Progress - Lava

5 European Design Awards for Lava

Frank Smolenaers — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:39:04 +0000

What a night! At this year’s European Design Awards, we took home 5 awards out of 8 nominations. Not too shabby.

2 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze

We’re incredibly proud of our team. It’s beautiful to see all the hard work, sharp choices and energy behind these projects being recognised on an international stage. Nights like this give us even more motivation to keep exploring new directions, outspoken ideas and work that dares to stand out.

For us, it confirms the importance of building brands that are bold, authentic and visible, always grounded in a strong strategic foundation. Work that challenges convention, creates momentum and helps organisations show up with more confidence.

Of course, that only happens with clients who believe in this approach. Clients who dare to choose, dare to stand out and dare to put themselves in the spotlight. So a big thank you to all our clients and partners, and especially Elevation Events, Friendly Fire, Krib, 013 Poppodium, Podium Victorie, Common Affairs.

Thank you to the European Design Awards, Demetrios Fakinos for an immaculate evening, Diana Janssen for hosting, and the entire design community for the energy, inspiration and good conversations.

The post 5 European Design Awards for Lava appeared first on Lava.

7 EDAwards Nominations!

Frank Smolenaers — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:18:33 +0000

WHAAAT! 7 European Design Awards nominations!

Still wrapping our heads around it: we’ve received 7 nominations for the European Design Awards this year. A big shoutout to everyone involved: clients, collaborators, and our team.

Fingers crossed 🤞

The post 7 EDAwards Nominations! appeared first on Lava.

Hiring: motion designer

Frank Smolenaers — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:35:20 +0000

🌋 Motion Designer 🌋
We’re looking for a motion designer with a 2-3 years of experience who wants to grow their craft in a small, hands-on studio where strategy, design and technology come together to create living brands. At Lava we work closely together and shared responsibility across the team. There’s room for ideas from everyone, regardless of title or role, and initiative is valued. Motion is a core part of our brand systems, and you’ll help define how brands move and behave across digital and physical touchpoints.

This is you
– You design and animate motion as an integral part of brand systems, identities, campaigns and digital products
– You translate strategy and concepts into motion-led ideas and executions
– You apply strong motion principles consistently across different applications
– You care deeply about craft, but also about process, curiosity, and work that feels alive
– You work comfortably with After Effects or Cavalry
– You are able to work on-site at our Amsterdam office
– You have experience with 3D tools, creative coding, and Figma (nice to have)

Interested?
👉 Send your portfolio and a short motivation to work@lava.nl

The post Hiring: motion designer appeared first on Lava.

Lava set to shape the visual identity of Orbit Festival.

Frank Smolenaers — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 14:29:53 +0000

After successfully handling the branding for Festival Smeerboel for the third consecutive year, design agency Lava is expanding its collaboration with Elevation Events. This includes rebranding the techno festival Orbit and the brand strategy for Soenda.

For over 10 years, Elevation Events has been a well-established name in the festival world, known for unique festival concepts such as Duikboot, Paradijs van het Zuiden, and De Leuke Festival.

Frank Smolenaers, partner and creative strategist at Lava, says: “Working with Elevation Events feels like a natural match. With our deep knowledge of the music industry and experience with festivals and venues, we can innovatively position brands, keeping them unique and relevant in a competitive market. Additionally, we understand how crucial flexibility is in the fast-paced festival world—this is a key foundation of our approach.”

Read the article on Fonk Magazine. (only Dutch)

📸 by Paulus van Dorsten

The post Lava set to shape the visual identity of Orbit Festival. appeared first on Lava.

DEMO festival

Frank Smolenaers — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 13:30:56 +0000

Did you also love The Last of Us? Cool. That had absolutely nothing to do with this.

We were deep in the process of creating a new identity for a client when the code broke. Now it’s part of the Design in Motion Festival. It will be shown tomorrow, January 30, on 250+ screens across the Netherlands.

The post DEMO festival appeared first on Lava.

New Brand Identity Vossius Gymnasium

Frank Smolenaers — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:29:18 +0000

We’re proud to have partnered with Vossius Gymnasium to create their new brand identity and close the gap between perception and reality. Once seen as closed and sometimes elitist, Vossius has been repositioned as a school that bridges tradition with modernity: a vibrant, close-knit school that is welcoming to all. We designed a visual system that captures these values and gives Vossius the tools to apply them easily across their communication needs. We defined the brand strategy, crafted the visual identity and developed the new website.

Our creative concept centers around the triangle, symbolizing the Vos (fox) in Vossius and an arrow—representing the school’s guiding principles and the unique paths each student takes on their educational journey.

Photography: Niels Blekemolen

The post New Brand Identity Vossius Gymnasium appeared first on Lava.

European Design Award for brand identity Museumvereniging

Frank Smolenaers — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 07:30:26 +0000

Lava won a European Design Award for Museumvereniging’s new brand identity! 🏆

In the last 10 years, we’ve proudly partnered with Museumvereniging, representing 500+ Dutch museums, on a transformative journey. From a merger to becoming the driving force of a future-proof museum sector where everyone feels connected, they challenged us to enhance their visibility and brand.

