LOUD/quiet
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Loud/Quiet

Brand and digital design · Rotterdam

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Brand and digital design studio · Rotterdam · since 2012

Loud where it counts.
Quiet everywhere else.

We design brand identities, websites and digital products for companies that would rather be remembered than noticed - and we measure every launch, so the next one is loud in the right place.

Start a project See the work
launches since 2012
140
people, one room
23
clients who came back
4 of 5
Grid Awards · Studio of the year 2025 ·
01 Selected work · 4 of 31 projects

Work that moved a number

Every case opens with the brief, what we did and what changed - measured, not admired.

The white wake of a ferry on open water, a city on the shore under towering clouds
Brand · App

+41% tickets bought online, 14 weeks

Two wind turbines beside a curving country road under a blue sky
Product

4.7 app rating, up from 2.9

A stack of old notebooks tied with string beside a fountain pen and photographs
Packaging · Shop

+64% webshop revenue in year one

A glass and steel lattice roof curving overhead, seen from below
Wayfinding · Web

−38% "where is ...?" questions at the desk

02 Services

Six things we do, priced up front

Weeks and budgets from the last 60 projects. Pick one and it is ticked in the brief at the bottom of the page.

Brand identity

Positioning, name checks, logo, type, colour and the rules that keep them.

10–16 weeksfrom €60k

Websites

Content-first sites on a CMS your own team runs the day after launch.

8–14 weeks€40–120k

Digital products

Apps and dashboards, tested with real users every Thursday.

12–24 weeksfrom €90k

Packaging

From the box structure to the print proof, tested on a real shelf.

8–12 weeksfrom €35k

Design systems

Tokens, components and docs that your engineers will actually use.

10–16 weeksfrom €70k

Motion and film

Brand motion, launch films and product videos, cut for every screen.

4–8 weeksfrom €25k

We don't do free pitches. We do two weeks of paid discovery - €9,800, and the findings are yours either way.

03 Process

Sixteen weeks, give or take

Five steps, each with a date and a deliverable you can hold. The one number we agree on in week one is the one we report six weeks after launch.

  1. Discovery

    2 weeks · €9,800 fixed

    Interviews, your numbers and a workshop. You get a written brief back.

  2. Strategy

    2 weeks

    Positioning, and the one sentence every later decision answers to.

  3. Design

    4–6 weeks

    Identity and key screens, tested with your customers every Thursday.

  4. Build

    4–8 weeks

    Code, print and production in weekly releases you can click.

  5. Measure

    6 weeks after launch

    We track the agreed number and send you the report, good or bad.

A brand and a website, week by weekTidewater Ferries, 2025 · launch in week 16
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
  2. Discovery weeks 1–2
  3. Strategy 3–4
  4. Identity weeks 4–9
  5. Website design weeks 7–12
  6. Build and print weeks 10–15
  7. Launch 16
  8. Measure weeks 17–22 · report

Sixty clients since 2012 - from a bakery with two shops to an insurer with two million customers.

04 Studio

Twenty-three people, one room

Designers, writers, engineers and a strategist who used to run a shop. These six lead the projects; you meet the one who leads yours in week one.

Portrait of Mara Visser Strategy

Mara Visser

Founder, creative director

Reads every brief that comes in, and answers it within two days.

Portrait of Daan Bakker Identity

Daan Bakker

Design director

Drew the Tidewater wave on a napkin on the 7:40 ferry.

Portrait of Priya Raman Product

Priya Raman

Product design lead

Runs the Thursday user tests. Has never missed one.

Portrait of Joost de Wit Engineering

Joost de Wit

Technical director

Makes sure what we design can be built, and then builds it.

Portrait of Sanne Mol Motion

Sanne Mol

Motion lead

Animates logos so they still work as a still on a bus shelter.

Portrait of Kofi Mensah Research

Kofi Mensah

Strategist

Ran a shoe shop for nine years. Asks what the till says.

05 Recognition

Prizes are nice. Numbers are better.

  1. Grid Awards - Studio of the yearFor the whole of the year's workWinner
  2. European Brand Prize - TransportTidewater FerriesGold
  3. Type & Signs Annual - WayfindingHalden Science MuseumSelected
  4. Pack Index - StationeryArchive Paper Co.Shortlist
  5. Interface Prize - Public serviceAmpere member appSilver
Formfeed Magazine

The rare studio that sends its clients a report six weeks after the launch party.

Twenty-three people and a spreadsheet of results

The Brand Letter

Tidewater's wave is the best piece of transport branding we have seen this decade.

Ferries, finally, look like the sea

06 Jobs · 3 open

Work here

Four days a week at full pay, the studio closes between Christmas and New Year, and every salary is on the ad.

New

  • Identity
  • Rotterdam
  • 32 hours
€62k – €74k

  • Product
  • Rotterdam or remote (NL)
  • 32 hours
€58k – €70k

  • Motion
  • In the studio 3 days
  • 3 months from February
€480 – €560 a day
An orange chair at a wooden desk with a leather notebook, rulers and a marker
Desk 14, by the window - free from January.
07 Start a project

Send us the brief

Half a page is enough. Tick what you need and the panel tells you what projects like it usually take.

