From workshop to world stage: The Ho Chi Minh City duo redefining ‘Made in Vietnam’

Joshua Breidenbach and Chí-An De Leo don’t only want to run a good creative agency – the Ho Chi Minh City duo also want to define what Vietnamese brands look like on a global stage. “Vietnam is experiencing a shift from being the workshop of the world to a maker of brands that matter,” says De Leo, when Monocle visits their studio in the city’s Vo Thi Sau Ward. “The resources are here. The talent is here. The market is young, savvy and involved. What’s needed now is intent.” And they might well be the ones to deliver on it.

The pair met in Vietnam’s former capital while working for different advertising agencies. Breidenbach arrived in Asia from the US in 2006; De Leo, who was born in Germany to Vietnamese-French and Italian parents, grew up in France, Taiwan, the UK and Vietnam. In 2011 they founded Rice and spent more than a decade building Brand Vietnam by elevating the status of local firms through savvy marketing, all while running a successful business.

By last year, however, that business had outgrown itself. It was too big for the projects that built its name but still lacked an international footprint. The fix wasn’t to sell up but instead to become an independent affiliate of Base Design, a Brussels-founded global collective. Becoming its fifth member – and rebranding as Base Saigon – enabled Breidenbach, De Leo and their team of 28 to remain independent yet gained them access to international talent and know-how. “We were immediately plugged into other offices in Brussels, Geneva, New York and Melbourne,” says Breidenbach. “Everyone here has a counterpart in another part of the world who they can bounce off.”

The timing was exceptional. One of the studio’s marquee clients, Marou, was making the same leap. The Vietnamese chocolatier was in the process of opening a shop in Singapore’s Changi Airport. With that came a continuation of Base Saigon’s award-winning branding: the studio worked on a product line of chocolate animals that reflect the ecosystem of cacao farms. In a similar vein, Base Saigon is also overseeing a brand repositioning of Highlands Coffee, the largest coffee chain in Vietnam. A refreshed business strategy has been accompanied by new packaging and visual guidelines. The chain recently opened its 1,000th coffee shop in Vietnam and has the backing of mighty multinational Filipino fast-food giant Jollibee. “Both projects are deeply authentic to themselves and to Vietnam, with a clarity of story and point of view that invites global curiosity and genuine participation,” says De Leo.

The clearest evidence of the pair’s ambition isn’t client work, though. In 2025 they hosted the AGI conference in Ho Chi Minh City, drawing 130 of the industry’s biggest names. “It has been the maddest year of our career,” says De Leo, adding that while it was stressful to do this mid-rebrand, it was a deliberate extension of the duo’s ambition to place Vietnam at the centre of the branding world.

It’s also why Rice, as an entity, hasn’t disappeared with the studio’s rechristening. The old name is now an umbrella for everything adjacent to Base Saigon’s client work. This ranges from an upcycled plastic furniture line to travel guides and an intention to host more design conferences in Ho Chi Minh City. The partners are also hoping to build a studio-academy model that will allow them to provide opportunities creating work placements for Vietnamese design students.

All of which is infrastructure to support a bigger ambition. “Vietnamese businesses have an opportunity to shape the country’s reputation abroad,” says De Leo. “The world has yet to make up its mind about ‘Made in Vietnam’.” That might be true but Breidenbach and De Leo are playing an active role in enhancing it.
basedesign.com

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Branding triumphs

Base Saigon knows how to position Vietnamese companies in a global context – and vice versa. Here are three standout examples.

1.
Highlands Coffee
Base Saigon was behind a limited-run espresso campaign that used swirling typography to position homegrown Vietnamese coffee as a serious contender on the world stage.

2.
Mai Lam
A brand strategy brought structure to Vietnamese fashion designer Mai Lam’s chaotic aesthetic and transformed a single Ho Chi Minh City boutique into a fashion label built for international reach.

3.
Maison Marou
A flexible spatial and graphic identity was developed for Maison Marou, rolled out across its products, flagship café, patisserie and chocolate factory in Vietnam.