Irma Boom designs new Rijks Museum logo

Irma Boom, the Dutch designer who put together our Hella Jongerius book Misfit has designed the new logo for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The museum has been under renovation for some time. Bloom's logo replaces the previous one by Studio Dumbar, which had been in place for over 30 years.

The photo below catches the designer as the logo was unveiled on the exterior of the museum. "My starting point was the fact that the Rijksmuseum is a national museum with international appeal," she said. "The design is clear and powerful and anchors the museum in the present." Her design puts clear emphasis on the Dutch ij digraph. The IJ (lowercase ij) is the digraph of the letters i and j. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature, or even a letter in itself. 

The new Rijksmuseum house style also incorprates a newly designed typeface, developed by Paul van der Laan of the Bold Monday font foundry. See more at the museum's website, check out our Archive of Graphic Design and read more about Bloom in this great Creative Review interview.