A few months ago, we, artist and design­er duo Victor Verhelst and Corbin Mahieu, were invit­ed to rebrand Nova, a restau­rant in Sint-Niklaas. They had pre­vi­ous­ly seen our work dur­ing an Art Route by Naft and reached out to collaborate.

From that invi­ta­tion, we start­ed work­ing togeth­er to rethink the entire visu­al iden­ti­ty of the restau­rant. The con­cept began with a sim­ple ques­tion: how could we make the ingre­di­ents part of the sto­ry? Our goal was to use art and design to enrich the din­ing expe­ri­ence, allow­ing guests not only to enjoy the food, but also to be sur­round­ed by visu­als that reflect­ed the atmos­phere and iden­ti­ty of the restaurant.

We devel­oped a series of illus­tra­tions that were inte­grat­ed through­out the space, appear­ing in the inte­ri­or, on T‑shirts, and on menu cards. We also pro­posed adding an alu­mini­um art­work above the kitchen, turn­ing the bar and open kitchen into one large visu­al can­vas. This piece told sto­ries about the ingre­di­ents and the local folk­lore con­nect­ed to them.

Photographer Lars Duchateau doc­u­ment­ed the kitchen and chef in their nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. He cap­tured moments as they unfold­ed, reveal­ing the hon­est, every­day rhythm of the restau­rant. Working with him strength­ened the visu­al nar­ra­tive and ensured that pho­tog­ra­phy and design sup­port­ed each other.

The logo, uncon­ven­tion­al for a restau­rant con­text, became a defin­ing ele­ment of the iden­ti­ty. It rep­re­sent­ed a table, the place where peo­ple come togeth­er to share food and time. In this way, the project brought art, design, and gas­tron­o­my clos­er togeth­er, turn­ing every vis­it into a more sen­so­ry experience.

Typeface: Ursa by Tekio and Jane Estrada-Osmycki.

We would like to thank Guy De Jonghe and Metineke for their trust in embrac­ing an uncon­ven­tion­al approach, and con­grat­u­late them on their score and men­tion in Gault&Millau 2026, which placed Sint-Niklaas back on the culi­nary map in 2026.

This year Victor Verhelst and Studio Corbin Mahieu col­lab­o­rat­ed on the design of the new Walking Guide Publication for Publiek Park 2025. The pub­li­ca­tion fea­tures essays and doc­u­men­ta­tion on both @plantentuinmeise and @botanique_bxl in Brussels, togeth­er with all art­works pre­sent­ed dur­ing the out­door art route. The book was designed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Publiek Park to mir­ror the expe­ri­ence of wan­der­ing through the gar­dens. With pho­tographs by Michiel de Cleene, read­ers feel as though they are strolling through the parks and unex­pect­ed­ly encoun­ter­ing the many art­works scat­tered across the land­scape.

In addi­tion to the art­works, the guide pro­vides con­text and insights into ele­ments of the park such as the Victoriakas, Slice, fig­u­ra­tive sequoia sculp­tures and its more com­plex his­to­ries. Each artist has a ded­i­cat­ed spread where they could freely con­tribute their own mate­r­i­al. With 224 pages, the guide com­bines his­tor­i­cal con­text, art, nature and pub­lic space while cel­e­brat­ing one of Belgium’s most remark­able parks. The cov­er con­tin­ues the visu­al iden­ti­ty of the Publiek Park Walking Guide series.

This edi­tion fea­tures con­tri­bu­tions by Nikolaos Akritidis, Denis Diagre-Vanderpelen, Koen Es, Lana Jones, François Makanga, Noam Youngrak Son and Jean Watt, with pho­tographs by Michiel de Cleene. With thanks to the artists: Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence, Roy Köhnke, Līga Spunde, Judith Kakon, Bianca Baldi, Gabi Dao, Josse Pyl and Elise El Yousfi.

Sidequest is a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary col­lec­tive of artists and design­ers from var­ied back­grounds. Together with fur­ni­ture design­er Niels Boone and visu­al artist Victor Verhelst, I helped launch the first series of fur­ni­ture pieces that sparked the col­lec­tive. Sidequest explores alter­na­tive cre­ative exper­i­ments beyond our main quests, giv­ing us a space to play, exper­i­ment, and com­plete side projects with­out the usu­al restraints of image, clients, or prac­tice boundaries.

