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Choosing a creative agency is a high-stakes decision, no matter which side you’re on.
For companies, the wrong agency means wasted time, diluted ideas, and momentum lost.
For designers and creatives, the wrong studio can mean stalled growth, invisible work, and burnout disguised as “fast pace.”
And yet, most agency lists only tell half the story.
This one doesn’t.
We’ve curated a selection of creative agencies in Amsterdam that stand out not just for what they produce, but for how they operate. Studios where design craft, strategic thinking, and team culture reinforce each other rather than compete. Agencies where clients get clarity instead of chaos, and creatives get trust instead of micromanagement.
This guide is for founders, marketers, designers, strategists, and anyone navigating Amsterdam’s creative ecosystem right now. Whether you’re looking for a partner to build with or a place to grow this list helps you see who’s doing meaningful work, and who’s building something worth being part of.
Because the best creative agencies don’t just shape brands.
They shape careers too.
If this list only judged agencies by how good their work looks online, it wouldn’t be very useful. Because great portfolios don’t tell you what it’s like to actually work with an agency or inside one.
So we evaluated these creative agencies in Amsterdam through two lenses at the same time: the experience of the client, and the experience of the people doing the work. The overlap between those two is where strong agencies consistently exist.
Here’s how we assessed each agency:
1. Quality of thinking behind the work
Good creative output starts long before visuals.
We prioritised agencies that clearly explain:
If a project looked strong but the reasoning was vague, it didn’t qualify.
2. Consistency across projects not just one standout case
One great project doesn’t define an agency.
We reviewed multiple case studies across different years, clients, and formats to identify patterns of quality. Agencies that repeatedly deliver thoughtful, well-executed work ranked higher than those with a single viral moment.
3. Craft that holds up in real-world use
We looked beyond mockups.
Strong agencies show how their work performs across real touch points:
Work that only looks good in presentation decks didn’t make the cut.
4. Team maturity and creative culture
Great work rarely comes from chaotic teams.
We considered signals of healthy creative environments, including:
Agencies that invest in people tend to deliver better outcomes for clients and teams alike.
5. Ability to attract and retain strong talent
Turnover tells a story.
We favoured agencies known for long-term team stability, clear creative identities, and environments where designers and strategists can grow without burning out. This is often reflected in the depth and consistency of their work.
6. Range of challenges, not just industries
Rather than focusing on sector labels, we looked at the type of problems agencies solve:
This signals adaptability and strategic depth more than category familiarity.
7. Reputation among clients and creatives
Awards and recognition were considered but carefully.
We placed more weight on how agencies are talked about by:
Sustained respect matters more than short-term buzz.
This list focuses on creative agencies in Amsterdam that consistently deliver strong work and are known for how they operate internally. These studios show maturity in craft, clarity in thinking, and cultures that support both long-term client partnerships and sustainable creative careers. Only agencies that clearly align with our evaluation criteria made the cut.
Creative Mules is an Amsterdam-based branding and Webflow studio known for pairing strategic clarity with clean, modern visual execution. The studio operates as a small, independent team supported by a flexible network of collaborators, allowing them to deliver high-quality branding and website projects without the overhead of a large agency.
Their work spans brand strategy, identity systems, UX/UI, and Webflow development, making them a strong fit for startups and SaaS companies that need both a well-defined brand and a functional, conversion-focused marketing site. Project budgets vary based on scope, with engagements typically ranging from smaller identity builds to more involved brand + website rollouts.
A complete website project showcasing a modern, clean digital presence with strong use of typography and grid-based layouts. The work demonstrates Creative Mules’ ability to design a premium marketing site and build it in Webflow with performance and clarity in mind.
A full identity and website project where Creative Mules developed the brand system and applied it across digital touchpoints. The case highlights their capability to create a cohesive brand language and translate it into a functional, visually consistent website.
Build in Amsterdam is a digital-first design studio founded in 2014 and based in Amsterdam. The studio is known for blending strong visual identity with product thinking, UX design, and eCommerce-focused digital experiences. Their work often sits at the intersection of brand, interface design, and technology.
With a multidisciplinary team of designers, developers, and strategists, Build in Amsterdam partners with brands that care deeply about how design functions in real-world digital environments. Rather than treating branding and digital as separate disciplines, the studio approaches design as a system that must work cohesively across websites, products, and platforms.
