Why the Dutch Government Has the Best Graphic Design

This is a video on the Rijkshuisstijl, which is the Dutch Government's Visual Identity. It also compares with Sweden's government identity, the Swiss government identity, and the German government identity.

To be quite frank, this video was a bit of a passion project, and I will not make videos like this in the foreseeable future.

Music:

[FREE] Synthwave Lofi Type Beat Free For Profit "Driving" Lofi Type Beat

--

Sphere - Ambient Chillwave Background Music | Relaxing Synthwave | Royalty - Free

--

[No Copyright] Chill Lo-Fi Guitar Instrumental Beat (15 Minutes ♫ ) - "Chilling"
Music by @HoobeZa

Tags:

Studio Dumbar, Dumbar, NS logo, Post NL

[welwin]

I as a Dutch person just had a panic attack when he showed the blue envelope

[NotJustBikes]

Some people accuse me of being funded by the Dutch government. I guess I should update my branding to match.

[medjin]

Two thoughts to consider:
- PostNL is a private company and can run their own designs.
- The recent house of parlement is temporary untill the old one is refitted. But you're right, it's hella ugly. Looks like you can do boldering there.

[sledge]

as a Dutch person, I'm pretty satisfied with our emergency service vehicle designs. on the newer vehicles, the red and blue striping that's universal to all vehicles is now also reflective which makes them more visible at night. to add, the green vehicles are emergency coordinators, usually, they're civil servants called out at big emergencies to coordinate emergency services between regional departments

[notieming]

“Taste and design is always subjective, with the exception of my own, which is unparallel in its sophistication”
I love this channel

[harrisonreinisch]

Love that you animate almost all your stuff. A lot of other infotainment channels that have really good content have been shifting to using stock footage instead of animations, which is fine but loses a little something. I appreciate all the work you guys are putting in - the videos are excellent!

[danielkhangutierrezdelaroz]

ive literally never, in my entire life, seen a video that pertained so much to my niche interests such as this one. For some odd reason, I always recognized and thought extensively about government graphic design from the Swiss to the Pakistanis but never would I think that tens of thousands of others were also noticing these details. As a dutch resident, I really admire how easy it is to profile federal material: like you said, that blue letter is noticible from a mile away. Digital content and centralization in design strategy during the pandemic was also very effective. Terrific

[joosepkaan]

A note as an Estonian (who actually does some Estonian governmental branding), I agree that it is designed like a startup than a nation (the graphics you demonstrated), but these are the graphics Estonia uses to market itself outside of Estonia. Inside Estonia governmental facilities have a lot more toned down and less "startup" design for the citizens. Estonia just wants to paint the picture of that design to others. :D

[filmpjesman]

One thing to note: PostNL has been privatised for some time now, that's why the design may not be as 'clear' as Dutch governmental design. It was designed by a private company for a private company. Though I agree it ain't great design

[calum]

I'd urge you to look at the UK's governmental design. Every UK gov website is universal and simple, helping people with disabilities etc read and use said websites.

This design is also seen on any official letters, tax documents etc.

[cacamilis]

"Be normal, and you'll be crazy enough" is a Dutch saying that encapsulates our politics and society quite well. "Doe normaal, dan doe je al gek genoeg."

[bobrobert]

Move to Netherlands to study marketing and have always been impressed by the gov sites here compared to at home. Sites related to covid restrictions were also much clearer than most I’ve seen for other countries

[UniquelyUnseen]

Really enlightening stuff! One of the reasons I made my content in the first place was a love of government design iconography yet never knew how to present it. Communication between government and citizens is massively important. the Dutch have such unique, functional designs!

[jasonbraun]

I'm always glad to see that other people care about something as trivial as government design as well.
I've always wanted to see someone compare many different designs in-depth and give their opinions about it and your video has come the closest so far to scratching that very specific itch.

[MrToradragon]

Small clarification about logo at 6:55, SŽ is not rail company in sense of company that runs trains, but is organization that takes care about tracks, as well it stylized Ž (pronounced as zh) that is first letter in Železnice which is Czech word for railway. BTW železnice is combination of words železo (iron) and silnice (road), so it is basically iron road.

[kaelon]

05:46 The green one is not "regional protection", it's for the "veiligheidsregio" which translates into english as "safety region". It's essentially a government body that coordinates cooperation between the other emergency services in case of big incidents. They work at a high level to ensure proper cooperation, request backup from other regions (i.e. extra fire trucks when there's a really big fire) etc.

[HalfLeftToby]

I would make an argument that British graphic design is much better at being a governmental design. The whole GOV.UK Design System (which things like websites, logos and copy are based from) isn't just there to look pretty - it's also meticulously user researched and designed to be accessible by everyone, including those who have impairments like poor vision or whose main language isn't English, with this research being completely open-source and contributable by anyone. In the UK, it is now a legal requirement for departments to effectively make designs to accessibility standards, and as the GOV.UK Design System always complies with those regulations, pretty much every department uses it, creating a consistent theme across Government.

A lot of the designs you reference from the Dutch would actually be illegal for British departments to use, because a lot of the colours and effects the Dutch departments use in your examples (such as translucent text and poor colour contrast) break the accessibility guidelines. And the thing is, the government is there to serve everyone's needs - so what's the point in designing something not everyone can access? It's just a waste of time and money otherwise at best, and is discriminatory at worst. There is absolutely no reason why governments cannot make accessible content for everyone *and* make it look pretty, because it's being done right now (at least in my opinion).

EDIT: I should say, I am biased, for I do actually work on and with the GOV.UK design system.

[margi]

6:53 This is not Czech's national rail company, that would be "České dráhy" - Czech railways, which has logo of letters ČD. The logo shown stands for "Správa železnic" - which are the railway administration (Still owned and funded by state), they own most of the railways (they build new and maintain them) but they do not operate trains, you can't see their logo on Czech public transport trains.

[der.Schtefan]

I lived in Amsterdam for 6 years, The dutch IRS still sends me letters to this date to my German address, because of some tax stuff. They are the prettiest and easiest to read letters I have ever received in my life, in beautiful blue envelops. Compare that to the German tax office that sends their correspondence on brown recycled paper printed with what appears to be a 9 head needle printer.

[TheGamesWin]

7:14 It's not upgraded, the usual chamber that is used is unavailable because of a major maintenance cycle. The room you see there is just temporary till the old one is available again.