The story of Winterljocht.frl & Decemberlicht.frl

“Friesland is a place where you want to belong to.”

It is the autumn of 2020, in the middle of covid time. Remko Smids & Karina Kroft are both sitting at home. Smids is designer, Kroft a theatre maker. The industry has completely collapsed and the two are sitting at home with their children. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for the Frisian entrepreneurial spirit to ignite their creative minds.

One evening they put a projector in the boot of their car and drove to the centre of Leeuwarden. There they projected poetic light art onto buildings. And this soon got out of hand. Routes through various cities followed and now Kroft & Smids are very successful with decemberlicht.frl. They soon added winterljocht.frl, to also light up the dark months of January, February and March in other towns and villages in Friesland.

And it’s not just Friesland. They have big plans. The two already crossed the national border in 2022. At Light Week in Stockholm, for example, they were allowed to make their contribution during Nobel Prize Week! Why did they twice choose a .frl domain for their ventures? We asked Smids.

En alleen bij Friesland blijft het niet. Ze hebben grootse plannen. De twee gingen in 2022 al de landsgrens over. Op de Light Week in Stockholm mochten ze bijvoorbeeld hun bijdrage leveren tijdens de Week van de Nobelprijs! Waarom ze twee keer kozen voor een .frl-domein voor hun ondernemingen? We vroegen ‘t Smids.

“I was born in Friesland,” he says. “My partner, Karina, lived in Amsterdam. Yet we quickly agreed that Friesland is a place where you belong. It’s a place you want to belong to.’ The projections also feature Frisian-language poetry. “We use a lot of English- and Dutch-language quotes, but of course Frisian cannot be missing either!”

Do you also want to build a strong brand? Check if your .frl domain is available!