Build in Amsterdam is particularly well suited for brands that need design-led digital experiences, especially in commerce, lifestyle, and consumer-facing industries, where performance and aesthetics need to coexist.
Build in Amsterdam partnered with Polaroid to redesign and evolve its global eCommerce experience. The project focused on translating Polaroid’s iconic brand into a modern, digital-first platform that could support both storytelling and conversion.
The studio developed a flexible design system that balanced nostalgia with contemporary usability, ensuring the site could scale across products, campaigns, and international markets.
For Alpine, the high-performance automotive brand, Build in Amsterdam designed a digital experience that reflected speed, precision, and engineering excellence. The project focused on creating a visually striking yet highly usable interface that aligned with Alpine’s performance-driven identity.
The work combined strong visual storytelling with structured UX, resulting in a digital platform that supported brand expression while remaining functional across devices.
KesselsKramer is an independent creative agency known for its unconventional thinking, distinctive voice, and culturally resonant brand work. Founded in Amsterdam, the agency has built a global reputation for creating brands and campaigns that challenge conventions and stand apart from traditional corporate advertising.
Rather than following standard branding frameworks, KesselsKramer focuses on ideas first developing strong narratives, visual languages, and creative systems that feel human, surprising, and memorable. Their work often blends branding, advertising, and editorial approaches, resulting in brands that communicate with personality and confidence.
With a senior-led, concept-driven approach, KesselsKramer is particularly well-suited for startups and challenger brands that want to differentiate through storytelling, tone of voice, and creative expression rather than polished sameness. Their work is as much about cultural relevance as it is about visual identity.
####Diesel
KesselsKramer created a digital-first brand campaign for Diesel that leaned into provocation and cultural commentary, translating the fashion label’s irreverent attitude into bold online storytelling. The work focused on using digital platforms as the primary stage for brand expression, favouring strong ideas and tone of voice over polished convention.
The campaign was designed to live and travel online through film, digital content, and sharable creative reinforcing Diesel’s position as a brand that challenges norms and sparks conversation in contemporary culture.
####CitizenM Paris CDG
For CitizenM’s Paris Charles de Gaulle hotel, KesselsKramer developed a digital brand storytelling project that brought the brand’s playful, people-first philosophy into an online context. The work focused on expressing CitizenM’s personality through simple, human messaging designed to resonate with a global, digitally savvy audience.
Rather than traditional hospitality marketing, the campaign used online content and digital communication to highlight experience, attitude, and local character. The result strengthened CitizenM’s digital brand presence while staying true to its unconventional voice.
DEPT® is a global digital agency that combines brand, technology, marketing, and data to help companies grow in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Headquartered in Amsterdam, DEPT operates across multiple international studios, bringing together strategists, designers, engineers, and marketers under one integrated model.
Unlike traditional branding agencies, DEPT approaches brand building as part of a broader digital ecosystem, connecting identity, experience design, performance, and technology into a single, cohesive system. This makes them particularly effective for organisations where brand expression must work seamlessly across platforms, products, and channels. Known for their executional depth and operational scale, DEPT is frequently engaged by high-growth companies and global enterprises looking to align brand ambition with digital performance and long-term scalability.
####JBL × Amazon
For JBL, DEPT partnered with Amazon to create an immersive digital brand experience that brought JBL’s product ecosystem to life across voice-enabled and e-commerce touchpoints. The challenge was to translate a highly physical, performance-driven audio brand into an engaging digital environment that felt intuitive, premium, and unmistakably JBL.
DEPT focused on experience design that connected product storytelling with usability, ensuring that interaction, motion, and interface design worked together as a cohesive system. The result was a brand-led digital experience that strengthened product discovery while maintaining consistency across platforms. The project demonstrates DEPT’s strength in merging brand expression with functional digital design at scale.
####Coca-Cola
For Coca-Cola, DEPT delivered a digital brand experience designed to support one of the world’s most recognisable brands in a modern, digitally driven context. The brief required balancing Coca-Cola’s global brand equity with fresh, interactive execution that could engage audiences across digital platforms without diluting its core identity.
DEPT developed a design approach that prioritised clarity, motion, and interaction, allowing the brand to express its personality through experience rather than static assets. By integrating storytelling with digital usability, the work reinforced Coca-Cola’s relevance in contemporary digital culture while staying rooted in its established brand framework. This project highlights DEPT’s ability to execute high-visibility brand experiences for global enterprises.
