RTL Lounge is a Dutch digital television channel operated by RTL Nederland, dedicated to drama and lifestyle programming. Launched on 2 October 2009, it was RTL Nederland’s first theme channel, aimed primarily at a female audience with programmes covering cooking, beauty and fashion, home, travel and love and life.[1][2] RTL Nederland describes RTL Lounge as one of its three digital theme channels, alongside RTL Crime and RTL Telekids.[3]
Design and History
RTL Lounge has undergone two documented visual overhauls since its launch. The first came on 2 February 2015, when the channel switched to a new on-air look designed by Cape Rock, an Amsterdam-based agency that had also created the previous RTL Lounge presentation.[4][5] The 2015 refresh emphasised a fresh, cheerful appearance with round movements described as feminine, and introduced the claim “Dit is” for programme announcements. Unlike the previous animated idents, the new idents were filmed in a studio, with themes such as cooking, fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle matching the channel’s programming.[5]
The most significant change came on 1 May 2023, when RTL Nederland introduced a unified multi-coloured RTL logo across all its channels, including RTL Lounge, as part of a one-brand strategy.[6] Under this rebranding, each channel no longer had a distinctive logo of its own. Instead, the shared multi-coloured RTL logo was used together with specific colour elements per channel to guide viewers and maintain recognisability.[6] The identity was implemented for the Netherlands by CapeRock, an Amsterdam-based brand design agency, working with local designers John Beckers, Eveline Schram and Anouk van Dijk on the corporate artwork.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
RTL Nederland stated that the multi-coloured logo was aligned with content, reflecting the diversity of programmes and online offers. The branding also retained recognisable channel colours, such as the familiar orange of RTL 4, to help guide Dutch viewers in a crowded media landscape.[6] The unified identity was part of a broader European rollout that had begun with RTL Group and RTL Deutschland in 2021, followed by RTL AdAlliance and RTL Hungary in 2022.[6]
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