NelNel

Brand designer for change - helping activists and mission-driven brands build movements that last. Grounded in research, guided by design. Collaborations include Iamsterdam, House of Bodega, City of Rotterdam, Ashoka & Are We Europe ↓

(...) KNOW THEIR NAMES documents not just the killings of the genocide, but the failure of recognition. The impossibility of grieving those whom Western, colonial systems have rendered invisible. The platform’s slowness makes space for a certain kind of 'haunting' (Gordon, 1997) to unfold.

Archives are often mistaken for sites of resolution. But KNOW THEIR NAMES insists on something else: an archive that unsettles. That disorients. That refuses to let the living forget the dead and refuses to let the dead be reduced to data. It opens a space where grief is collective, political, and uncontained (...)

Every Name as Protest to End the Genocide

Change: Every name is a protest to end genocide

(...) Education is never neutral. Every classroom carries the weight of history, the structure of power, and the possibility for transformation.

Karibu emerges in this tension with a clear vision: to reimagine the Dutch education system through community, representation, and care. At a time when schools and childcare centers are under immense structural pressure, Karibu offers a simple yet impactful response. It connects local role models, cultural practitioners, and community leaders directly to the classroom, not as outside guests, but as integral parts of the learning environment (...)

Redefining Education Through Diverse Perspectives

Change: Redefining Education Through Fresh Perspectives

(...) Art has always been more than a reflection of culture. It is an active way to shape culture. From ancient rituals to contemporary art practices, art-making creates ripple effects across our social, political, and emotional lives. It offers space for experimentation, dissent and imagination. In moments of big cultural shifts, artists often become the quiet, overlooked and important architects of transformation by leading discourse, giving voice to the marginalized, and creating the symbolic languages we use to navigate our social and political lives. (...)

A New Arts Sector Through Collective Empowerment

Change: A New Arts Sector Through Collective Empowerment

(...) Yet while I see the importance of internal reform, I remain critical of the narrative that systemic change primarily comes from the inside. Too often, this perspective becomes a comfortable story that protects the status quo, allowing white hegemonic capitalist structures to claim they’re “changing” while continuing to extract, exclude, and consolidate power. Wiltgroei acknowledges this tension, and doesn’t claim neutrality. Their methods are confrontational in their softness, and alive in their contradictions (...)

Shaping Systems for Human Empowerment

Change: Shaping Systems for Human Empowerment