Base Design

Base (communications studio)
Base is a company built on a foundation of graphic design, with offices in Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, New York, and Santiago, Chile. With an emphasis on graphic design, and services in typeface design, film and motion graphics, copywriting, and publishing, Base is known for a simple, conceptual approach, or what has been referred to as “reductive modernism.”

History

Originally known as Traces de Doigts (“Fingerprints” in French), Base was founded in 1993 in Brussels by three classmates—Thierry Brunfaut, Juliette Cavenaile, and Dimitri Jeurissen—who met at [La Cambre], Belgium’s national college of visual arts. In 1997 a second studio was opened, in Barcelona, by Marc Panero, a designer who worked with Base in Brussels and returned to his native Spain.
Managing Partner Geoff Cook joined the following year to open Base’s third studio, in New York. Further Bases followed in Madrid and Santiago, Chile, in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
From late 2001 to 2003, Base designed and produced [BEople], “a magazine about a certain Belgium.” After seven issues, Base in 2005 invested in global book-distribution company Actar D to form a publishing company. The first book from BasePublishing, a monograph of artist Ann Veronica Janssens, was released in 2009.
In 2007, Base partnered to open BozarShop, the museum store at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. BozarShop gives Base the ability to “design, print, distribute, and even (in Brussels and online) sell a book, something that many museums, architects, and contemporary artists have found to be a very attractive offering.”
Base works with a variety of clients. Major projects have included the visual identities for: the Museum of Modern Art’s temporary home, MoMA QNS; BOZAR (the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels); Milk Studios; the PASS (le Parc d’Aventures Scientifique); The European Socialist Party; Kipling; 2008 Gwangju Biennale; Delvaux; Hotel Missoni; and Puma’s 96 Hours and nuala fashion lines. The studio collaborated with industrial designer Michael Young on Portuguese olive oil brand Herdeiros Passanha, and has designed books for Phaidon (Ed Ruscha, Art & Today), HarperStudio (Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno), and Rizzoli (Kanye West’s Glow In the Dark).

References:

Base Design. Base: works from 01.97 to 05.00. Barcelona: Actar, 2000.
Base Design. Base: works from 06.00 to 03.03. Brussels: Base Design, 2003.
Callico, Catherine. “Nouveaux Voisins… de Bureau”, Victoire, November 15, 2008. pp. 22.
Dresse, Isabelle. “User le Concept Jusqu’a la Corde.” Pub 17. November 9, 2005.
Kellogg, Craig. “Base Line.” Wallpaper*, April 2001.
Moreno, Antoine. “Portrait: Thierry Brunfaut.” Weekend. February 27, 2009.
Pinter, Vanina. “Expo 2005 Anchi, Japan: Le studio bruxellois, Base Design signe le graphisme et la signalétique du pavilion français de l’exhibition universelle d’ Anchi.” Etapes. April, 2005.
Salgado, Soledad S., “Sólida Base Creativa.” El Mercurio. March 28, 2009.
Toniolo, Diletta. “Connessione Base: Una sede a Bruxelles, una a New York, e una a Barcellona; Base comunica dall’Europa al nuovo contiente.” Box, January/February, 2004.
Walters, Helen. “Base lines." Helen Walters meets base design founder, Dimitri Jeeurissen (a profile of Base Design).” Creative Review, August 2003.
“Agency Spotlight/Base Design.” PackagingWorld.blogspot.com. May 19, 2009.
“Base.” Design 360° Concept and Design Magazine, N. 22, July 2009.
“Base.” Lighter Magazine, May 2002.
“Base Connection”, Box, Jan.–Feb. 2004, pp. 84–87.
“Base Design.” id pure, 2009.
“Base Design And Michael Young For Herdeiros Passanha.” dezeen.com. July 10, 2009.
“Base En Villes”, Jalouse, Feb . 2002, p. 48.
“Base Line”, Wallpaper, April 2001, pp. 101–102.
“Base Lines”, Creative Review, August 2003, pp. 48–51.
“Changement de Perspectives.” Focus Vif, January 2009.
“From A Creative Base”, IdN 5, 2005, pp. 74–77.
“MoMA QNS”, Box, June–July 2001, pp. 56–57.
http://www.brandlife.es/2009/06/madinspain-%E2%94%82cosas-y-casos-sobre-creatividad-y-diseno/

Recent awards:

Excellence in Packaging Design: 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition
Excellence in Book Design: 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition
City of Barcelona Prize
Nomination - Best Communication United States by the Cooper Hewitt (National Design Museum).
Creative Review 2009 Outstanding Merit: best book, It’s Not Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Baby!
LAUS 2009 GOLD: book design, André Kertesz
LAUS 2009 SILVER: Book design, Gandhi
LAUS 2009 SILVER: 1000 covers, Grrrr magazine
LAUS 2009 SILVER: Exhibition design & motion graphics: Thirst Pavilion, World’s Fair, Zaragoza, Spain
LAUS 2009 SILVER: ArtDirection, women’secret autumn - winter 08-09
LAUS 2009 BRONZE: Naming, w'eau perfume
AD&D Awards 2009: Nominated, BozarShop, online movies