The new identity reflects Museumvereniging’s essential role as a catalyst for a resilient museum sector, highlighting and unlocking what’s truly important.

“The longstanding collaboration with Lava has resulted in a highly valuable relationship characterized by extensive knowledge and established trust. The new step in our visual identity is a logical consequence. With its evolution, we are not only taking a significant stride in conveying our role as a connector and catalyst for the museum sector, but we are also aligning optimally with the technological possibilities of today and tomorrow.”
– Martin de Rooij, Head of Marketing & Communication

Check out the full case here.

The post European Design Award for brand identity Museumvereniging appeared first on Lava.

The Brand Identity featuring Smeerboel: “Its branding is as lively and electric as the event itself.”

Lars Terhorst — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 10:26:55 +0000

Thanks The Brand Identity for featuring our identity for the Dutch festival Smeerboel. Check out our vibrantly ‘smeared’ identity concept, which captures the festival’s dynamic spirit, and read more about the bespoke ‘Smeer Tool’ we created: read the original full article.

The Dutch have brought many excellent things into the world – stroopwafels, Max Verstappen, gouda, you name it. But there’s one thing The Netherlands are particularly great at, and that’s music. Boasting sets from some of Europe’s best techno, house, disco, 90’s and 00’s artists and DJs, Smeerboel is a music festival in Utrecht with branding as lively and electric and the event itself. Designed by Amsterdam-based branding studio Lava, the identity introduces the ‘Smeer Tool’ – created as an interactive, web-based 3D tool for the festival.

“In the first meeting with the festival team,” says Head of Design Sacha van den Haak, “we immediately recognised that the festival has a very clear proposition – creating cool and fun stuff. In the after movies of previous editions we watched visitors actively participating in the festival program. We knew right away that the creative concept should be straightforward and interactive. So, what if we take the festival’s name literally and get ‘smearing’?”

The tool’s gestural and expressive nature is balanced through typography, notably Futura Condensed Extra Bold. “It was the only one font we could find that survived the smearing and still convey a ‘happy-go-lucky vibe’,” van den Haak reveals. Meanwhile, the team added luminous shades of yellow, red, purple, grey, and green to the colour palette to avoid a childlike aesthetic. The identity can evolve in future years too, with potential for new colour palettes and technological advancements, such as AR filters and physical interactions at the festival.

(c) Article by The Brand Identity.

The post The Brand Identity featuring Smeerboel: “Its branding is as lively and electric as the event itself.” appeared first on Lava.

NEMO Kennislink: Unraveling the complexities of our rapidly evolving world

Lars Terhorst — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:58:14 +0000

Dutch only

NEMO Kennislink helpt de snel veranderende wereld beter te begrijpen

NEMO Kennislink – het onafhankelijke journalistieke platform van NEMO Science Museum – presenteert nieuwe website

Amsterdam, 19 maart 2024 – Verder kijken dan je neus lang is, onderzoeken hoe het echt zit en goed op de hoogte zijn van de belangrijkste onderwerpen van vandaag en morgen. Daarvoor kon je altijd al terecht bij NEMO Kennislink. Daar hoort nu ook een nieuw jasje bij waarmee de inhoud nog beter tot zijn recht komt. De nieuwe website is ontwikkeld door branding en designstudio Lava en de migratie is begeleid door Crossphase.

Constructieve journalistiek

Het nieuwe design volgt op inhoudelijke veranderingen van de afgelopen jaren, waarin samenhang van artikelen steeds belangrijker is geworden. In thema’s worden er, in de vorm van artikelen, quizzen, blogs, podcasts en events, onderwerpen van meerdere kanten benaderd en uitgediept. Dit is nodig omdat veel belangrijke onderwerpen, zoals klimaatverandering, toenemende digitalisering en biotechnologie, ingewikkeld zijn. Door deze onderwerpen diep en breed, en in verschillende vormen, uit te lichten zijn lezers beter op de hoogte.

In het nieuwe ontwerp scroll je horizontaal door de thema’s en ontdek je niet alleen uitgelichte artikelen maar ook gegroepeerde publicaties. Zo’n groepje kan bijvoorbeeld een serie artikelen zijn over één onderwerp. “Vaak zoeken we daarin naar oplossingen, bijvoorbeeld voor de woningcrisis of hoe je een verantwoord internet van de toekomst bouwt”, aldus Robert Visscher, hoofdredacteur NEMO Kennislink. “In het nieuwe design is deze samenhang duidelijk zichtbaar en krijg jij als lezer hopelijk de smaak te pakken, door meerdere stukken te lezen. Soms gaat een serie ook over een gedachte-experiment. Zo draait Heel Nederland Vegan om de vraag of we iedereen in ons land kunnen voeden als we alleen nog maar veganistisch eten.”

