About
Base Saigon
is where Vietnamese brands learn to travel
Founded as Rice by Chí-An De Leo and Joshua Breidenbach in Ho Chi Minh City in 2011, before the market was ready and before the rules were written, Base Saigon was built on the belief that design and storytelling can help Vietnamese brands define themselves and move through the world. Today, in a country accelerating in real time and anchoring the network in Asia, the studio — based in a modernist 1960s house in central Saigon — positions local brands globally and global brands locally with cultural precision. Base Saigon shapes brands including Marou Chocolate, Pizza 4P’s, UNICEF Vietnam, Uniqlo, Uber and Baemin, and, beyond client work, its team of thirty creatives invests in design education, local events and publishing. Not as a side project, but as a responsibility.
Meet the basers
Lewis first found design through K-pop album art, and he has been writing code since middle school. For years the two developed side by side. Now code is part of how he thinks, experiments, and designs.
Raised in a small seaside town in the Mekong Delta, Lewis was drawn to BaseSGN for its roots running deep in Vietnamese culture. The Marou work made that connection feel close to home: the cacao is sourced from a province next to his own.
His mix of technical fluency and visual curiosity lets him move between code and craft, using both to test ideas and give them form. At BaseSGN he works across 3D, motion, and type, with a particular pull toward 3D and letterforms. Around the studio he is the playful teammate who also says what needs to be said honestly. Off the clock, his eyes are on the sky, chasing a dark-sky site for a cleaner shot at the stars.
