Roy Terhorst on motion-first design and breaking branding rules

Design lead at the studio, Roy Terhorst has spent over a decade at thonik developing a philosophy that sounds contradictory: create rigid rules for every identity, then systematically break them. Working closely with founders Nikki Gonnissen and Thomas Widdershoven, he helps steer the creative direction of the Amsterdam-based practice, known for its conceptual, motion-led design. Terhorst’s approach combines a systematic clarity with experimental play and what he calls “happy little accidents” – a methodology that has produced work for Dutch Design Week, Holland Festival, Schiphol Airport and VPRO. Now he’s translating that motion-first philosophy into an unexpected format: a collection of iPhone wallpapers that bring the energy and precision of his motion design into something people interact with daily. Here, Terhorst explains why motion has given print a new lease of life, how he designs for the intimacy of phone screens, and what happens when you build systems specifically to bend them. TBI: Hi Roy! How are you doing? RT: I’m doing well. My personal life took a nice shift (we recently moved to a new home we’d admired for a long time), started a new punk rock band with friends, and we did some huge projects at thonik last year.