The Dutch are roasting their new international tourism logo (and it’s hilarious)

The Dutch government unveiled their new international tourism logo last Friday. In one key difference, they’re now branding as ‘the Netherlands’ instead of ‘Holland’. In another significant change, the new logo sucks – or so Dutch Twitter thinks. 

Twitter is heating up and turning some of that infamous Dutch Directness back on the government. The results? Pure gold.

While the new logo incorporates a tulip into the branding, the Dutch just really think that it could have been done better – especially considering the hefty 200,000 euros price tag.

But, according to Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag, the price tag is ‘very normal’.

“You recognize a country by this,” Minister Kaag told RTLZ. “When it comes to billions of euros and many jobs in the Netherlands, 200,000 euros, as a one-off investment, is a small amount.”

Out with the old, in with the new. Top: old logo, Bottom: new logo.

What does Dutch Twitter think?

Needless to say, they’re not impressed. A stack of graphic designers have jumped in critiquing the logo for various graphic design failings, in particular, a lack of symmetry.

“The tulip is not symmetrical. I repeat. The tulip is not symmetrical.”

“Okay, summary: – ‘the’ is missing – the tulip is not recognizable – the tulip is asymmetrical – the left leg of the left-N is weirdly shaped – the bottom leg of the L is too long – the L looks like a joint – the capital letter N in Netherlands is too small – the t is shorter than the h”

 Some people pointed out that perhaps the tulip, which originally hails from Turkey, was perhaps not the most representative of the Netherlands. They had some other ideas.

“The Netherlands has a new logo. We are no longer the land of tulips. The N and L together form a chimney.”

Or perhaps a different kind of smoke.


We think this one will really appeal to all the teenagers who buy t-shirts from street vendors.

“My entry didn’t make it …”

It’s always important with these kinds of investments to ensure that the logo will remain current for years to come. Thanks @BirdUtterance!

“I have made the logo future-proof:”

And some of the new suggestions are downright rude, but we’re putting it in here anyway. Who are we to block creative freedom?

Despite the government announcing the rebrand from ‘Holland’ to ‘the Netherlands’ they appear to have forgotten the ‘the’ in the final copy.

 But we like this one better anyway.

What do you think of the new Dutch logo? Stunningly designed and well worth the money? Or could you have done better on the Windows 98 version of Paint? Let us know in the comments below!

Samantha Dixon 🇦🇺
Samantha Dixon 🇦🇺https://gallivantations.com
Sam has over six years experience writing about life in the Netherlands and leads the content team at DutchReview. She originally came to the Netherlands to study in 2016 and now holds a BA (Hons.) in Arts, a BA (Hons) in Journalism, and (almost) a Masters in Teaching. She loves to write about settling into life in the Netherlands, her city of Utrecht, learning Dutch, and jobs in the Netherlands — and she still can’t jump on the back of a moving bike (she's learning!).

3 COMMENTS

  1. Actually there’s been worse. I vividly remember a Dutch tourism campaign from the late 80s with the slogan “Holland’s got it” and an erect penis as a backdrop. For real. This was in some naughty magazine, so I’d guess there were also SFW variants using the same slogan.

    Out of curiosity, can anyone else remember this campaign? I can’t find it on Google to have “hard” proof for it.

  2. I prefer the old one. However, many tourists don’t even realize that Holland is only a part of The Netherlands. I like the old one because it elicits that strong connection to the fabulous art and museums. Nou ja dan.

  3. Every Dutch thinks he is a designer. As well as a judge, football coach, doctor, teacher, pilot, ceo, scientist and farmer.
    Does anyone really think that the choice between ‘Netherlands’ and ‘the Netherlands’ or ‘The Netherlands’ was not considered at some point in the process?
    The width of the L, the spacing between N and L, the curves at the top of the tulip; with contemporary software it is incredibly easy to consider all possible variations.
    ‘The tulip isn’t symmetrical’ is a good example of the Dunning–Kruger effect.
    1) Tulips aren’t symmetrical and
    2) unnecessary symmetry is boring.

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