The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the National Library of the Netherlands, is the national centre for knowledge, literature and cultural heritage. Founded in 1798, the KB collects, preserves and makes information accessible to everyone, from historical manuscripts and books to newspapers and digital publications.
225 years of the KB
To celebrate the 225th anniversary of the KB, we created an animation about the history of the library and its role as the national library of the Netherlands. Using the KB’s brand identity, we developed a visual style that brings its rich history to life while also looking towards the future. The animation explores the challenges the KB faces in the 21st century, including digitisation and the preservation of physical heritage.
Animation video
The video highlights the importance of the KB’s role in collecting, preserving and providing access to knowledge and information, while showing how a 225-year-old institution continues to evolve.
What if we told the same story in a completely different style?
Alongside the original animation for the KB’s 225th anniversary, we created a Director’s Cut: the same story, reimagined in a visual style inspired by our own brand film. While the original animation was developed around the KB’s visual identity, this version gave us the freedom to explore a more expressive and distinctive visual language.
The result is the same story told in two very different ways — showing how much a visual style can influence the tone and experience of a story.
Bringing a 55-page policy plan to life
KB, National Library of the Netherlands, developed a new policy plan outlining its ambitions and priorities for the coming years. The 55-page document covers a wide range of themes and sets out how the national library wants to make knowledge, information and its collections accessible to everyone.
To make this extensive story more accessible, we created a 90-second animation that captures the essence of the policy plan. The challenge was to distil 55 pages of information into a clear and engaging visual story, without losing sight of the bigger picture. We translated the key themes and ambitions into an animation that makes the policy plan easier to understand and more approachable.
The animation provides a short introduction to the policy plan, giving viewers a clear overview of its main ideas. Those who want to explore the ambitions and plans in more detail are invited to read the full policy plan.
25 years of Wikipedia in the Netherlands
To celebrate 25 years of Wikipedia in the Netherlands, KB, National Library of the Netherlands, created an animation about its collaboration with Wikimedia. The partnership brings knowledge and cultural heritage from the KB’s collections to a wider audience through Wikipedia and other Wikimedia platforms.
For this special occasion, we developed a visual style that takes a slightly more creative and playful approach than the usual KB identity. Because the video celebrates a collaboration between two organisations, we had more room to experiment while still keeping the visual language recognisably connected to the KB.
The result is an animation that combines the identity of the KB with a more expressive visual style, bringing the story of 25 years of Wikipedia in the Netherlands to life in an accessible and engaging way.
And many more stories
Our work with KB, National Library of the Netherlands, goes beyond these projects. Over the years, we have created a wide range of animations for different purposes and audiences. From internal communication to animations celebrating special moments, such as the arrival of a new director or an annual Wrapped highlighting the KB’s year.
We also create animations for collaborations between the KB and other organisations. One example is Het Venlo Incident, a podcast created in collaboration with NTR. For this project, we combined different visual styles to reflect the collaboration between the two organisations and give the story its own distinctive character.
Whether it is communicating internally, celebrating a special moment or bringing a collaboration to life, we adapt the visual approach to fit the story, while keeping the connection with the KB recognisable.
