Sylvan Hillebrand
Project title: Rembrandt Oil Paints – Brand Refresh
Level: Creative Professional Design
Sylvan Hillebrand
Creative director and designer
Rembrandt Oil Paints – Brand Refresh
Graphic Design & Motion Graphics: Sylvan Hillebrand
Photography: Corey Martin
Rembrandt is a fine-art materials brand with a reputation built over 125 years through experience, craftsmanship and close cooperation with professional artists. Each colour follows a unique, tried-and-tested recipe, with every new batch undergoing quality control in the company’s own laboratory.
The brief was not to reinvent Rembrandt, but to sharpen its identity: moving it away from an overly traditional, slightly dusty expression of craftsmanship and making it more relevant to a younger generation of serious artists who value high-quality materials, without losing its sense of permanence. It needed to be a refinement that better reflected the quality of its products.
It was important not to remove the parts people already recognised or lose the brand’s connection to professional craftsmanship and Dutch art history. We wanted Rembrandt’s history to remain present, but not to be the main message of the identity. The aim was to build on what was already there and move it forward in a way that felt natural to existing customers.
What I’m most pleased with is that it still feels recognisably Rembrandt, but has much more range than before. I’m a big fine art enthusiast myself, so being able to work with a brand so closely connected to painting and art history made this a dream project for me. Seeing everything fall into place has been incredibly rewarding.
Artist bio
I’m Sylvan Hillebrand, a Dutch graphic designer based in Amsterdam. I became interested in all things design from a young age and started studying graphic design specifically when I was 18. My father is a developer, and my mother is a technical textile specialist in fashion. Graphic design felt like the perfect middle ground for me to pursue when I was introduced to Photoshop by my father when I was around 15. As both of their professions gave us plenty of visual and technical ideas to talk about at home I've always been super grateful to be able to talk about design at home on a more substantial level than I otherwise would have been able to.
I studied graphic design in Enschede and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and later in New York City. After that I worked at a few different studios before going freelance around three years ago. I’m still very happy I did. It has allowed me to work independently and with agencies I love and look up to, for both large and small clients. That has included work for Nike, Google, Vimeo, Uber, Jordan, YouTube and Rembrandt. I also love self-initiated work (if I find the time). Those projects usually begin with noticing something that doesn’t exist yet, or something I would personally like to use. That has led to a physical drawing tool for designers, digital mockups and resources, and Small Hats, an apparel project making hats for people with small heads.
Most of my work sits across graphic design, branding, motion graphics, logo design and editorial design. I got more seriously into motion quite early, mostly because brands don’t really exist in static places anymore. They move across screens, spaces and different formats, so it makes sense to think about that movement from the start and build visual rhythm in the work I make.
I don’t think my work is connected by one particular visual style, it’s more in how I approach it. I move between digital and analogue processes and think in systems. I try to create work that feels visually exciting, but every project has different needs and I approach it with that in mind.
Most projects are built around a central idea, or smaller components in a larger kind of system, but I don’t see a system as something that should restrict the work. I care a lot about the handover. I don’t want to leave clients with a nice-looking identity that becomes stressful or overly complicated to actually use. Ideally, they feel excited to take the work further themselves.