Trained at Studio Dumbar, left because nothing moved. Decides what the thing is before anyone opens a file.
Studio · Rotterdam · Since 2017
Nine people, and a lift that does not work.
Ninefold was started in 2017 by Yara Belkacem and Ruben de Wit, in a room above a bicycle repair shop on the Schiekade. We stayed on the street and moved up two floors. Everyone here has shipped something that had to work in front of a crowd — that is the hiring test, and it is the only one.
- Founded
- 2017 · Rotterdam
- People
- Nine, all permanent
- Fields
- Culture · Music · Fashion
- Visits
- Thursdays, from 15:00
The nine
Nine monograms, nine opinions.
Wrote the first version of nearly everything here. Keeps a folder named “too clever”, and revisits it once a year.
Sets type by eye and defends the line height in meetings that other people find long.
Modelled the Depot twice: once accurate, once believable. We shipped the second one.
Counts frames out loud. Has deleted more animation than she has ever added, on purpose.
Owns the frame rate. Will tell you what your idea costs in milliseconds before you finish describing it.
Asks who this is for until somebody answers properly. Writes the one page the project is judged against.
Built the silence in the Fotomuseum room. Records the Maas at five in the morning, for reasons.
Knows which Thursday. Has never lost a truck, a crate, or a deadline she agreed to out loud.
Method
Five habits, in order.
- 01We start with the room, not the screen.
- 02A prototype by the second week. Nothing lives in a deck.
- 03One person owns the frame rate.
- 04We test with people who did not come to see us.
- 05We stay for the launch, and the month after it.
The fifth one is the expensive one and the only one clients remember. It is written into every contract as four weeks of paid attention after go-live, because that is when a thing meets its first genuine crowd and starts telling you what it actually is.
Clients
- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
- Nederlands Fotomuseum
- Rotterdam Architecture Month
- Het Nieuwe Instituut
- Kunsthal Rotterdam
- Aster & Vane
- Excelsior Recordings
- Lowtide
- Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest
- Motel Mozaïque
- V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media
- Gemeente Rotterdam
- Theater Rotterdam
- Stichting Droom en Daad
Awards
- 2025Dutch Design Award — Digital, nomineeRotterdam Architecture Month
- 2025FWA Site of the DayRotterdam Architecture Month
- 2024Awwwards Site of the DayAster & Vane AW24
- 2023Awwwards Site of the DayEleven Seconds
- 2023FWA Site of the DayEleven Seconds
- 2022Awwwards Site of the DayLowtide — Slack Water
- 2022European Design Award — Silver, digital identityMotel Mozaïque
- 2021Awwwards Site of the DayDepot, in your hand
We enter about two things a year, usually because a client asks. The Fotomuseum guard’s opinion is worth more than any of them, and he has not yet given us a trophy.
The building
Second floor. Ring twice.
Schiekade 189 is a 1950s block above what used to be a bicycle repair shop, now a copy shop that still smells of solvent. We have the second floor: one long room, nine desks, a projector wall, and a dark room at the back for testing anything that has to survive an installation.
- Address
- Schiekade 189, second floor
- Post
- 3013 BR Rotterdam
- Visits
- Thursdays, from 15:00
- Transit
- Hofplein · 6 min from Centraal
- Lift
- Present · not working since 2019