Atelier Hugo Herrera Tobón

Atelier Hugo Herrera Tobón is a boutique creative direction, editorial design, and visual consultancy studio with nearly two decades of international experience. Having operated from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Vilnius and Madrid, the firm specializes in cross-border visual identity projects, artist editions, and highly complex exhibition systems for the art, cultural, luxury, and institutional sectors.

Philosophy

The Atelier’s practice departs from aesthetic inertia, rapid consumption, automation, and homogeneity, unifying conceptual analysis, rigorous research, and artistic curation instead. This signature methodology—that moves entirely away from generic solutions, arbitrariness, or superfluous ornamentation—positions us as a reference for entities demanding maximum sophistication and discursive precision; productions where execution is thoughtful structure, restraint is rigour and identity is memory.

We operate with a meticulous sensitivity, where the human eye and analytical curation build visual statements of enduring permanence and distinct relevance to our time. Our choices are governed by the soft powers of typographic purity, structural clarity, artistic expression, and social sensitivity. Through these foundations, the studio creates thoughtful visual systems and spaces of clarity evoking coherence and transcendence: environments defined by the coexistence of a sharp visual language, critical thinking, and profound aesthetic impact.

Hugo Herrera Tobón

Hugo Herrera Tobón was born in Bogotá (CO) and relocated to Madrid (ES) in 2000, subsequently operating across New York (US), Ulaanbaatar (MN), Malabo (GQ), Athens (GR), Lisbon (PT), Amsterdam (NL), Vilnius (LT) and Kaunas (LT). Initially, he worked as an interviewer and producer for the agency IPS, generating cross-border socioeconomic reports for Fortune, Forbes, and Newsweek in dialogue with government officials and top executives. He then relocated to Amsterdam to pursue studies at the Rietveld Academie and assisted designer Annelys de Vet and industrial designer Vincent de Rijk before founding his independent studio in 2009.

Over nearly two decades of international practice, his work as a creative director and visual consultant has targeted the institutional, cultural, and luxury sectors. This portfolio includes identity, editorial, and spatial projects for the Fundación Casa de Alba (Palacio de Liria), Spain’s Auditorio Nacional de Música, La Fábrica, CAF (Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean), the General Consulate of Colombia in Madrid, the Chief Science Office of Amsterdam & the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) for the Venice Architecture Biennale, the African Film Festival of Tarifa & Tangier (FCAT), the Ricciotti Ensemble, the Dutch National Youth String Orchestra, and universities such as the Rietveld, Radboud (Nijmegen), TU/e Eindhoven, Nacional de Colombia, Braunschweig (HBK) or the music conservatory Arturo Soria in Madrid.

Parallel to these commissions, his work as an artist, curator, and editor explores the intersections of design, politics, and contemporary art. As a core member and designer for the sound-art collective 7090, he co-curated performative projects including the Amsterdam Fringe Festival prize-winner PAND7090 and Abstraction Park 7090 touring in NL, UK and South Africa. His site-specific installations have been exhibited at De Appel Arts Center and Mediamatic, where he curated the Bogotá pavilion for the Amsterdam Biennale. This trajectory expands into participatory social cartographies, such as the Mintropplatz public space reassembly for the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, and his ongoing role as an editor and curator for the publishing platform Subjective Editions.

He published the Subjective Atlas of Colombia and curated its large-scale exhibition for Artecámara in Bogotá. Furthermore, as an international guest artist for Kaunas 2022 — European Capital of Culture, he published the Subjective Atlas of Kaunas and curated the exhibition inside Kaunas’ Central Post Office building for the Modernism for the Future (MoFu 360/365) curatorial programme.

