Netherlands new identity.

As part of the country’s new identity, Studio Dumbar has designed a new wordmark for the Netherlands which gives a subtle nod to the national flower.

The wordmark combines the country acronym, NL and the tulip, the national flower. “The tulip is the most famous symbol of the Netherlands,” says Tom Dorresteijn, strategy director at Studio Dumbar. “But we wanted to steer clear of an obvious literal tulip as the symbol is too much connected to tourism and souvenirs.” Instead the team created a subtle silhouette of tulip petals between the N and the L letterforms.The typeface used in ‘the Netherlands’ element of the logo is Nitti Grotesk, designed by the Dutch type foundry Bold Monday. “This idiosyncratic typeface has warmth and humanity. The long ascenders give this font its particular character, which works really well with the logo,” explains Dorresteijn. “For us [the logo] expresses simplicity, smartness and clarity,” he adds, and will be in use from January (in eight possible language variations).