THIJS  HAMERS
Visual designer specialized in branding, editorial, and typography, based in Ghent, Belgium.

About


Project index

Branding FORME
NTGent

EditorialVERBS Magazine
OFB Fanzine
Stefaan Dheedene (Soon)

Print“In Quotes”
London Postcards
Compagnie Cecelia

TypefacesTartan Display
MIDI-Type


Email
Instagram
LinkedIn

FORME

2025
Best experienced with sound



Created with Seppe Lestienne, FORME is a fully developed brand for personalised ceramics – merging branding, 3D design, and web development into one cohesive system. Through an online tool, users design their own vase by adjusting four parameters, each resulting in a unique 3D-printed clay object. Every piece is printed, finished, and delivered to the creator’s home, transforming digital creativity into tangible form. The visual identity reflects this seamless blend of technology and craft – bold colours, geometric typography, and dynamic compositions celebrate individuality and co-creation. A custom tool generating SVG silhouettes anchors the brand’s visual language. FORME offers a vibrant alternative to standardised design objects – personal, playful, and tactile, where process and product become one continuous experience.


NTGent

2024


More soon

To Crash

2024



To Crash is a magazine that dives into systems collapsing – from global finance to racing circuits to computer code. The 2007–2008 financial meltdown, Fernando Alonso’s spectacular barrel roll, and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death form case studies where ambition collides with fragility. Each section reframes crashes as more than disaster – they are human stories of vulnerability and resilience. Alongside Michael Burry’s predictions sit crash-test schematics, wreckage photos, and experimental console repairs. Design choices amplify this tension: GF Smith’s Mandarin orange paper echoes catastrophe’s palette, while typography balances chaos with mathematical precision. More than documentation, To Crash is personal – a love letter to systems both brilliant and brittle, an exploration of how moments of impact reveal the delicate balance between order and collapse.


Life on the Farm

2024




Broadwater Farm Estate, Tottenham, is the birthplace of Original Farm Boys – a drill collective whose members Headie One, Bandokay, and Abra Cadabra have defined UK rap. With Laurens Van Hoorick and Roemer Spakman, we created Life on the Farm, a fanzine tracing OFB’s rise, the estate’s influence, and drill’s contested role in British culture. Drill often attracts moral panic, tied to violence and censorship, but our zine embraced these stereotypes only to subvert them. Using bold reds and police blues, alongside knife imagery, we staged shock to expose systemic neglect and injustice. The Dutch-language edition pushed the conversation further, addressing drill’s underrepresentation beyond the UK. Through provocation and critique, the fanzine celebrates drill as expression and survival – an artistic outlet shaped by community resilience, not merely crime or controversy.


Everything Will Be Okay…

2025




The phrase “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end” has circulated for decades, though its authorship is uncertain. Lennon, Sabino, and Coelho are often cited, but none can be definitively credited. My project challenges the quote’s optimism in the context of today’s turbulent politics – particularly the 2024 US elections. Inverted black-and-white visuals create a disquieting atmosphere, anthropomorphic clipart takes on an eerie emptiness, and the ‘OK’ gesture is stripped of its reassuring power. Distorted type further reflects my scepticism, bending positive words into uneasy forms. Rather than blind optimism, this is a meditation on hope under strain – questioning whether the end is ever truly okay in a world marked by cynicism and disillusion.

The City Customs

2024




Tasked to uncover everyday peculiarities, rather than default to tourist icons. I turned to three quirks of city life – each humorous, frustrating, and revealing in equal measure. First, the contradictory etiquette of movement: ‘keep left’ for traffic but ‘keep right’ on escalators. Second, the elusive service charge that quietly appears on bills, often unnoticed. And third, the surprising early last orders at pubs – 11 pm on weekdays, midnight on weekends – which enforce a curiously restrained nightlife. My visual response sought to highlight these small absurdities through playful graphics. Together, they form a portrait of London that is more authentic than postcard clichés – a city where everyday rules, hidden fees, and subtle restrictions define its unique rhythm.


Compagnie Cecilia

2023


Nestled in the heart of Ghent, Belgium, Compagnie Cecilia energises the city’s theatre scene with daring in-house productions. Tasked with translating three plays into posters and flyers, I distilled each story’s essence into bold visual form. Genesis unfolds in a vast apartment complex – a metaphor for creation and collapse, where lives intertwine amid construction and decay. Locke, adapted from Steven Knight’s film, captures a man’s unraveling journey through tense staging and live music. Marinus sails to 17th-century Ostend, following a boy’s rise to feared privateer. Across all designs, vivid RISO colours and layered textures echo the sensory power of theatre. The result is a cohesive visual suite – merging narrative, emotion, and texture into one striking promotional identity.

Tartan Display

2025



Tartan Display takes its name and form from the synthetic 3M surface used on athletics tracks – transforming motion into type design. Inspired by ovals, straights, and directional shifts, the letterforms embody speed, rhythm, and energy. Designed as a display typeface, it thrives at large scale, with bold curves and graphic clarity best suited for posters and headlines. Every line echoes track running itself – deliberate, disciplined, and precise. My aim was to fuse sport and design into a visual system that feels both dynamic and controlled. In celebrating track geometry, Tartan Display becomes more than a font – it is a typographic tribute to competition, rhythm, and the visual language of movement.


MIDI-Type

2024


Rewire Festival transforms The Hague into a hub of avant-garde sound – and our bespoke typeface embodies that energy. Developed with Marie de Munck, Lou De Smedt, and Laurens Van Hoorick, MIDI-Type began with retro pixel fonts and evolved into grotesque shapes with subtle serif flourishes. Square forms became a visual motif, echoed across the type specimen’s foldable display. Deep black and electric yellow amplified its intensity, reflecting the festival’s experimental ethos. For my individual contribution, I tapped into Rewire’s psychedelic aura – melting shapes, kaleidoscopic colours, and a mirror-finish poster that shifts with light. The typeface itself becomes more than functional – it is a living translation of Rewire’s collision of tradition, technology, and sound.


About




Based in the historic city of Ghent, Belgium, I’m a Dutch-born designer that is currently honing my branding craft at School of Branding (Artevelde UAS). From my mid-teens in the Netherlands, I walked a design-oriented path, cultivating a diverse skillset spanning typography to UI design. My true passion, however, lies in branding where I blend strategy with strong vissual communication. My approach marries traditional craftsmanship with contemporary aesthetics. When not immersed in my studies or projects, I can be found exploring museums, indulging in casual photography (both digital and analogue), or savouring Belgium’s liquid gold with friends – a perfect balance of cultural enrichment and camaraderie.

Internships
  • PBA, BE (2025)
  • Luidspreker, NL (2019)
  • Studio Naam, NL (2018–2019)

Education
  • School of Branding (Artevelde University of Applied Sciences), BE (2025–)
  • LUCA School of Arts (Sint-Lucas), BE (2023–2025)
  • Willem de Kooning Academy, NL (2022–2023)

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