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
Tiến is a German-Vietnamese graphic designer who spent most of his life in Berlin before relocating to Ho Chi Minh City. As the child of hardworking immigrants, he naturally followed the dream every Vietnamese parent has for their kid: becoming a creative.
He first studied art history and worked as an artist liaison and communications manager in some of Germany’s leading galleries – until he got restless and pivoted into design. For over a decade, he helped create visual identities and campaigns for museums, theaters, and cultural institutions, always with a love for print, editorial, and spatial work grounded in typographic experimentation. In his role as Design Director at BaseSGN, Tien focuses on leading and mentoring the design team and the wider studio.
Always curious for the “other,” Tien loves to reference niche pop culture, geek out over indie video games, and go on questionable culinary adventures.
