Lola Lokaal — Rebrand & Website

Overview

Lola Lokaal is a community space in Amsterdam that hosts cultural events, workshops, and neighborhood gatherings. Previously operating as Lokaal 432, the space needed a visual identity that felt warmer, more playful, and more reflective of the community it serves. I led the rebrand end-to-end and rebuilt the website from the ground up to match the new direction.

Challenge

The original identity — built around the name Lokaal 432 — leaned on a dark, industrial aesthetic that didn't represent what the space actually felt like: open, colorful, and social. On top of that, the website was a standard WordPress theme with no real personality. Everything worked, but nothing felt theirs.

The brief was simple but open-ended: give the place a visual voice that matches the energy inside it, and a website that doesn't feel like a template.

Process

1. Finding the visual direction

I started with a temporary placeholder logo while exploring directions. During the research phase I came across a typographic approach that clicked immediately — bold, handwritten-feeling letters with a playful rhythm. I adapted the concept to fit Lola Lokaal specifically: reworking the proportions, adding the "432" callback as a Bebas Neue numeral, and building out a full system around it.

The color palette came out of that exploration too. I landed on three core colors:

• Lola Pink (#FF3974) — warmth, energy, social

• Lokaal Blue (#1D419D) — trust, depth, the "local" side

• Clean White (#FFFFFF) — breathing room

Typography pairs Hangout (display/headings) with Baron (body) and Bebas Neue (numerals). The result is expressive where it needs to be, but calm where it has to read.

2. Building the brand system

Once the logo and palette locked in, I documented everything as a proper brand guideline: logo variants, approved color combinations, do's and don'ts, typography specimens, tone of voice (warm · creatief · lokaal), and imagery direction. Every future flyer, social post, or event graphic pulls from this system.

3. Website design & development

The website started with a single design concept — a hero section with animations and reveal effects that felt nothing like the old site. The client responded strongly to it, and from there I scoped up to a full site rebuild.

I wrote the front-end from scratch (HTML/CSS/JS) and integrated it into WordPress, page by page:

• Homepage — hero, events, about, community

• Brand guidelines page — a live, interactive version of the brand book

• Contact — custom layout with ambient orbs and reveal animations

• Legal pages — privacyverklaring and voorwaarden, all within the same design system

Shared design language across every page: amber accent on dark, grain texture, ambient orbs, consistent badges and dividers, scroll-triggered reveal animations, and responsive breakpoints throughout.

Outcome

Lola Lokaal now has a visual identity that the community actually recognizes — one that works equally well on an event flyer, an Instagram story, or a printed program. The website carries that same voice end-to-end, and because the front-end is modular, adding new pages (or updating existing ones) stays fast and consistent.

Most importantly: the space looks like the space feels.

Credits

Design, development, and brand system: Burak Akmanoglu Typography: Hangout, Baron, Bebas Neue Platform: WordPress (custom front-end)