SUBVERT THE ORDINARY
Todd van Hulzen is an exhibitionist. At his design studio a shameless love of history and beauty are harnessed to help you connect with the public immagination
Todd van Hulzen Design is an Amsterdam based design studio specialized in showing off: creating museum exhibitions, visitor experiences, design presentations, exhibit furnishings, art objects and theatrical environments. We combine vision with pragmatism, and fantasy with professionalism
Services
Exhibitions can be emotional experiences: when done right. Let us help you create a compelling visitor journey without losing sight of your institutional principles. We offer display solutions for all budgets, innovative concepts, […read further]
If you require an unusual film set you need a broadly experienced designer. Todd van Hulzen has 25 years of film experience. He’s built on his love of historic architecture to become the go-to guy for the design of period sets […read further]
No project gets pulled perfectly formed out of a hat. We can help you do early development for vision-statements, fundraising, PR or just brainstorming. With our partners we make workshops, presentations, proposals and brochures […read further]
Producing a large project doesn’t have to be a leap of faith. With our dependable partners we have all the tools to create not only scenography, but also research, content, graphics, construction and project coordination […read further]
recent News
Animation of Historic Harbor receives 50,000 unique visits!
In between all the hard work, we noticed that one of Todd’s Twitter posts had achieved more than 50,000 unique viewers and a lot of positive feedback. What a surprise. Somehow it had hit a chord among fans of Amsterdam
Kick-off for ‘Hof van Nederland’, in Dordrecht
We are very happy with our newest commission for the Hof van Nederland / Dordrechts Museum. The Hof, or “court”, a former Augustinian monastery, occupies a very special place in Dutch history. You could almost call it the “cradle of
A New Intern
Since June we have a new intern in the Lutmastraat, Ludivine Pabeau. Ludivine comes all the way from France to do an internship at Todd van Hulzen Design, and that’s going very well. Ludivine has a background in architecture in
Graphic work for “Mad for Money”
In addition to the architectural design for the exhibition “Mad for Money” in the Tax & Customs Museum, we also worked rather hard on the graphic layer. We wanted to highlight that separately. Together with graphic designer Rob Meerman (formerly
The Printer Enschedé in the Archives of North Holland
In October 2018 we wrote a post about our collaboration with the Archives North-Hollands in Haarlem. We made a “bid book”, or a presentation brochure for a subsidisable exhibition concept. Many months later we can report that we are already
A Vision for Ammersoyen Castle
Ammersoyen Castle in the town of Ammersoden is one of the seven castles owned by the foundation Gelderland Landscape and Castles. Of all their properties, Ammersoyen Castle exudes the atmosphere of the Middle Ages the most. After all, it dates
old news
RANDOMIZED POSTS
Now designing the inaugural exhibit of the National Archives of the Netherlands.
Het Nationaal Archief (the Dutch National Archives)is the largest archival institution in the Netherlands. It oversees over 600 separate archival collections and is, in a sense, the memory of the Dutch people, from the Middel Ages, through the Republic and
Carnival Worldwide in the Afrika Museum
The Carnival season is upon us, and the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal (Netherlands) is devoting an exhibition this year to the phenomenon “Carnival” around the globe. Appropriately the museum places an accent on Carnival traditions among African inflected
Timelapse of the Revolving Sun at NEMO
Science Center NEMO has made a captivating little video of the revolving sun that we conceived for the permanent exhibit World of Forms.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vELb0p6NYJM
Multimedia Consoles for Dutch Pharmacists’ Bond
The KNMP is the branch organisation of Dutch pharmacists. To celebrate their 175th year they commissioned Studio Louter and Todd van Hulzen to create multimedia consoles to be displayed in changing locations, the first of which was the University botanical
Queen Beatrix opens “de Westerstraat” at the National Open Air Musem
Queen Beatrix opened a new exhibit at the Open Air Museum in Arnhem this week. “The Westerstraat” is a reconstruction, or rather a ‘reassemblage’ of a group of buildings from Amsterdam’s Jordaan district, in particular the old slums in the
Remembering the Submarine K XVIII in the Navy Museum
For the Dutch Navy Museum in Den Helder we created a kind of memorial display for a bit of neglected, but no less glorious, history. In cooperation with the Technical University in Delft the Navy Museum aspired to tell the
The Historic Collection of Hoogeveen: the Story Wharf
Hoogeveen, a community on the higher moors of the eastern Netherlands, is consolidating its historic collections with its public library and needed a suitable exhibition ‘set’ to inaugurate the first phase of the transition. Now that we’re moving onto the second phase
Royal Joh. Enschedé Collection, Noord-Hollands Archief
In the Gothic galleries of the Janskerk in Haarlem, Todd van Hulzen and Studio Louter are reimagining an exhibition space for the Archive of North Holland to permanently house a great monument of Dutch history and identity: the collection of
who is Tvh?
