Uniting, not uniforming
Visual identity for the VBS — a network organisation uniting independent schools across Dutch primary and secondary education.
- Client
- Verenigde Bijzondere Scholen (via VormVijf)
- Period
- 2008 — 2013
- Type
- Visual identity & magazine
- Role
- Visual identity, Editorial design, Art direction, Project management
Commissioned through VormVijf, the brief was to give shape to a network of school boards who deliberately position themselves alongside — rather than inside — the mainstream Dutch school system. Each member is distinct in character and pedagogy; the identity had to honour that while making the collective speak with one voice.
Uniting, not uniforming
“Uniting” became the guiding word. The pattern at the heart of the identity reads as a field of loose, irregular stones — each one a school, each with its own shape and colour. The VBS itself is the mortar that holds them together: present everywhere, never overpowering the individual pieces.
In the logo the same pattern rearranges itself. The stones settle into a tighter configuration, with the VBS mark across them as the connecting layer — the network made visible.
VBSchrift magazine
Alongside the identity I designed VBSchrift, the members’ magazine — design and layout as well as project management and art direction, from commissioning and image direction through to press-ready files.
