online communications, including flyers, billboards, banners, signage and social media. These elements also feature bespoke font and typography styles, as well computer-generated ambient colour gradients that build on the overall visual style.
Together, the castle and garden present a unified design style that blends contemporary influences with history and nature. As such, Keukenhof opens its doors in 2026 with a refreshed feel that is respectful of its past, but looking ahead to its future.
“With our newly designed visual identity we now have a style that does justice to everything Keukenhof stands for: a beautiful estate with a rich history and a flower exhibition that brings people from all over the world together,” comments Sandra Bechtholt, director of Keukenhof. “We are ready for the next decade, with an identity that honours our roots but also shows that we continue to grow and innovate.”
thonik.nl
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