From a little studio in Amsterdam Zuid Todd (and occasional intern) is conquering the world of museum design. At least, that’s the idea.
todd a van hulzen
designer
Todd van Hulzen (1967) hails from the state of Oregon in the U.S. from a family of Dutch Reformed rancher-farmers. He studied history and art in Portland, Oregon (Lewis & Clark College.) After an initial stay in the Netherlands in 1989 and in Italy after that he settled permanently in Amsterdam in 1999. He returns yearly to Klamath County, Oregon to work on his cabin.
After an early career as a fine artist and sculptor in the film world Todd moved on to be a designer of film sets, with as a specialty period architecture and design. As Art-Director/Set-Designer Todd designed film sets for the Oscar nominated films Girl with a Pearl Earring and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Recent Dutch productions are Bloed, zweet en tranen, Michiel de Ruyter en de western Brimstone. Since 2007 he has turned towards the museum world as an exhibition designer. In his own words, “the scientific side to museums gave me something that I could never get from the fiction of film.”
At Todd van Hulzen Design it’s all about making unforgettable experiences and inspiring emotions such as admiration, amazement, and self recognition. We love to help people discover how awesome the world is.
The love of a museum for it’s collection is something we admire. We encourage clients to rediscover the beauty of their own missions. Yet, making an exhibition that is also an artistic sensation in itself is the designer’s valhalla. So let’s combine the two!
Here’s a guide to a proper work strategy when making an exhibition:
- Immersion
You begin designing a space by first immersing yourself in the content. Draw everything you can out of historic and scientific material. Draw connections and dare to make thematic leaps. - Integration
Make sure that you can unite as many exhibit elements as possible under one umbrella: graphics, multimedia, architecture, PR and story. Encourage as much cross-pollination as possible. - Distillation
Distill all the themes into one visual brand; if possible one that represents your narrative in a nutshell and one that visitors can have an emotional bond with. Couple it to a slogan. - Respect
Value the building and its history and keep the unique mission of the institution in high regard. Don’t let an exhibition clash with its surroundings. Remember accessibility. - Visitor orientation
Make sure the design answers basic questions of orientation:
Where. Where am I? Where am I within the whole and what is my next step? (Give a clear structure)
Why. Why am I here? What draws me onward. (Reward curiosity with amazement)
What. What is the key question? (Make the raison-d’être of the exhibition apparent)
How. How is my world view changing? (Effective means of communication)
Todd keeps up an Instagram feed where he shares his observations over art, design and museums.
Contact
Come visit Todd at the studio in Amsterdam’s De Pijp, or call for an appointment to see a presentation
- Studio / Atelier
- Lutmastraat 191D, 1074 TV Amsterdam
- +31 626196137
- Postal Correspondence
- 2e Wittenburgerdwarsstraat 172, 1018 LP Amsterdam
- info@vanhulzen.com
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."
Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship―
SUBVERT THE ORDINARY
Todd van Hulzen is an exhibitionist. At his design studio a shameless love of history and beauty are harnessed to help you connect with the public immagination
Todd van Hulzen Design is an Amsterdam based design studio specialized in showing off: creating museum exhibitions, visitor experiences, design presentations, exhibit furnishings, art objects and theatrical environments. We combine vision with pragmatism and fantasy with professionalism