.Monks is a global digital-first creative and technology agency known for operating at the intersection of brand, content, and engineering. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the agency has grown into a large international network delivering end-to-end solutions from brand and experience design to large-scale content production, platform development, and performance-driven marketing.
Unlike traditional branding studios, Media.Monks is structured for scale, enabling them to support global brands across markets, channels, and always-on ecosystems. Their work often combines creative storytelling with advanced production capabilities, data, and emerging technologies such as AI and automation. This makes them particularly effective for organisations that need brand expression to work seamlessly across digital platforms, campaigns, and high-volume content environments. Media.Monks is frequently engaged for complex, multi-market initiatives where speed, consistency, and executional depth are critical.
####Samsung – Galaxy S25 Global Launch
For the Galaxy S25 launch, Media.Monks delivered an integrated creative platform designed to operate at global scale across digital, social, and experiential touchpoints. The challenge was to introduce a flagship device in a crowded launch window while maintaining clarity of message, visual impact, and consistency across markets.
Media.Monks built a modular creative system that translated core product stories into platform-native executions, enabling rapid rollout without fragmenting the brand narrative. By combining high-end content production with experience-led design and technical execution, the launch balanced spectacle with precision. The project demonstrates Media.Monks’ strength in orchestrating complex, multi-market launches where speed, consistency, and craft must coexist.
####BMW – i4 “Edge Electrified”
For the BMW i4, Media.Monks created a social-first creative campaign designed to introduce an electric vehicle through culture-driven storytelling rather than traditional automotive advertising. The challenge was to communicate performance and innovation in a way that felt native to social platforms and resonant with digitally fluent audiences.
Media.Monks developed a campaign system optimised for speed, adaptability, and engagement, allowing content to evolve in response to platform dynamics while maintaining a cohesive brand voice. The work prioritised motion, pacing, and interaction, translating BMW’s engineering-led narrative into a contemporary social language. This project highlights Media.Monks’ ability to design creative systems that thrive in fast-moving, performance-driven environments.
Studio Dumbar (part of DEPT®) is a pioneering Dutch design agency known for bold, expressive visual identity work and a strong emphasis on motion and digital-first design. Founded in the 1970s, the studio has been instrumental in shaping modern European graphic design through experimental, culturally influential work for public institutions, technology companies, and international brands.
The studio is recognised for its craftsmanship in visual identity systems, its high-impact motion brand expressions, and its contemporary approach to digital branding. Now part of DEPT®, Studio Dumbar combines its iconic design heritage with the capabilities of a global digital network.
Studio Dumbar created a bold, expressive visual identity and motion-led design system for Amsterdam Sinfonietta, showcasing their ability to merge classical culture with cutting-edge digital expression.
One of Studio Dumbar’s most iconic nation-scale identity projects, a complete redesign of the Dutch Police visual system, setting a benchmark for clear, functional, large-scale public branding.
GRRR is an Amsterdam-based digital design and development agency focused on creating clear, accessible, and technically robust digital products. Their work sits at the intersection of design, technology, and usability, with a strong emphasis on user experience and inclusive design standards. Rather than treating design and development as separate disciplines, GRRR operates with tightly integrated teams that ensure ideas translate cleanly from concept to build.
The agency is particularly known for its expertise in accessibility and complex digital platforms, often working with organisations that need to serve diverse audiences at scale. GRRR’s approach prioritises structure, performance, and long-term maintainability over visual excess, making them a strong partner for institutions and organisations where reliability, clarity, and compliance matter as much as aesthetics.
####CMD Hogeschool van Amsterdam
For CMD Hogeschool van Amsterdam, GRRR designed and built a digital platform for the Communication and Multimedia Design programme, aimed at serving students, educators, and prospective applicants. The challenge was to present a diverse curriculum and community-driven culture while keeping the experience clear, accessible, and easy to navigate.
GRRR focused on structuring content around user needs, ensuring that programme information, projects, and resources were easy to find and understand. The design balances clarity with flexibility, supporting ongoing updates by the institution. This project demonstrates GRRR’s strength in translating complex educational structures into intuitive digital experiences that work for multiple audiences.
####Solar Monkey
For Solar Monkey, GRRR worked on the design of a digital product supporting professionals in the solar energy sector. The challenge was to design an interface that could handle technically complex data while remaining efficient and usable for everyday workflows.