What do you need?
Budget
A sentence or two is fine - at least 40 characters.
Tidewater FerriesTransport· 9 routes, 1.2 million passengers a year

A ferry line people book from the quay

The white wake of a ferry on open water, a city on the shore under towering clouds
more tickets booked online
+41%
calls to the ticket desk
−27%
from brief to launch
14 wk

The brief

Tickets were sold at kiosks and on a website built for desktops in 2011. Passengers bought on board, paid more and queued on the quay. One brand across nine routes, and a way to book standing at the gate.

What we did

  1. A brand with one waveA wordmark and a wave line that becomes the route map.
  2. Booking in four tapsRoute, time, people, pay - tested on the quay with 60 passengers.
  3. A sign at every gateA code to the next departure, in the colour of the route.

What changed

Six months after launch, 41 % more tickets were booked online than a year before, and the ticket desk takes a quarter fewer calls.

We used to explain our timetable. Now the app does, and the queue on the quay is gone.

Ilse van Dam
Head of customer service, Tidewater
Services
Brand identity, app, signage
Timeline
14 weeks
Team
6 people
Budget
€150–200k
AmpereEnergy co-op· 38,000 members

An energy co-op app members open on purpose

Two wind turbines beside a curving country road under a blue sky
app rating, up from 2.9
4.7
members opening the app each month
+52%
from brief to launch
18 wk

The brief

Ampere's members own the wind turbines, but the app only showed them a bill. Ratings were low and the phone line was busy with meter readings.

What we did

  1. Your turbine firstThe live output of the member's own turbine on the first screen.
  2. A meter reading in one photoThe app reads the numbers; nobody types them.
  3. 48 componentsA design system, so Ampere's own team ships the next features.

What changed

Ratings went from 2.9 to 4.7 in two releases. Meter calls fell by two thirds, and members now open the app when the wind blows.

People screenshot their turbine on a stormy day. Nobody ever screenshotted a bill.

Ruben Hoekstra
Product lead, Ampere
Services
Digital product, design system
Timeline
18 weeks
Team
7 people
Budget
€200–250k
Archive Paper Co.Stationery· 14 shops and a webshop

Notebooks that sell themselves on the shelf

A stack of old notebooks tied with string beside a fountain pen and photographs
webshop revenue in the first year
+64%
more often picked up in shelf tests
3×
from brief to the first print run
10 wk

The brief

Archive made the best paper nobody noticed: forty notebooks in forty designs, and customers who could not find the one they bought last time.

What we did

  1. One band per paperA colour for the paper weight, a pattern for the ruling.
  2. A sample in every boxThe band peels off as a page of the paper inside.
  3. A shop sorted by paperFilters for weight, ruling and ink, not for product names.

What changed

In shelf tests the new boxes were picked up three times as often. The webshop grew by 64 % in the first year, mostly from repeat orders.

Customers now ask for "the green band". That never happened with forty designs.

Femke Jansen
Founder, Archive Paper Co.
Services
Packaging, webshop
Timeline
10 weeks
Team
4 people
Budget
€80–100k
Halden Science MuseumCulture· 310,000 visitors a year

A museum you can find your way through

A glass and steel lattice roof curving overhead, seen from below
"where is ...?" questions at the desk
−38%
visitors who reach the top floor
+22%
from brief to the last sign
16 wk

The brief

Halden added a wing and lost its visitors in it: three floors, two staircases and signs in four different styles.

What we did

  1. A colour per floorNot per exhibition - those change, the floors do not.
  2. Signs where you decide62 signs at the points where people stop, instead of 140 everywhere.
  3. A website that starts with todayThe opening hours and the floor plan first, the programme second.

What changed

The hosts counted questions for four weeks before and after: "where is ...?" fell by 38 %, and a fifth more visitors now reach the top floor.

Our hosts answer questions about science again, not about the toilets.

Joris Kok
Head of visitor services, Halden
Services
Wayfinding, website
Timeline
16 weeks
Team
5 people
Budget
€120–150k

Apply: the role

No cover letter. Show us one project and tell us what you would do differently now.

Thank you

Your application is in.

Priya or Daan replies within a week, with a yes, a no or a question.

Brief received

We read it today.

Mara answers within two working days - with three questions and a date for a first call.

Imprint

Who is behind the studio.

Loud/Quiet B.V.
Schiedamse Vest 91, 3012 BG Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Directors: Mara Visser, Joost de Wit
Chamber of Commerce 00012012 · VAT NL000012012B01

Contact

hello@loudquiet.example · +31 10 000 2012

A fictional business - a demo of the defuss-shadcn design system.

Privacy

What we keep, and for how long.

Briefs

Your name, company, email and the brief, to answer it. Kept for two years unless we work together.

Applications

Kept for six months if you ticked the box, then deleted - including the portfolio address.

This website

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