design museum in london exhibits the last ‘world of tim burton’ with 600 set props and more

The world of tim burton at the design museum in london

The Design Museum in London hosts The World of Tim Burton, a comprehensive retrospective on the director’s 50 years of creative outputs, including hundreds of his artworks and several of his set costumes, designs, and props. Some of his personal archives are also on view in the UK for the first time, and the exhibition sums up 600 items detailing Tim Burton’s expansive repertoire. Recognizable characters and their associated objects grace the show, including Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman costume from 1992’s Batman 2 Returns and the black and white striped dress from 1999’s Sleepy Hollow, worn by Christina Ricci.

The World of Tim Burton – which opens on October 25th, 2024 and ends on April 21st, 2025 – also showcases over 18 of his movies to celebrate his creative processes, including Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). The traveling exhibition arrives in London after a decade-long world tour, visiting 14 cities and 11 countries since 2014. The London show is special to Tim Burton because it’s the first time he brings the show to the city, and it’s also the very last time that the exhibition is staged. Since London is the final stop, The World of Tim Burton is physically reimagined, especially for the Design Museum.

portrait of Tim Burton | all exhibition images by Matt Crossick, courtesy of the Design Museum

Exhibition with 600 artworks, designs, props, costumes and more

The World of Tim Burton is a chance for the visitors of the Design Museum in London to get to know the director and how he thinks and creates his productions. It’s rightful then that when they enter the space, they learn about his studies at college and his stint working as an apprentice animator at Disney. Slowly, they may get acquainted with his signature stop-motion animation, a recurring approach to some of his movies, once they step inside the ‘Crafting Imagination’ space of the exhibition. It’s an art and design convention for the director, especially when visitors explore the designs of the 13 key feature films in ‘Building Worlds’, including the TV series, Wednesday.

Hundreds of artworks come forth in the other room to inform the visitors how much of a visual storyteller and artist Tim Burton is. Sketches here and there, at times just drafts, are laid down and encased in glass or hung on walls, as if the Design Museum in London becomes a work studio itself. While Tim Burton is mainly known to be a director, he’s done several other works out of his field, including publishing books and working on music videos. They’re documented in the ‘Beyond Film’ room in the exhibition, which also displays and narrates the designers who have been inspired by the Burton flair, such as the photographer Tim Walker.

the Design Museum in London hosts The World of Tim Burton

Physical staging inspired by tim burton’s cinematography

It’s not a Tim Burton exhibition without physical staging inspired by his style, and at the Design Museum, it occurs just that. Specific landscapes that recall the director’s cinematography are present, from the suburbs to angular corridors and film soundstages. As the visitors walk through them, they listen to the custom soundscape created especially for the Design Museum by sound designer Tomi Rose. While the majority of the exhibition demonstrates the long-term collaborations of Tim Burton with designers working across costume, set, and production design, parts of the show inject some of his earliest unrealized projects as a form of looking back to his roots.

They all fall under the umbrella of the 600 items present at the Design Museum, which includes loaned objects from Tim Burton’s very own personal archives and a few key film studios, including Paramount, Amazon MGM Studios, and Warner Bros. This is the last time visitors can see hundreds of Tim Burton’s sketches, drawings, and works that he has created since childhood. ‘It’s a strange thing, to put 50 years of art and your life on view for everyone to see, especially when that was never the original purpose. In the past, I have resisted having the exhibition in London; however, collaborating with the Design Museum for this final stop was the right choice,’ says the director. The World of Tim Burton is on view at the Design Museum in London between October 25th, 2024 and April 21st, 2024.

it’s the first time that the director brings the traveling show to London