It has been thiry years since Nikki Gonnissen and Thomas Widdershoven co-founded the Amsterdam-based design studio thonik. This many years is in itself a testament to their success as collaborators in using visual communications to shape culture, public life and place.
Their key projects include Schiphol Airport, Keukenhof Spring Garden and Castle, Dutch Design Week, Almaty Museum of Arts, the City of Amsterdam and and a new campaign celebrating 100 years of Dutch public broadcaster VPRO – a longstanding client of 16 consecutive years.
Since founding thonik in 1993, the duo have established one of the leading voices in international graphic design. Working across visual communication, graphic identity and motion design, they create intentional and playful identities for arts, cultural, public and political organizations worldwide. To celebrate thonik’s longevity I’ve asked the cofounders to discuss, in part, how they work as a team and their proudest accomplishments in The Netherlands, where good design is part of the nation’s DNA.
Before we talk about the power of collaboration, how did you come up with the name thonik? Was this the first example of your collaborative DNA at work?
Thomas is “tho,” Nikki is “nik.” Indeed, the merging of our names into a new word with a familiar tone and an aspirational meaning—a tonic being a drink to give you more energy and make you feel stronger. In merging our names we solidified collaboration in the foundation of our work and our brand.
In practice, that indeed means that we collaborate in everything, not merging our thoughts, but giving room to our respective strengths and talents when a project calls for them.
We’ve heard a lot that graphic design in the 21st century is more collaborative than ever. In fact, it cannot be otherwise. How has thonik’s collaborative practice changed since founding the company?
Of course, over 30 years, the world has changed, and the design world has changed with it: analog methods have become first digital and then online, and with that, the spirit of collaboration has grown stronger as it has become easier to share works in progress in real time.
And beyond that, clients have become more actively involved: They know more about the craft than ever and also have more specific ideas about what they need or want to get out of a campaign. That has reshaped our process: Where possible, we set up collaborative systems and practices with our clients. In strategic workshops and interview sessions we lay out the strengths, challenges and internal structure of the client with the client, rather than for the client.
With large or complex organizations, such as with M+ museum in Hong Kong, this helps us lay out the different interests internally before developing any external messaging or visuals.
At other times, it’s a matter of explaining and convincing: Around the turn of the century, we believed Amsterdam’s city identity should be clear, simple and easily recognizable, using the three crosses from the medieval Coat of Arms as a basis. Such a big shift required getting on board over 50 directors and many, many civil servants. We met with all of them, listening to their thoughts and making them feel heard. It took us an afternoon to make the design. It took us a year to implement.
When required, we also invite our clients to work at our studio, and vice versa, to get the hang of a new identity. When translating the Schiphol identity to the online sphere, the digital team of Schiphol worked alongside the thonik team at the studio. The redesign of the identity overall led to a unified whole for what had been many, many different different brands and departments. Thanks to intense collaboration and systematic meetings, we built an identity that is clear to international travelers and that brings a sense of unity and calm into their journey. From the app to the parking service, everyone is aligned.
A collaborative team is the sum of its parts. How are your parts distributed and what, if anything, when working with other disciplines is collaborative versus individual?
Within the studio, everyone has their own specialisms—motion, print, bilingual design, but also copy, creative strategy and overall feasibility—but everyone also has a different background (on average, we have at least five different nationalities in the studio, always one or two from Asia) and an opinion of their own. We invite our teams to reflect on their own work or that of others, for we believe creative work cannot be done in a vacuum. We need external eyes within our own team looking at our work to improve it. It often leads to new ways of doing things, and helps us to keep on expanding our borders, skill sets and ambitions, 30 years on.
Overall, experimenting with new roles and evolving existing roles is what keeps us able to roll with the punches of the market and the world. We are not afraid to add roles to see if it fits our business model and the aesthetic and feeling we strive for. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s OK, because we tried something different.
Does collaboration signify total cooperation and sharing, or are there nuances to achieving collaborative success?
We strongly believe collaboration lies in giving each other’s talents and visions the space they deserve or need. It does not require a merging of souls, but it does require a moment together. We like to sit together to come up with the core of the concept, and then let each specialism in the team have a little brainstorm of their own. We think both conceptually and strategically and often start sketching in motion straight away. In the design process, concept and strategy meet and influence each other. Likewise, motion and print affect each other. In that ping pong of thought and expertise, we merge conceptual thinking with experimentation.
That way, for Keukenhof, we were able to transform the brand positioning into two brands—for the castle and the gardens—that laid close to the Keukenhof’s origins, while still feeling new and refreshing. Oftentimes, like with Cloud 11 or Almaty Museum of Arts, it is essential to moving the concept into the direction it needs to go.
The check-ins can lead to sparks and killed darlings. But that is also part of a creative process, as long as you’re all willing to believe that it makes the final result better.
What projects were/are the most fruitful ones for thonik, and why?
Ever since our foundation, thonik has been a banner(wo)man of the cultural scene: We have laid the foundation for some of The Netherlands’ best-loved museums, such as Boijmans van Beuninge and its DEPOT, and the world’s most established and innovative cultural institutions, from the Venice Biennale to the M+ Museum in Hong Kong.
We carry that banner with pride and responsibility, for we believe that, over time, communication for culture becomes culture itself. With brands like VPRO, Gemeente Amsterdam and Holland Festival, we have shaped the collective memory of the Netherlands for quite some time.
We are designers because we connect to the world, culturally and politically, revealing the developments of our clients and the ways they affect the world around them and us. We contribute to M+’s vision, presenting it in an international context in a refreshing way. We help write the message that the Robin Food Coalition shares with the world: to make organic food the new normal. For the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, we construct bridges between Asia and the west through design and always aim to make choices that make the world a little bit nicer. And these bridges are built to last: thonik’s brands accommodate change. They are always the result of intense collaboration, not only in the moment, but over time. Every generation of designers in our studio stands on the shoulders of the ones before.
How is personal achievement measured in a collaborative environment?
We celebrate every victory, big or small. We’re generous with compliments when we believe something is genuinely good, but also sharp when determining what things could be better. Doing both ensures that everything said is genuine and well-meant. It makes people feel valued and cherished.
But we don’t mention on our website or anywhere else which exact designer worked on a specific project. We are in it together, we believe in shared efforts and collective pride. At the end of the day, what matters is the whole: the question we answer, and the ways in which we help the client.
That shines through in our work: The FILA animations move with the same enthusiasm as our team that worked on it. Our Phion Symphony Orchestra identity moves with the music that we listened to while making it—not surprisingly, the music played by the Orchestra itself.
After 30 years together, what do you foresee as the next challenge?
It’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue, but we live in a time where human creativity is subject to inflation due to AI—an ironic development, since AI can only be creative because humans are. If a bot can “make” it, why ask a human? If everyone with an AI agent believes themselves to be an expert, where does that leave the actual expert?
Collaboration is the most important way to provide a counter-movement to that development: Working together makes the end result better and the process more entertaining, which is ultimately essential to making anything good. Because making something good requires a sense of humanness. Our quirks and opinions make us human and make our work better. Dutch Design Week’s five annual campaigns would not have looked the way they look if it weren’t for our trials, errors, tiny successes, discussions and new ideas.
Beyond that, collaboration gives an insight into how ideas and concepts come about. It’s not a black box or a screen that simply “produces.” Being able to ping pong thoughts and ideas combines different minds and makes the creative process tangible, and thus easier to perceive as valuable.
