me studio

the dutch ‘filmmuseum’ is no more, a merger with several other film organisations and a flashy new office near central station (opening next year) were obviously a large factor in the motivation behind their new identity and the new name ‘eye film institute netherlands’

launched very quietly a few weeks ago, you can almost imagine the briefing when looking at this one: internationally oriented, not a stuffy museum but a forward looking modern organisation, a knowledge bank, clean, unfussy etc etc.

the urge to adopt an english name is one that few dutch organisations seem to be able to resist these days; and whilst the sum of the parties in this new conglomeration are undoubtedly more an ‘institute’ than merely a ‘museum’ it seems to me that some of the colloquilalism that made the previous identity so typically dutch and unique have been sadly lost… that word filmmuseum with two letter m’s stuck together is so ‘dutch’ and weird to foreigners… the new look suggests more lab technicians in white coats than remastered copies of classical celluloid films and a place to see, appreciate and understand the language of cinema

apart from all of this, the rather trendy use of bold geometric shapes in primary colours is going to date this identity quicker than you can pronounce the smart new name, i fear… farewell filmmuseum