about
Web & brand studio · Rotterdam
A small studio on purpose, on a peninsula in the Maas.
- Founded
- 2017
- Crew
- 06
- Projects a quarter
- 4
- Base
- Katendrecht
The studio
Nightshift started in 2017 as two people renting a desk above a ship chandler in Katendrecht. We are six now, still on the same peninsula, and still a little allergic to growth for its own sake.
We design identities and build the websites and product screens they end up living in. The same people who draw the logo write the front-end, so nothing gets lost between the deck and the browser.
We work in shifts: short, focused stretches with one client at the centre of the table. Most of our clients come back for a second one.
services
Design, words and code from one table
- 01
Brand identity
Names, logos, type and colour, plus the rules that keep them working after we leave.
- Naming
- Logo and wordmark
- Type and colour system
- Packaging
- Livery and signage
- Guidelines
- 02
Websites
Marketing sites and shops that load fast and that your own team can edit on a Tuesday afternoon.
- Sitemap and copy
- Design
- Headless CMS
- Shopify
- SEO and analytics
- 03
Product design
The flows behind the screens people use every week: checkouts, bookings, portals, dashboards.
- Customer interviews
- Flows and prototypes
- Design systems
- Usability tests
- 04
Front-end and build
React front-ends and integrations, with accessibility and performance treated as part of the job.
- React and TypeScript
- Integrations and APIs
- Accessibility audits
- Performance budgets
- 05
Launch and aftercare
Launch night with us in the room, then thirty days of fixes, and a retainer if you want one.
- Launch plan
- Monitoring
- Team training
- Shift retainer
crew
Who does the work, and where they worked before
Mees Verbaan
Co-founder, creative direction
Draws the first sketch and signs off the last pixel. Spent six years designing shipping dashboards before he got tired of grey.
Before: Product designer at a harbour logistics company, 2011–2017
Noor Aydın
Co-founder, brand design lead
Runs identity work: logos, type, colour, and the rules that keep them alive after we leave. Collects paint chips.
Before: Senior designer at a Rotterdam branding agency, 2012–2017
Joris Kwakman
Front-end lead
Turns designs into fast, accessible front-ends and says no to the fifth animation. Maintains our component starter.
Before: Developer at a public broadcaster, 2014–2019
Sanne de Vries
Product designer
Designs the flows behind the screens: checkouts, booking steps, portals. Tests everything on her dad’s old phone.
Before: UX designer at a Dutch bank’s mobile team, 2016–2020
Ilyas Bouzid
Developer
Builds the back-ends, integrations, and the parts nobody sees until they break. Wrote our queue for festival ticket drops.
Before: Backend engineer at a ticketing start-up, 2017–2021
Fenna Hoekstra
Writer and strategist
Writes the copy, names things, and asks the awkward question in the kickoff. Works in Dutch and English.
Before: Copywriter and editor at a design magazine, 2015–2021
experience
Nine years, newest first
- 2026
Packaging, for the first time
Designed Gaaf’s tins and letterbox parcels from scratch, and learned more about aluminium than we planned to.
- 2025
A festival drop without a crash
Golfslag’s fair queue held 31,000 people at 10:00 on drop day. Ilyas slept at the studio; it was not needed.
- 2023
Six people, one table
Fenna joined to write, which finished the crew. We stopped hiring and started turning work down instead.
- 2021
Moved to the Deliplein
Left the room above the ship chandler for a ground floor with a long table and a door to the square.
- 2019
First retainer client
A water taxi company asked for one day a week. They still have it, and that day became the shift retainer.
- 2017
Nightshift starts
Mees and Noor rent a desk in Katendrecht and take on work in the evenings, after their day jobs.
selected clients
A cross-section of the last nine years. Six of them have a full case study, marked ↗.
Read the case studies →- Golfslag FestivalFestival
- Okkerse & DochtersPainters
- Kliniek DassenHand surgery
- KamerstukFurniture
- GaafOral care
- Ankerveld GroepIndustry
- Veerdienst MaasWater taxi
- Spoorwerf BakkerijBakery
- Theater De KadeTheatre
- Lumen OpticiensOptician
- Fietsfabriek KralingenBicycles
- Noordzee RadioRadio
PDF · 2 pages · A4
The studio CV, for your procurement folder.
The crew, the services, selected clients and the timeline on two printable pages, with our address and company details.