GRRR approached the project with a strong focus on usability and clarity, designing interaction patterns that simplify complex processes without oversimplifying the underlying logic. The result is a digital product that supports speed, accuracy, and confidence for its users. This project highlights GRRR’s ability to design functional, user-centred digital tools for technical and sustainability-driven industries.
Fabrique is a Netherlands-based branding and digital agency that works at the intersection of brand, content, and technology. With a strong foundation in both strategic thinking and digital execution, the agency helps organisations translate complex missions, stories, and structures into clear brand and digital experiences.
Their work is particularly known for its emphasis on narrative clarity and usability. Fabrique often partners with institutions, cultural organisations, and knowledge-driven companies that operate in complex environments and need branding that informs, guides, and scales across digital platforms. Rather than focusing on surface-level aesthetics, the studio prioritises structure, storytelling, and coherence across brand touchpoints.
Operating as a multidisciplinary team, Fabrique brings together brand strategists, designers, content specialists, and technologists. This integrated approach allows them to build brand systems that are not only visually strong but also deeply embedded in digital products and platforms, making their work durable and practical over time.
####Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA)
Fabrique partnered with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) to evolve the institution’s brand identity and digital presence, translating its heritage and academic authority into a contemporary, coherent system. The project focused on strengthening how RADA communicates its role as a leading drama school while ensuring the brand remains relevant to new generations of students and audiences.
The work centred on developing a flexible visual identity and digital framework that could support a wide range of content, from academic programmes to performances and public engagement. Fabrique approached the project with an emphasis on clarity, structure, and narrative, allowing RADA’s voice and reputation to remain central while modernising its expression across platforms.
The result is a refined brand system that balances tradition with modernity, supporting RADA’s positioning as a globally respected cultural institution with a strong digital presence.
####InsingerGilissen
Fabrique worked with InsingerGilissen to develop a renewed brand identity that reflects the private bank’s positioning as a specialist, relationship-driven financial institution. The project focused on translating trust, craftsmanship, and long-term thinking into a clear and distinctive visual system.
The work involved shaping a visual language that could communicate financial expertise without relying on generic industry cues. Fabrique designed an identity system that feels considered and understated, allowing the brand to stand out through restraint, consistency, and attention to detail across communication touchpoints.
The resulting brand identity supports InsingerGilissen’s premium positioning while remaining flexible enough to work across digital platforms, client communications, and marketing materials. The system reinforces credibility and clarity in a traditionally conservative sector.
Thonik is a strategy-led branding agency known for building concept-driven identities that are both intellectually rigorous and visually distinctive. Their work often sits at the intersection of culture, technology, and public discourse, making them particularly strong at translating complex ideas into clear, ownable brand systems. Rather than following visual trends, Thonik prioritises strong conceptual frameworks, ensuring that each identity is rooted in a sharp point of view. Their approach is especially effective for organisations that need to communicate depth, credibility, and cultural relevance across multiple touchpoints. Over the years, they’ve built a reputation for thoughtful design that holds up over time, not just at launch.
####Reliving
For Reliving, Thonik developed a brand identity and digital experience for a circular design platform focused on reusing building materials. The challenge was to communicate sustainability without falling into predictable visual tropes, while still conveying clarity, trust, and scalability.
Thonik approached the project by creating a restrained yet expressive identity system that balances architectural precision with warmth. The brand language emphasises material reuse, transparency, and modularity, allowing the system to flex across digital touchpoints and future extensions. Reliving demonstrates Thonik’s ability to translate complex, systemic ideas such as circular economies into accessible and credible brand frameworks.
####Dutch Design Week 2025
For Dutch Design Week 2025, Thonik created a comprehensive visual identity and campaign system for one of Europe’s most influential design events. The brief required an identity that could scale across physical environments, digital platforms, motion assets, and large-scale installations, while remaining adaptable to diverse programme content.
Thonik responded with a bold, modular identity system built around strong typographic principles and dynamic compositions. The system was designed to be highly flexible, allowing organisers and collaborators to apply it consistently across formats without losing coherence. The project highlights Thonik’s strength in building cultural identities that function as systems rather than static visuals.
Momkai is an Amsterdam-based creative agency known for building concept-driven brands and campaigns that blend strategic thinking with cultural relevance. Their work often sits between branding and communication, focusing on how ideas are expressed through storytelling, interaction, and design across digital platforms.