Deze aanpak past bij de constructieve journalistiek van NEMO Kennislink: onafhankelijk, kritisch en actief op zoek naar oplossingsrichtingen. Een ander voorbeeld hiervan is de serie ‘Operatie Groene Zorg’. De zorg is een grote vervuiler in Nederland en is verantwoordelijk voor zo’n acht procent van de CO2-uitstoot. In de serie Operatie Groene Zorg gaat de redactie samen met wetenschappers op zoek naar oplossingen om dit te reduceren.

Nieuwsgierigheid

Naast thema’s en series is er meer ruimte voor speelsheid. Spelenderwijs leren en nieuwsgierigheid zijn twee belangrijke uitgangspunten van NEMO Science Museum die ook opduiken in het nieuwe ontwerp van de NEMO Kennislink website. Zo kunnen lezers zich laten verrassen door de ‘verras-me’ knop, een quiz spelen om kennis te testen, meedoen aan een poll en bevat de website een online podcastplayer. Allemaal met als doel om lezers uit te nodigen om de NEMO Kennislink site nog verder te verkennen en te ontdekken.

Meer dan een website

NEMO Kennislink versterkt zijn aanwezigheid op diverse kanalen, met Facebook en Instagram als voornaamste media. Het platform introduceert een nieuwe vormgeving die perfect aansluit bij de journalistieke website. De gelaagde content-strategie wordt hier voortgezet, waarbij boeiende weetjes en alledaagse vragen lezers uitnodigen om verder te ontdekken op het digitale thuisfront.

Met deze vernieuwingen bereidt NEMO Kennislink zich voor op de toekomst. Dit wordt gevierd met een crossmediale campagne waarin, op typisch NEMO-wijze, kennis en weetjes centraal staan. Frank Smolenaers, Strategy Director bij Lava: “Een nieuwe website is één ding, mensen daarheen krijgen is een tweede. We geloven in een naadloze ervaring tussen website en de verschillende kanalen van een merk. Ook in de lanceringscampagne wilden we de absolute kracht van NEMO Kennislink omarmen: het opwekken van nieuwsgierigheid. Dit doen we door het gebruik van quirky stellingen die uitnodigen meer te ontdekken, zoals ‘Vroeger duurde een dag maar 17 uur’ of ‘Van gamen krijg je meer vrienden’.”

Over NEMO Science Museum

Bij NEMO dagen we iedereen, van jong tot oud, uit om te ontdekken hoe fascinerend en relevant wetenschap en technologie zijn. We laten zien hoe bijzonder alledaagse fenomenen zijn en brengen abstracte wetenschap op een toegankelijke manier. NEMO Kennislink is het journalistieke platform van NEMO Science Museum. Al ruim twintig jaar publiceert NEMO Kennislink journalistiek onafhankelijk over wetenschap, techniek en de samenleving. Samen met wetenschappers onderzoekt de redactie grote vragen uit de samenleving. In artikelen, thema’s, podcasts en events belicht NEMO Kennislink onderwerpen die ons leven beïnvloeden. De activiteiten van NEMO worden mede mogelijk gemaakt door het Ministerie van OCW en partners die ons inhoudelijk of financieel steunen, zie: www.nemosciencemuseum.nl/partners. Persberichten en beeldmateriaal van NEMO zijn terug te vinden via: www.nemosciencemuseum.nl/pers.

Noot voor redactie

Voor meer informatie kunt u contact opnemen met persvoorlichter NEMO Science Museum Chrissy Minnema op 020 – 5313128 en pers@e-nemo.nl of hoofdredacteur NEMO Kennlislnk Robert Visscher op 06 – 24410809 en visscher@e-nemo.nl.

Meer weten over de de digitale strategie en ontwikkeling van de website? U kunt contact opnemen met Frank Smolenaers op 020 – 6222640 of frank@lava.nl

Downloaden beeldmateriaal

The post NEMO Kennislink: Unraveling the complexities of our rapidly evolving world appeared first on Lava.

Amsterdam 750: A brand and celebration that every Amsterdammer can call and make their own

Lars Terhorst — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:05 +0000

This was our aim when Amsterdam 750 asked us to develop the brand strategy and visual identity for the celebration. Celebrating such a historic event is, after all, a collective endeavor.

With great dedication, we have worked closely with the Amsterdam 750 program bureau to ensure that the 2025 celebration of our capital becomes a festive occasion for all Amsterdammers and everyone who feels a part of it. Our journey began with a focus primarily on the business market, but now, the time has arrived to embrace the public sphere. It becomes clear once more: by sharing, we amplify. Witnessing the identity we’ve nurtured — designed to be as flexible, accessible, and welcoming as possible — coming alive and thriving is nothing short of magical.

Discover all updates about Amsterdam 750, and how the identity is being embraced, through this feed.

(c) Boomerang

The post Amsterdam 750: A brand and celebration that every Amsterdammer can call and make their own appeared first on Lava.