The first king of the Netherlands in 122 years was inaugurated this week, and a local firm koeweiden postma provided a new monogram to usher in an exciting new era.

The series of symbols was emblazoned across 1,100 flags and banners, 500 bus shelters and billboards, 30 decorated buildings, and 140,000 paper crowns. the design is a graphic reframing of king willem alexander’s initials into a synthesized and regal monogram that shed a previous iteration containing a crown. aside from meeting the crown-free and textless design brief, the campaign also employed the use of a patriotic color system, opting for a red, white and blue scheme, punctuated with  the region’s characteristic bright orange, a lasting chromatic symbol of the royal house of orange-nassau. the campaign worked in  conjunction with queen’s day and the already extant ‘i amsterdam’ programming. the city was dressed in iterations of the monogram and cloaked with the festive and regal design– with over 1000 journalists and 50 countries watching, amsterdam had never looked so colorful.

first image
the monogrammed design emblazoned across amsterdam central station
all images courtesy of koeweiden postma

bus shelter poster

orange version of the design

king willem alexander and queen máxima

this view of  dam square shows orange-hatted onlookers with the designed banners overhead

other views of dam square

the red white and blue banners of dam square

flags over central station and damrak

the design campiagn even included canvas facades

view of  the other side of the IJ-river

one of the orange posters clads a column

existing (left) and new monogram