Publishing since 1966

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Identity
Thomas Rap

Background

Thomas Rap, established in 1966, is a renowned Dutch publisher of literary fiction and non-fiction. Their portfolio spans a wide range of topics such as art, culture, literature, sports, music, philosophy and psychology. In short: the world.

Objective

With a new publishing team on board it was time for a refresh of the brand identity. Our first focus was to bring a sense of collectivity into the identity, establishing a publishing house where both new and existing authors feel at home. The single one brand asset Thomas Rap had used since its founding was the logo: an illustrated flying tern (allegedly the favourite bird of legendary publisher and founder Thomas Rap himself). Our challenge was to develop a contemporary brand identity under one condition: do not lose the tern.

Approach

We started out to refresh the logo to a cleaner version that is usable as a graphic element in the overall identity. Next to the vignette, we created a wordmark to be used consistently on book covers and marketing materials. We selected two fonts that work nicely together in the general communication: the elegant modern serif Mirador for headings and streamers and the sans serif Aktiv for plain texts. Additionally, we’ve developed a clear design system for the placement of the logo and wordmark on book covers and spines. The powerful black and white portraits (mainly taken by house-photographer Keke Keukelaar) show great contrast with the bright colour palet.

Result

The new identity maintains to portray the rich heritage of Thomas Rap and positions brand in the Dutch literary landscape as a modern, brave and sophisticated publisher of high quality books.