Base is a creative group whose overall mission is the development of brand identity systems for companies, institutions, products, and individuals. It is known for its simple, direct, conceptual approach. Base is made up of five companies: Base Design, Base Motion, Base Lab, Base Words, and Base Publishing. Base Design specializes in creative direction, art direction and graphic design. The oldest division of the company, Base Design represents the larger percentage of the overall business today. Base Motion is “Base, but in motion,” working in the fields of animated graphics and film. Base Lab develops custom typefaces. Base Words creates brand names, tag lines, copywriting, and creative writing such as essays for magazines. The newest company of the five, Base Publishing publishes books on various subjects, including contemporary art, photography, and fashion. Base distributes its titles through a global distribution network, Actar D (in which Base is a part owner) to over 4000 stores worldwide, including the Bozar Shop (in which Base is also a part owner). Each of these companies is its own cost/profit center and is therefore responsible for maintaining its own well-being. Some or all of these companies will frequently collaborate on given projects, allowing for the various disciplines to bring their individual expertise to add richness to the overall work.

Base “thinks globally but operates locally” in that it has offices in five cities: Brussels, New York, Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid. It will add a sixth office, in Santiago, Chile, in late 2008. Unlike many boutique and mid-sized creative agencies, Base deliberately decentralized its corporate structure to service its global client base in their own cities and languages. This approach also allows the company to have an innate understanding of each country’s culture and the various market segments in which Base operates. This decentralization strategy will continue as Base looks to open more offices in the future.

Aside from its decentralized structure and its expertise in a range of fields, Base is unique for its highly diverse client base. About a third of Base’s work comes from the luxury sector including fashion, beauty, hotels, and restaurants. Past and present clients include Chanel, Loewe, Delvaux, Kipling, Fred Segal Beauty, Kiki de Montparnasse, Women’secret, Revlon Professional, Yves-Saint Laurent Beauté, Camper, L’Oréal, the Jonathan Morr Group, and Hotel Missoni. Another third of the studio’s work comes from the contemporary art and cultural sectors, with projects for The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA QNS), Bozar, The Miami Art Museum, The Reina Sofia, The Grand Palais, Phaidon Publishing, and The Gagosian Gallery. The balance of the studio’s work derives from just about any subject, ranging from celebrities including Kanye West, Isabella Rossellini, and Tilda Swinton, and political parties like the the Belgian and European Socialist Parties, to large corporations like Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobistar, as well as social and charitable organizations like Missing Children: Europe and the workers’ union FGTB.