How We Work — HXTN Studios Rotterdam

Our approach

You have a moonshot idea
that needs to land.

Most agencies/studios either design it or build it. HXTN does both, because we assemble the right people for your project, not the people we happen to have on payroll.

Why HXTN?

You want an experience that sticks, in a flagship store, a museum, or an outdoor activation. You know what you want to achieve. You don't always know who you need to get there.

HXTN is the creative director and client relationship layer in a trusted network of specialist studios. You get agency accountability with boutique specialist execution.

We are the bridge between your brief and the right team, and we remain accountable for the outcome.

Why this model

01

Why this model, for this work

Immersive work is different from a campaign. A campaign needs writers, designers, and a media plan. An immersive experience needs spatial designers, projection mappers, hardware engineers, interactive technologists, sound designers, fabricators, and producers — often a different combination for every project.

No agency has all of those people sitting in-house. The big ones pretend they do. In practice they sub out the hardware, the interactive tech, the projection mapping, the fabrication — then add their margin on top and slow the work down with a layer of account management.

We don't pretend. We bring the specialists in directly, work with people we've worked with for years, and stay accountable as a single point of contact. You pay for the senior people doing the actual work, not for an office floor we need to fill with billable hours.

This isn't a new way of working. The best immersive work has always been made by small teams of senior specialists who trust each other. We just made it explicit.

  • Specialists hired directly
  • Long-standing relationships
  • Single point of contact
  • Senior people, no overhead

How we deliver

02

What HXTN does — and what we don't

On every project, HXTN stays accountable for the concept, the creative direction, and the unity of the experience. The specialists do their craft; we make sure it ships as one.

What we do

  • Concept and creative direction — we own the idea.
  • Client relationship — one point of contact, one team you talk to.
  • Team assembly — we propose the specific studios and specialists the work needs, and you see the team before we start.
  • Integration — making sure the parts ship as one experience, not a stack of deliverables.
  • Accountability — when something goes wrong, you call us. Not five different vendors.

What we don't do

  • We don't carry junior layers, account managers, or office overhead. The team on your project is senior, and you pay for them, not for the building.
  • We don't crowdsource. The network is small, curated, and built on years of working together.
  • We don't pretend to have every skill in-house. That's how agencies end up with the wrong person doing the work.

For cultural clients

03

The funding comes first

We work with libraries, museums, cities, and cultural organisations that have an idea but don't yet have the budget to make it real. For these clients, the project usually starts before the project starts — with the funding strategy.

Cultural and civic budgets rarely cover ambitious immersive work on their own. The money is out there, but it sits inside fund applications: Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Mondriaan Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Fonds 21, VSBfonds, gemeentelijke cultuurbudgetten, provinciale fondsen, and European programmes like Creative Europe. Each has its own criteria, its own deadlines, its own language. None of them are simple to navigate alongside running an institution.

Laura Holleman leads this work for us. Laura is a production and business lead in the Dutch cultural sector with years of experience advising makers on how to actually get a project off the ground — planning, communication, collaboration, and most of all making sure things happen. She has secured funding for multiple cultural projects in her own work.

What we do

  • Map the idea against the funding landscape — which funds fit, which don't, which combinations work.
  • Translate the creative concept into language that funders recognise and respond to.
  • Write the application documents and supporting materials together with you.
  • Build the project plan, timeline, and budget the application needs.
  • Brief you on what the fund is looking for and how to present it.

What we don't do

  • We don't submit the application on your behalf. The application is yours — your institution signs it, takes legal responsibility, and owns the relationship with the fund.
  • We don't do post-grant reporting. Once funded, reporting and compliance belong with you.
  • We don't take a cut of the funding. We bill our work as a separate service.

We're the guide, you make the formal moves. That separation is deliberate: it keeps the legal and contractual relationship clean, and it leaves you fully in control of the application itself.

How we charge

This is a paid service, separate from project delivery. You pay for Laura's time and ours during the funding phase. If the application is successful and the project moves forward, we deliver it. If it isn't, the work we did is yours to keep — the documentation, the budget, the project plan can be used for other applications.

Track record

We're currently awaiting final confirmation on the funding for Dromen van Dordt with Bibliotheek AanZet — an immersive participatory installation in the Dordrecht library, written and applied for through this process. Laura has independently secured funding for multiple cultural projects across the Dutch sector.

Frequently asked questions