Thonik (originally called Studio Gonnissen and Widdershoven) was founded in 1993 by Nikki Gonnissen and Thomas Widdershoven. The Amsterdam–based firm occupies a place at the forefront of Dutch design, taking a deceptively simple, conceptual approach to typography.

Both Gonnissen and Widdershoven were trained as graphic designers, Gonnissen at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht; and Widdershoven at the Gerrit Reitveld Academie.

While the studio's approach is radical, it generally springs from bold concepts communicated in the most direct and logical manner. For a series of catalogues created for the Dutch Council for Culture, the team devised a title graphic that plays out across the covers of all the publications as one unit, and loses its coherency if a single issue is removed. Gonnissen and Widdershoven have also created identity programs for the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Dutch Socialist Party, and lab, Rotterdam's first architectural biennial.