Posters Holland Festival

The designer of the first Holland Festival poster was the versatile artist Joseph Ferdinand Doeve (1907-1981), known as Eppo Doeve. The festival continued to use this image for their campaign posters from 1948 to 1953.

From 1954-1965 and 1969-1972, the Holland Festival posters were designed by Dick Elffers. His contributions grew into a poster culture which some colleagues saw as an example and others as an obstacle, because Elffers set the tone high. The Holland Festival poster became renowned in the designer world of The Netherlands.

From 1962-1972 Hans Buys worked for the Holland Festival as the graphic designer of the programme books and other printed matters. From 1966-1968 Buys also designed the Holland Festival posters.

In 1969, Dick Elffers returned as a designer of the Holland Festival posters.

For four seasons, from 1973-1976, the Amsterdam artist Gielijn Escher was responsible for the Holland Festival posters and other printed matter. On his first poster appeared a fan shape that was loosened in the following years and exploded in its final year.

The theme of Holland Festival 1977 was 'the human voice'. For the first time the Holland Festival poster was created by two designers, Wim Crouwel and Anthon Beeke from design agency Total Design.

The festival theme of 1978 was folk, distant cultures. This year, Anthon Beeke alone was responsible for the design.

With its richly decorated, shimmering logo in many variations Benno Wissing determined the face of the Holland Festival on posters, leaflets and stationery from 1979-1985.

In 1985 visual artists were invited to create a silk-screen print for the Holland Festival which were used as posters. In 1985 Ger van Elk and René Daniels created a silk-screen print.

The festival continued to invite visual artists for the 'artist posters' in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1994.

In 1986, Co Westerik and Frank van Hemert made an artist poster.

In 1987, Willem de Kooning was invited to create a silk-screen print for Holland Festival.

Toon Verhoef created a silk-screen print for Holland Festival 1988.

Gielijn Escher was responsible for the Holland Festival posters from 1973-1976. In 1990 he was asked to create a silk-screen print.

In 1994, artist Jeroen Henneman made a silk-screen print for Holland Festival.

From 1986-1989 Studio Dumbar designed the Holland Festival posters.

SDU, the design bureau of the privatized State Publishing, created the posters for Holland Festival 1990 and 1991.

From 1992-1994 Pieter Roozen and Mart. Warmerdam created the Holland Festival posters.

In 1995, Anthon Beeke returned as a designer for the Holland Festival. He created the posters from 1995-1997.

From 1998-2004 Laboratorivm designed the brand identity of the Holland Festival.

Laboratorivm won the Dutch Theatre Poster Prize 1999 for their poster series for Holland Festival 1999.

In 2000 Holland Festival wanted to offer an alternative to the Euro 2000 (European Football Championships). Festival artists were portrayed as football players. The main poster was this one of Frank Zappa.

Dutch theatre director and playwright Gerardjan Rijnders. His play 'Stalker' was performed at Holland Festival 2000.

Dutch theatre director, playwright and actor Theu Boermans directed 'Jeff Koons' at Holland Festival 2000.

Musician Ravi Shankar opened the Amsterdam Roots Festival in 2000, which was part of the Holland Festival.

Dutch actor Fedja van Huêt was seen in 'Judith' by Hollandia at Holland Festival 2000.

The Holland Festival honoured the Dutch composer Dick Raaijmakers at the festival 2000 with the programme 'Konzert für.../Alpe d'Huez'.

During the tenure of artistic director Pierre Audi from 2005-2014, Maureen Mooren designed the brand identity of the Holland Festival. In 2005 and 2006 Maureen Mooren collaborated with Daniël van der Velden.

The Holland Festival 2005 programme was framed by the motto Heaven and Hell, or Angels and Demons.

The theme of Holland Festival 2006 was Melancholia & Hysteria.

Maureen Mooren & Daniël van der Velden won the Dutch Theatre Poster Prize 2006 for their poster series for Holland Festival 2006.

Holland Festival 2007 was themed Oppression & Compassion.

Maureen Mooren won the Dutch Theatre Poster Prize 2007 for her poster series for Holland Festival 2007.

The 2008 festival theme was CIELO E TERRA.

The theme of the 2009 edition of Holland Festival was Serenity & Anxiety.

The 2010 edition of Holland Festival was defined with two words: IN FLUX.

With Ruth Mackenzie following in the footsteps of Pierre Audi as artistic director in 2015, a new era has begun for the festival and therefore also for its brand identity.

Thonik has been commissioned to create a design which shows the Holland Festival's high artistic quality and uniqueness, while at the same time appealing to a broad audience.