Contact

Get in touch

t. (ES) +34 659 205 348
t. (NL) +31 613 720 781

Calle Hortaleza 1044º – 128004 MadridSpain

Previous Studios

2020—2022«A2 Business Centras»Švitrigailos g. 11CLT-03228 VilniusLithuania

2018—2020«Gele Gebouw»Zomerhofstraat 80, 1st floor3032 CH RotterdamThe Netherlands

2011—2018«Zeemanshuis», studio 1.06Kadijksplein 181018 AC AmsterdamThe Netherlands

2008—2011Kostverlorenstraat 21 – 31052 GT AmsterdamThe Netherlands

Clients & Partners

Art Spaces & Galleries

Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá — Artecámara(Bogotá, CO)

Casco Art Institute(Utrecht, NL)

Dutch Pavillion — Venice Biennale(Amsterdam / Venice, NL / IT)

De Appel Art Center(Amsterdam, NL)

Espacio Odeón(Bogotá, CO)

Kröller-Müller Museum(Otterlo, NL)

Galerie Mor Charpentier(Paris, FR)

Gallery RAM — Berry Koedam(Rotterdam, NL)

Gallery SIGN(Groningen, NL)

La Usurpadora(Puerto Colombia, CO)

La Casa Encendida(Madrid, ES)

Mediamatic(Amsterdam, NL)

Palacio de Liria − Fundación Casa de Alba(Madrid, ES)

Universities & Academic

Braunschweig University of Art — HBK(Braunschweig, DE)

Radboud University(Nijmegen, NL)

Rietveld Academie(Amsterdam, NL)

School of Applied Sciences(Düsseldorf, DE)

Sandberg Instituut(Amsterdam, NL)

Technical University of Eindhoven — TUE(Eindhoven, NL)

Universidad de los Andes(Bogotá, CO)

Universidad Nacional de Colombia(Bogotá, CO)

Publishing

I piccoli holandesi(Amsterdam, NL)

Subjective Editions(BE)

Institutional, Governance & NGO’s

Arbeit und Lieben(Düsseldorf, DE)

CAF — Development Bank for Latin America & The Caribbean(LATAM)

City of Amsterdam, Chief Science Office(Amsterdam, NL)

Dialogue Advisory Group(Amsterdam, NL)

Embassy of the Netherlands(Bogotá / Washington, CO / US)

General Consulate of Colombia(Madrid, ES)

Kaunas 2022 — European Capital of Culture(Kaunas, LT)

Film Production

Just a moment(Vilnius, LT)

Theaters, Music Halls & Festivals

Auditorio Nacional de Música(Madrid, ES)

Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa y Tánger(Tarifa/Ceuta/Melilla/Tánger, ES/MA)

Frascati Theater(Amsterdam, NL)

Het Compagnietheater(Amsterdam, NL)

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ(Amsterdam, NL)

November Music Festival(Den Bosch, NL)

Orgelpark(Amsterdam, NL)

Splendor(Amsterdam, NL)

Music & Performance

7090 ensemble(Amsterdam, NL)

Aitana Cordero — Stage Performer(Amsterdam/Madrid, NL/ES)

Conservatorio Profesional de Música Arturo Soria(Madrid, ES)

Controllar — Avant-garde Pop Duo(Amsterdam / Tel Aviv, NL / IL)

Corkestra(Amsterdam, NL)

Ensemble Lumaka(Amsterdam, NL)

Fuse ensemble(Amsterdam, NL)

Looptail ensemble(Amsterdam, NL)

Monoták(Amsterdam, NL)

Nieuw Amsterdams Peil ensemble(Amsterdam, NL)

NJSO — Netherlands Youth String Orchestra(Amsterdam, NL)

Peter Vigh — Composer & Saxophone Player(Amsterdam, NL)

Piano Duo Post & Mulder(Amsterdam, NL)

Ricciotti ensemble(Amsterdam, NL)

Independent Professionals, Services & Retail

Alena Alexandrova — Curator, Cultural theorist(Amsterdam, NL)

Care Catalist(Amsterdam/Bogotá, NL/CO)

Foodtura(Amsterdam/Bogotá, NL/CO)

Gallagher Audio Engineering(Amsterdam, NL)

Mercedes Guerberof — Psychologist & Psychotherapist(Madrid, ES)

Lemoine — flores(Madrid, ES)

Pharmacie de la Vie(Amsterdam, NL)

Saltamontes(Madrid, ES)

SYOU(Amsterdam / Medellín, CO / NL)