Our story
2007-2010: the prologue
March 2007, the first founders, Nathan Volkers and Martin Nagelsmit, register the ‘Club van Delft’ at the Chamber of Commerce. The origins of their initiative lie in their joint background at TU Delft. The combination of an analytical and creative mindset with a large network of multidisciplinary students resulted in the first market offering: the ThinkTank, a multidisciplinary group of young and bright students and PhDs working on cases for our clients.
In these years, we were still full-time students. The campus turned out to be an ideal place to test our ideas, business models and our entrepreneurial ambitions. In retrospect, all the ingredients of our methods, principles and beliefs for today’s way of working were present in these early days. We developed a strong foundation for facilitating co-creation workshops and design sprints, visualisation in the process and as a communication tool, and last but not least, we got to know and connect many talents. Among them, we met our third founding partner, Bob van Putten.
Impression of the Club of Delft
2010 - 2012: a new start-up
After graduating in early 2010, things had to get more serious for obvious reasons. When it got real, Delft Club became a start-up – with all its highs and lows. Dealing with the pressure of getting new clients, doing the actual work and working on the business. We had fun exploring the breadth of our methods and ideas, ranging fromorganising our ThinkTanks on a digital platform to hosting TEDx events and creating explanatory visualisations.
During these years, Martin decided to pursue his scientific career and focus on his PhD in Aerospace Engineering. Meanwhile, we worked extensively with freelance visual thinkers for a growing number of clients who asked for ‘de jongens van de tekeningen (the boys of the drawings)’. Here we meet Tomas Pasma, Robert Smit and Piet van Rosmalen, they became our colleagues in the company.
This is how our clients decided what our next focus would be: visual thinking. It is the inevitable pivot we had to make to outgrow the start-up phase and grow into a viable business. And alongside our focus, they chose our name: ‘Jongens van de Tekeningen’. With a growing portfolio, ambitions and team, we decided to seek mentorship and joined the Entrepreneurs Organisation’ s accelerator programme to take the next big leap forward.
2012-2016: Jongens van de Tekeningen
Our focus on visual thinking and design thinking methodology resulted in rapid growth. Growth in quality, growth in team and turnover. A positive cycle that we continued for the next four years. Growing our team from 2 to 16 in early 2017.
During these years, we moved from our alma mater to the centre of Rotterdam and settled in the Groothandelsgebouw. In 2016, we moved internally to the front of the building, on the square in front of Rotterdam Central Station. It was the first time we could really invest in creating a great working environment for the team and session rooms for our work with clients.
2016-2017: the launch of Flatland
Autumn 2016, we launcheda new brand at Dutch Design Week, Flatland was born and we showed it to the public in our own exhibition and workshop space in Eindhoven. Coming up with a new name and brand is one thing, but really launching it into the stratosphere and – more importantly – into the hearts and minds of our customers, followers and our own team is something else.
We decided to take it one step at a time. Our first metaphorical step as a team coincided with our 5-year anniversary in May 2017. We celebrated our 5-year journey and success with a team trip to Slovenia and embarked on a journey to the next step for each individual team member and for the company as a whole. Everywhere we went, we were greeted as Flatland. While we literally enjoyed the view for a while, it also marked the turning point. We were looking forward to a new phase and big ambitions!
2018-2021: Drawing a better world together
Whereas with Jongens van de Tekeningen we were often flown in to visualise existing ideas, as Flatland we have a bigger role and responsibility. We shifted from drawing to thinking along, innovating and designing change processes. Clients now work with us to design a new strategy, deliver complex change or radically innovate. Butour unique strength remains visual work, so drawing and co-creation remain the basis.
Our focus on clients also changed: for instance, we like working for mission-driven clients, who want to make an impact on one or more sustainable development goals or major transitions. As an agency, we are always focused on achieving positive change together with our clients. And change is hard to imagine, except when you draw it. Flatland’s mission is therefore: Drawing a better world together.
The corona crisis was exciting, but it soon became clear that working online also had all kinds of advantages. We became experts in energetic online sessions superfast, and visual thinking was the great added value here too. 2020 has not stopped us!
2022: 10 years of flatland
The past few years were marked by growth and development, strengthening our propositions and telling our own story ever more clearly. The team grew in number to 25 people and with that, grew in diversity in backgrounds, ages and expertise. Over the past decade, we have delivered more than 2,500 projects. In 2022, we will celebrate our tenth anniversary.
Looking at what we have experienced and achieved in the past decade, we cannot wait to add at least another 10, or 100, years!
