Haringpakkers Tower rebuilt for Amsterdam Light Festival
This project still ranks as one of our proudest achievements. For the Amsterdam Light Festival, with the production help of Studio Louter, we recreated a long vanished tower in order to prove a point about landmarks. [...]
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Studio Todd van Hulzen is an Amsterdam based design studio specialized in showing off: creating museum exhibitions, visitor experiences, design presentations, exhibit furnishings, art objects and theatrical environments.

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 30 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]

works of art

Studio Todd van Hulzen is essentially an art studio. Besides practical design Todd van Hulzen is a fine artist, creating in a variety of media.  One-off artworks are available on commission, and soon a line of commercially available reproductions can  […read further]

The ‘Story Wharf’ in the Library of Hoogeveen

For the library of Hoogeveen in the Dutch province of Drenthe we’ve come up with a very special product. It’s not a stretch to guess that it’s an exhibit design, something we are indeed proud of. Yet it’s the run-up, the process and the ambitions for the future that make

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Animation of the old Haarlem Gate, Amsterdam

My recent post on Twitter with this animation of the old Haarlem Gate designed by Hendrick de Keyser garnered a fair amount of interest. I’ve posted it here, now in higher resolution, to be able to enjoy it more. During the so-called 3rd expansion of Amsterdam around 1610, the city

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3D Models of Vanished Amsterdam Buildings

Todd van Hulzen has always been a big fan of the Amsterdam architect Hendrick de Keyser. De Keyser was city’s master architect in the first half of the 17th century and is responsible for many distinctive buildings and beloved landmarks, including the Munttoren (at least the upper part), the Montelbaanstoren

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Harlequin mannequins

We are calling the festive dressing models in this video “Harlequin Mannequins”. But having been originally made in Holland for an exhibition about Carnival where the diamond shape was used as a recurring motif, they also get the Dutch dialect name of “Ruutjesmennekes” (rhombus men). You could have them made of

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It’s all in the details: Neo-Gothic explorations

You never really give up on your old loves. While rebuilding my website recently I came across a lot of old drawings and research material from past projects that made my heart flutter. For the series ‘Sanctuary’, a Canadian Sci-Fi/fantasy romp among vampires and lizard-men, I had the chance to

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Revisioning Amsterdam’s Dam Square

In 2016 the Amsterdam daily newspaper Het Parool began a conversation about the city’s central square, the Dam, or “Dam Square” as tour guides call it. Originally built as a proper dam in the Amstel River giving the medieval town a bridge and diverting water into its moats, The Dam

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Game of Goose, the LGBT-refugee version

For the exhibition Pride & Prejudice (see below), a show about the creative lives of LGBT refugees in the Netherlands, we conceived and created a board game. It was in the form of a “Game of Goose”, an old European board game similar to Monopoly which propels an avatar along

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Dutch Navy Museum Photo App

The Marinemuseum (Museum of the Dutch Navy) in Den Helder wanted to create an application for a “photo souvenir” and a physical installation to accommodate it. The app takes a shot of a visitor against a backdrop and then renders it as a historical poster from the collection of the

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Various Paper Cuts

Todd van Hulzen is also a paper cutter, mostly for fun. He makes garlands, rosettes and birthday streamers full of intricate patterns, often portraying animals and people. Here are some examples. See the more recent entries on “Rosettes” of Dante’s Inferno and on various commisioned banners.

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New Cabin Designs, Klamath County Oregon

Todd has been intermittently working on his own cabin in Oregon and occasionally posts updates here. Each year seems to be greeted with a new design. The most current update reflects a desire to finish the project quickly and affordably, but also to keep true to the spirit of openness

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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 the state printer Royal Joh. Enschedé. Anyone who has ever

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Library of Hoogeveen, interior upgrade

After designing the permanent heritage exhibition space in the library of Hoogeveen we were invited to redesign the entire library. This begins with the entryway and ends with various study spaces. In between there is an information counter, a cluster dedicated to new acquisitions, a creators’ laboratory, a central meeting

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who is Tvh?

todd a van hulzen

designer

Todd van Hulzen (1967) comes from the state of Oregon in the U.S.A 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. Besides that he works on his own independent work.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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. 
  5. 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)
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Contact

Please call or write for an appointment to see a presentation
+31 (0)626196137
todd@vanhulzen.com