About
Base BRUSSELS
is where it all began, and never quite settled
Base Brussels is the motherhouse, founded in the 90s at La Cambre Art School by Dimitri Jeurissen and Thierry Brunfaut, who proved design could be conceptual without losing common sense. Operating today from a renovated former hat factory in downtown Brussels, it serves as the European hub of the network, projecting influence and momentum across borders. Specializing in non-specializing, BRU moves fluidly across sectors, combining research, narrative intelligence, and human-centered processes that have shaped the entire Base group and the brands it partners with. Its work spans cultural institutions such as KANAL Centre Pompidou, Grand Palais, La Monnaie Opera as well as brands including Birkenstock, Caudalie, and Maison Dandoy. Anchored in storytelling and wit rather than a defined visual style, the studio is now led by a new generation of Basers rewriting the original script.
Meet the basers
As Base’s paterfamilias, Thierry Brunfaut mentors the global teams, oversees strategic and conceptual decisions across the different studios, and protects the Base spirit he’s been moulding for nearly three decades. At the same time, his childlike whimsicality often drives him to ruffle feathers, change his mind, and ditch whatever bores him. Hailing from a family of architects, Thierry infuses Base with unbridled creativity rooted in common sense—another glaring contradiction. He self-identifies as lazy, yet his achievements speak volumes. While co-founding Base takes the gold, Thierry’s happiest when he’s teaching. He pushes the needle in the wider sector through workshops, podcasts, lectures, and think pieces. A joyful minimalist to the bone, Thierry imparts a philosophy of graphic and conceptual simplicity, illustrated beautifully in his series of “5-minute posters”. Some of Thierry’s favorite things? Football, the movie ‘Body Double’, and his own body double: Kermit the frog.
