studio

HvADesign is a multidisciplinary design studio based in New York City.

With projects that run the gamut from books to brand identity to print and physical spaces to screen, we collaborate with forward-thinking clients to generate intelligent, compelling responses to often complex design challenges—and opportunities.

We work side-by-side with our clients to understand not only their goals, but also their audiences and contexts. Together, we develop creative concepts that are cohesive yet flexible, and then translate these into meaningful and visually powerful designs.

Our clients rely on us to define the big picture as well as to focus on the details…and we confess a particular passion for all things typographic. As a result, the typographic element is crucial in our work, be it online, in the public sphere or in our extensive award-winning book portfolio.

clients

We feel fortunate to have worked with many diverse clients including museums, cultural and educational organizations, publishing companies, commercial and not-for-profit corporations. We believe that the design process should truly be a collaboration and learn as much from the people we work with as vice versa. Because of this outlook, we have enjoyed many long lasting relationships, and continue to work on a wide variety of projects.

  • Select clients we have worked with:

  • Acquavella Galleries, NY
  • Archive Global: Architecture for Health, NY
  • Art League Houston, Houston, TX
  • Artspace, New Haven, CT
  • Ashgate Publishing, London, UK
  • Blended Reality, New Haven, CT
  • Brooklyn Studio, NYC
  • California Museum of Photography—UCR, Riverside CA
  • Catherine Brophy Interior Architecture, NY
  • Coburn Construction and Management, NYC
  • Cold Hollow Sculpture Park, Enosburg, VT
  • CREO Clean Renewable Energy Opportunities, NY
  • Engel & Völkers: Brownstone Brooklyn, NY
  • Burton Pritzker, Austin, TX
  • CWB Architects, Brooklyn
  • David Zwirner Gallery, NY
  • Fearins & Welch, Interior Architects, Brooklyn
  • FotoFest, Inc., Houston
  • GeGo Foundation, Caracas, Venezuela
  • GHP Media, West Haven, CT
  • Guggenheim Museum, NY
  • Harry N. Abrams Publishing, NY
  • ICAA International Center for The Arts of the Americas, Houston, TX
  • Institute for Developing Across Differences (IDD), NYC
  • International Society for Urban Health (ISUH), NYC
  • Jean Luc Torchon, NY
  • James Cohan Gallery, NY
  • Jasmina Danowski, NY
  • Joan B. Mirviss Gallery, NY
  • John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
  • LACMA, Los Angeles
  • Lowe Art Museum, Miami
  • MALBA, Museum for Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • New York Public Library, NY
  • Nicolas Hall Gallery, NY
  • Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, Oklahoma City, OK
  • Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, UK
  • Pace Gallery, NY
  • Paula Luttringer, Paris, France
  • Petra Barth, Berlin, Germany / NY
  • Porter Print Group, Washington, DC
  • PT Press, Norwalk, CT
  • Rizzoli Publishing, NY
  • The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
  • The Horticultural Society of New York, NY
  • The Museum of Arts and Design, NY
  • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • The Museum of The City of New York, NY
  • UCLA—Center for Chicano Studies, Los Angeles
  • Schilt Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY
  • Voerman Museum, Hattem, The Netherlands
  • Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
  • Yale Press, New Haven, CT
  • Yale School of Management, New Haven, CT
  • Yale Center for Business and the Environment, New Haven, CT
  • Yale Center for Collaborative Arts & Media, New Haven, CT
  • Yale Center for Climate Change and Health (YCCCH), New Haven, CT
  • Yuliya Ilizarov Architecture, NY

awards

International Latino Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Best Cover Illustration or Photo

2023

International Latino Book Awards, Silver Medal for Best Art Book

2023

Independent Publisher Book Award, Bronze Medal

2023

Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, Nominated for Catalogue of the Year

2020

International Photography Awards, Third Place

2020

Fifth Annual James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award

2020

International Latino Book Awards

2018

Palestine Book Awards, Creative Award

2017

Royal Photographic Society

London, UK, 2016

Virginia Fields Memorial Book Award

2011

Washington Book Publishers Design Effectiveness Show

2008

American Association of Museums Excellence Award

2006

AIGA 50 Best Books Award

2005

New York Book Show

2005

AIGA 50 Best Books Award

2004

American Association of University Presses, Best Books Award

2003

Alice Davis Hitchcock Award

(Society of Architectural Historians), 2002

Boston Bookbuilders Guild, Best Books Award

2002

American Association of University Presses, Best Books Award

2002

AIGA 50 Best Books Award

2000

AIGA 50 Best Books Award

1999

Mitchel A. Wilder Award (Gold)

1999, Texas Association of Museums

Case Council for Advancement and Support of Education

1998

team

Henk Van Assen

Principal

Following youthful stints as a private in the Dutch Army, sailing up and down the Rhine as a barge worker, and driving a delivery truck across the back roads of Holland—all while enrolled in correspondence and evening design courses—Henk realized it was time to take his education a bit more seriously and entered the design and typography program of the Koninklijke Academie van Beelden Kunsten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in The Hague, The Netherlands. From there he worked at Reynoud Homan Design in Amsterdam until coming to the United States to pursue an M.F.A. at Yale University.

In 2004, he founded HvADesign, a multidisciplinary design studio located in DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York. The studio has worked on hundreds of projects spanning print, environmental and screen-based media. With clients from the cultural, publishing, innovation and educational realms, projects have ranged from brand identities and book design to web design and spatial graphics (see “work”).

In addition to his studio practice, Henk is a senior critic in the graphic design department at Yale University’s School of Art, and a member of the faculty since 1999. Prior to this appointment, he taught design at the University of Texas at Austin, the School of Visual Arts, New York, and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Since 2012, he is also an adjunct lecturer at Parsons School of Design, New York. Additionally, Henk conducts design and typography workshops around the world, most recently in Shanghai, Tel Aviv, and Monterrey, Mexico (see “nog meer”).

Personal projects include Ranch Gates of the Southwest (Trinity Press, San Antonio, TX, 2009), coauthored with Daniel M. Olsen; a billboard initiative to promote respect for diversity and inclusion with NYC’s “Artists for Public Service Announcements”; a typographic installation about economic inequality for the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Bolzano, Italy); and Jan Willem van Assen: A Boisterous Talent, documenting the work of his late father. Currently underway—in collaboration with Tom Strong—is a catalog of Yale University posters from 1950 ‘til today (see “nog meer”).

Melissa Leone

Designer

Melissa Leone's design process falls at the intersection of her various interests including fine art, psychology, music, and history. A lover of typography and print, Melissa can often be found either designing or collecting books. She studied at Yale, where she received a B.A. in Art with a concentration in Graphic Design.

Izzy Natale

Designer

Izzy Natale is particularly passionate about typography and design history. She studied Graphic Design at Parsons after earning a B.A. in Russian & East European Studies from Oberlin College. Before becoming a designer, Izzy worked for several years as a stylist. Her varied work & education experiences have given her a unique perspective and design sensibility.

former
employees and
interns

employment

We do not currently have any full time positions open.

We have seasonal internships available for an average of 3-month period. Find out more info here.

Interested in working together? Contact Us!