TIEN was founded in 2024 in Groningen, a quiet city in the north of the Netherlands, where a vintage clothing store opened with a concept rare in the market. Every item is sold for a single price: ten euros. Founder Aline Bus envisioned a place where shoppers wouldn’t be torn between the desire to buy something and the need to save money. On a single rack, you can easily find a jacket from the ’90s, a rave T-shirt, and other finds with a history of their own.
The store recently got a new look from the FCKLCK studio. It all started almost as a joke. One evening, James Krüger from FCKLCK and TBWA Belgium art director Steen Klaver, a friend of Aline’s, began piecing together the word “TIEN” from letters of well-known logos over a beer. This playful experiment with existing symbols quickly evolved into a fully-fledged system that perfectly captured the store’s spirit.
The identity is based on a simple idea: why create something new when there’s already so much ready-made material around? The TIEN logo is assembled as a collage of letter fragments from well-known fashion and sports brands. The letter T might refer to Stüssy, I to Iron Maiden, E to Reebok, and N to New Balance. In total, the team used over seventy logos, selecting only those brands whose clothing is actually found in secondhand stores. Thanks to this system, it’s possible to create millions of logo variations with almost no repetition.
The previous logo looked friendly but too subdued. The black lettering on a yellow background was rendered in a smooth, slightly slanted font. For a vintage store, this wasn’t enough. The logo lacked the necessary edge and got lost among other similar projects.
The new version is structured quite differently. It is deliberately uneven, multi-layered, and at times bold. It conveys a sense of reusing objects and cultural codes. The letters were not polished to a sterile finish. Fragments from different eras and styles overlap, creating an effect of creative chaos. It gives the impression of being handcrafted, of active participation, and of freedom from polished, showcase-like presentation.
TIEN’s new style has become a precise statement of the store’s value in items with a past. The store doesn’t sell clothing as a set of items, but rather as a chance for old things to live out another chapter.