Eleven designers, writers and makers between Antwerp and Kyoto — founded in 2012 around a borrowed letterpress and a belief that good design is mostly careful attention.
Founded in Antwerp
People, two studios
Commissions to date
Our story
Margot Declercq opened Vellum in 2012 to design menus for the restaurants on her street. The menus were printed on the press in the back, and the restaurants are still clients. That habit — of staying — became the studio’s method.
In 2021 Aiko Nishimura opened our Kyoto desk. Today eleven of us split our time between two harbours, working with hotels, makers and cultural institutions that would rather be read closely than seen everywhere.
fol. ii·b — Principles
i.
Stay small
We never run more than six commissions at once. The people you meet are the people who do the work.
ii.
Go to the source
We visit every place we design for — before the brief is final, and again before launch.
iii.
Design for the tenth year
Trends are loud and short. We would rather make something that is still useful in 2036.
iv.
Proof by hand
Every system is printed, annotated in red and proofed on paper before it goes to screen.
Eleven of us — eight pictured
Founder, Creative Director
Antwerp
Partner, Kyoto Studio
Kyoto
Design Director
Antwerp
Head of Editorial
Antwerp
Spatial Designer
Antwerp
Type Designer
Kyoto
Producer
Antwerp
Senior Designer
Kyoto
Antwerp
51.2194° N, 4.4025° E
Kloosterstraat 18, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Studio days: Monday — Thursday
Kyoto
35.0116° N, 135.7681° E
Gojō-dōri 412, Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Studio days: Tuesday — Friday
fol. vii — Work with us
Vellum Studio
Est. MMXII
Made slowly, read closely.
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Setting the type
Vellum Studio
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Setting the type