Rather than relying on purely visual systems, Momkai places strong emphasis on narrative and meaning using creative concepts as the foundation for brand expression. This approach makes them particularly effective for organisations that want to stand out through originality and clarity of voice. With a background in digital-first work, Momkai frequently collaborates with progressive brands and cultural institutions looking to communicate ideas in unexpected but coherent ways.
####Dutch Digital Design
For Dutch Digital Design, Momkai developed a brand platform to represent and unify the Netherlands’ digital design ecosystem. The challenge was to create an identity that could speak for a diverse community of designers, studios, and institutions without flattening differences or over-branding the sector.
Momkai approached the project by focusing on narrative and positioning rather than fixed visual assets. The resulting platform emphasises shared values, cultural relevance, and ongoing dialogue, allowing the identity to evolve alongside the community it represents. This work demonstrates Momkai’s strength in institutional branding where meaning, participation, and long-term relevance matter more than rigid systems.
####The Embassy of Good Science
For The Embassy of Good Science, Momkai created a conceptual brand identity for an initiative focused on ethics, integrity, and responsibility in scientific research. The challenge was to communicate complex and often abstract ideas in a way that felt open, human, and engaging without resorting to institutional or academic clichés.
Momkai developed an idea-led brand framework that prioritises conversation, participation, and reflection. Rather than defining the brand through rigid visuals, the identity is expressed through language, interaction, and experience. The project highlights Momkai’s ability to use branding as a tool for meaning-making particularly in cultural and knowledge-driven contexts.
Choosing a creative agency isn’t just about taste.
It’s about what you’re willing to risk.
For companies, the risk is momentum lost time, blurred positioning, and work that never quite compounds. For creatives, the risk is quieter but deeper, years spent shipping work that doesn’t challenge you, support you, or move your career forward.The right agency reduces both.
Here’s what to look for when choosing a creative agency that’s worth committing to, whether you’re hiring one or joining one.
1. Clarity over charisma
Strong agencies don’t rely on charm, buzzwords, or big promises.
They can clearly explain:
If an agency sounds impressive but hard to pin down, that confusion usually shows up later in the work.
2. Evidence of long-term thinking
Look past launches.
Pay attention to whether the agency shows:
Agencies that optimise only for first impressions rarely build things that last.
3. How decisions are actually made
Every agency has opinions. Good ones have frameworks.
Ask yourself:
Clear decision-making structures reduce friction for both clients and teams.
4. Senior involvement beyond the pitch
Great thinking often disappears after the sale.
Check whether:
The quality of attention matters as much as the quality of ideas.
5. Respect for the people doing the work
Creative output reflects creative conditions.
Signs of a healthy agency include:
Agencies that take care of their people tend to take better care of their clients.
6. Honest signals, not polished stories
Pay attention to what’s not being said.
Overly curated narratives often hide:
Transparency about challenges, constraints, and trade-offs is a strong signal of maturity.
7. Alignment on what success actually means
Before choosing an agency, ask one simple question:
What does “good” look like after this project?
The right agency will help define:
If success feels vague, the outcome usually is too.
1. What part of your work tends to create the most friction and how do you handle it?
2. Can you walk us through a project that didn’t start clearly?
3. Who will be involved from start to finish and how hands-on are they?
4. How do you make creative decisions when opinions conflict?
5. What does success look like three months after launch?
6. How do you protect quality when timelines get tight?
7. How do you support teams after delivery?
8. What kind of clients or projects are not a good fit for you?
Every creative decision leaves residue.
For companies, it shows up in systems that either scale or quietly slow teams down. For creatives, it shows up in portfolios that either compound or feel stuck in place. That’s why choosing the right creative agency matters more than it first appears.
The best agencies in Amsterdam don’t just deliver good work. They reduce risk. They create clarity where things feel messy, build momentum instead of friction, and leave teams stronger than they found them. Whether you’re hiring a partner or choosing where to invest your talent, the signal is the same: look for environments where thinking, craft, and people reinforce each other. Because when an agency gets those fundamentals right, the results aren’t just visible at launch.
They show up months and years later.
If you’re choosing a creative agency, good design is the baseline not the differentiator.
The right partner should help you move faster and think clearer. They should understand your context, challenge weak assumptions, and build work that holds up long after launch. Not just something that looks right, but something your team can actually use, evolve, and stand behind.
That’s the kind of work we focus on at Creative Mules.
If you’re looking for a creative partner who:
Then we might be the right fit for your project. Schedule an intro call with Creative Mules
