Michael Vromans (CCO), Davide Mancini (CD), Tamar Kutalia (intern designer), Laura Vecchio (junior designer), Kevin Nijland (motion designer)
A new name, a new identity, and a single conviction: health starts in your gut
WHAT WE FACED 1 in 4 Dutch people lives with a condition affecting their stomach, intestines, liver, or pancreas. That's not a niche statistic - that's a national reality. And yet, for decades, the conversation around gastrointestinal health remained quiet, stigmatized, and largely invisible. The Maag Darm Lever Stichting had spent over 40 years fighting that invisibility.
DPDK was brought in to do a full repositioning - strategy, identity, name, and everything in between. The organization needed to stop presenting itself as a passive fund and start owning its role as the leading force in gastrointestinal health in the Netherlands - one that raises funds for scientific research and treatment, advocates for better healthcare, and drives real, measurable change in people's lives. That conviction became the foundation for a new name - MDL Fonds - and a brand built to match it.
It was time the brand did the same.
The identity earns its distinctiveness from the inside out and was built around a single creative decision: the logo itself is formed by the three organs at the heart of the digestive system - stomach, intestines, liver - abstracted into a mark that is both medical in meaning and bold in form. From that foundation, a system of patterns was derived to carry the identity across every surface - from the brand book and website to merchandise and communications - turning biology into visual language.
A brand that doesn't just talk about the body - but that it's colourfully shaped by it.
The image world took the same conviction and the creative direction pushed it even further.
A single, unexpected material: clay. Organic, malleable, and warm - it mirrors the digestive system's own nature, and the possibility of reshaping it through research and care. Just as clay can be molded and reshaped, the digestive system can be nurtured through innovation and treatment - a quiet but powerful metaphor for everything MDL Fonds stands for. The material's handcrafted quality also does something the clinical world rarely manages: it makes vulnerability feel safe.
Approachable. Human. Art directed with intention and brought to life with AI, the resulting images translate one of the most stigmatized topics in healthcare into something people can actually look at, connect with, and feel. Not in spite of the subject matter - because of it.
Human enough to feel. Loud enough to matter.
