The DevOpsDays Amsterdam team is a partnership that's been around for a while. When they came to me to update their logo for their 2023 conference, I was very excited. The goal was to elevate the meet-up's brand — which at the time of writing has been around for 11 years — to match the cred and weight of what the organisers have created.
An unapologetically "Amsterdam" motif
For this year's logo, we really wanted to draw in as much Dutch-ness as we could, without being too kitsch. The idea was to create something that felt like a super legit, super high quality art-meets-tech conference in New York or London. But like, very Dutch.
We opted for customised lettering that could give as much canvas as possible, without losing the shapes that make the letters distinctive enough to read. From there, it was about filling them with shapes and motifs that drove home some of the features of Amsterdam that locals could see and relate to. It needed to be minimal, but powerful.
Pakhuis de Zwijger
One of the key features of this logo and brand is the building in which the conference has been held every year: The Pakhuis de Zwiijger. This is a cultural centre in Amsterdam, and holds so much vibrancy in its architecture, its history, and its location.
I really wanted this piece of architecture to feature strongly in the logo. The isometric illustration in this year's logo is actually revamped version from the 2022 logo, with some rounder edges to match the custom typeface, a banner down the side of the building, and some neater lines. The building is so iconic, and I wanted that to really stand out in the logo this year.
The final product was a set of three logos, designed to be used at differing sizes. From left to right, the logos can exist in gradually smaller functions, but still retaining the same look and feel throughout.
