Graphic Happiness II, 100 years of Dutch graphic design

Graphic Happiness is design project and consists of a publication, a traveling exhibition and educational programme on 100 years of Dutch graphic design. The exhibition travels trough China and shows the work of over 60 designers and their love and passion for graphic design. Design is what makes these designers happy. It also bring the two countries China and the Netherlands together and have them exchange design knowledge and culture.

The logo is therefore based on the Chinese symbol of 'Double Happiness' and the Dutch flag (red, white and blue). It symbolizes China and the Netherlands, coming together in design. The logo is printed onto three different straps, these straps hold together the furniture in the exhibition and form the binding of the publication. The logo is the literally and figuratively the binding factor in the whole design.
All the furniture is designed as a flat pack construction made out of wood and held together by the straps. No glue, screws or any other material is used. The publication is also made out of loose pages and is not binded. The only thing that hold the publication together is the strap, no glue or any other material was used.

Part of the exhibition is the ball pit, this symbolizes the fact that the Netherlands is a country that lives below sea level. Due to the struggle with water, the Dutch had to be inventive for over centuries. They had to design their nature in order to survive. From this necessity comes the Dutch design tradition that everything can be designed and it is the base for the distinctive playful and clear dutch design as we know it. On the blue balls are the portraits of famous dutch designers, so you can literally dive into dutch design history.

We enjoy working at the cutting edge, challenging ourselves and those around us, looking further than the length of our nose. Our way of working is between that of a design studio and an ad agency. We create conceptually and strategically strong projects with clear, clever designs and solutions. We think before we act, but we act before we talk. That is what we call Smart Design.

Smart Design on a daily basis means that we work for very different clients, like museums, cities, government, educational institutes, charity but also pr-marketing agencies and commercial clients. We like to work on total concepts, to create not only the logo but also the name of the product, the image, the message, the strategy. This results in a strong graphic design in which the form follows the content. And because of this we are a multi-disciplinary agency that works in the field of identity design, publication design, event design, exhibition design, campaign design.