My Role_

Together with the marketing and content team, I developed the new brand concept and visual direction for straf_werk, used across all events from 2024 onwards.
I created the concept, designed the key artworks, and wrote the brand guidelines to make sure everything connected visually and conceptually.

I also provided art direction for festival photography — setting the mood through visual research, moodboards, and shot concepts — and handled hands-on design work for assets like line-ups, fencing, and signage.
To make sure the system could live beyond my involvement, I designed templates so that marketers and content creators could easily build within the same visual language.

Part of the rebrand was the concept “you are straf_werk” — an idea that blurred the line between the audience and the brand, making the community not just part of the experience, but part of the identity itself.

Case Overview_

straf_werk is a well-known Amsterdam-based house and techno festival that, over time, had drifted away from the raw, provocative identity it once had. What started as a bold and rebellious brand had slowly turned into something minimal and trend-driven, until very little of its original character was left.

The goal of this rebrand was to bring back that edge — not by recreating the past, but by connecting it to the reality of a new generation. A generation standing at the crossroads of youth and adulthood, figuring out who they are, and finding freedom in the night

The Concept_

The new straf_werk is about a very specific stage of life: the messy, in-between phase of becoming an adult.
You’re living in your first apartment — half Ikea, half secondhand finds. You’re surrounded by mismatched furniture, half-finished ideas, and people who might become lifelong friends or just part of one summer.

You’re still figuring things out: what you like, who you want to be, where you belong. And at night, that exploration spills out into the city — into clubs, festivals, and crowded dance floors. That’s where straf_werk exists: in the blur between identity and nightlife.

The brand embraces that feeling through rough textures, layered compositions, and photography that feels impulsive and real. Nothing polished, nothing overly designed — more like a wall of collected moments, taped together from nights that shaped you.

Each year, the look can shift slightly, reflecting changes in culture and youth aesthetics, but the foundation stays the same: straf_werk celebrates imperfection, experimentation, and the raw energy of figuring yourself out.