By merg­ing our indi­vid­ual strengths, we cre­ate holis­tic inte­gra­tions that appear as graph­i­cal exper­i­ments, fur­ni­ture, tex­tiles, instal­la­tions, and more. We see our­selves as con­tem­po­rary magi­cians. Our expe­ri­ence ranges from col­lab­o­ra­tions with art insti­tu­tions to con­tri­bu­tions at music fes­ti­vals, and we oper­ate at the inter­sec­tion of art and design. For the debut project, I col­lab­o­rat­ed with Victor Verhelst, then work­ing under the name Moriso, and Lennart Van den Bossche on a riso­graph print. That graph­ic piece has since evolved into a car­pet, bring­ing our approach­es togeth­er in one cohe­sive object.

Sidequest is always in motion, and we invite oth­er design­ers to join and become wiz­ards of their own skills. We do not know what future sid­e­quests we will embark on, but for now, it begins with this fur­ni­ture series. Discover more of our evolv­ing sto­ry at www.sidequest.design or con­tact info@sidequest.design

Branding and iden­ti­ty for Jowa in Jakarta. Jowa is a fusion kitchen BBQ restau­rant in Jakarta, Indonesia. We want­ed to cre­ate a unique visu­al lan­guage for this upcom­ing restau­rant in the sub­urbs of the vivid city. So we start­ed think­ing of a way to visu­al­ize the coals of a bbq with the way ingre­di­ents are han­dled by a chef in a kitchen. We start­ed draw­ing these burned-out abstract forms and start­ed cut­ting straight aggres­sive lines into them. Just like a very sharp knife would to do a toma­to or a piece of beef. The out­come were these abstract fig­ures that worked per­fect­ly in the set­ting of the restau­rant. Inside these rudi­men­tal forms we select­ed a classy type­writer type­face to clash both ele­ments. Together with the client we also pro­duced an approach on food pho­tog­ra­phy and their social media atti­tude. Making sure this abstract iden­ti­ty was com­bined with very moody and straight-for­ward pho­tog­ra­phy of their dish­es and inte­ri­or. Website made togeth­er with graph­ic design­er and web­de­vel­op­er Mathieu Serruys and intern Ibert Pauwels. 

We col­lab­o­rat­ed to cre­ate the new visu­al iden­ti­ty for the Liège-based archi­tec­ture stu­dio Atelier Chora Architectes. Our aim was to devel­op some­thing sober, straight­for­ward, and visu­al­ly play­ful, root­ed in the idea of spatiality.

The name Khôra (or cho­ra) refers to the space that pro­vides a place for being. Inspired by this con­cept, we trans­lat­ed the idea of space into a visu­al sys­tem built around three black squares, form­ing a graph­ic field to work with­in. Inside these squares, Atelier Chora can place text, images, links, or oth­er con­tent. The imper­fect shapes are based on grid sys­tems inspired by the atelier’s archi­tec­tur­al practice.

We searched for a bal­ance between play­ful­ness and sim­plic­i­ty. Alongside our more expres­sive projects, we enjoyed cre­at­ing some­thing close­ly aligned with our min­i­mal­ist sen­si­bil­i­ty. Since Atelier Chora was look­ing for a tan­gi­ble way to present their new projects, we also designed a fold­er in which pho­tos and sketch­es can be torn out and used as postcards.

Many thanks to the Atelier Chora team for their trust and col­lab­o­ra­tion. We also want to thank every­one involved in the process. We look for­ward to build­ing fur­ther on this first project together.
www​.ate​lier​-cho​ra​.be

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was an exhi­bi­tion pre­sent­ing an exten­sive selec­tion of posters by graph­ic design­ers Victor Verhelst and Corbin Mahieu. Nearly fifty works were dis­played in large-scale abri for­mat, allow­ing vis­i­tors to expe­ri­ence the designs beyond their orig­i­nal con­text and at a mon­u­men­tal scale.

The exhi­bi­tion also fea­tured Fever Dream, the duo’s sold-out pub­li­ca­tion, offer­ing addi­tion­al insight into their visu­al lan­guage and design practice.

Graphic design often serves a tem­po­rary pur­pose, cre­at­ed to com­mu­ni­cate a spe­cif­ic mes­sage for a par­tic­u­lar moment or event. Once that moment has passed, its orig­i­nal func­tion is ful­filled. This exhi­bi­tion explored what hap­pens when those tem­po­rary works are giv­en a sec­ond life. Removed from their func­tion­al con­text and pre­sent­ed with­in an exhi­bi­tion space, the posters became objects for reflec­tion, invit­ing vis­i­tors to dis­cov­er new mean­ings, details, and nar­ra­tives. The exhi­bi­tion demon­strat­ed how graph­ic design can extend beyond com­mu­ni­ca­tion and become a cul­tur­al arti­fact in its own right.

Presented with­in an edu­ca­tion­al envi­ron­ment, the exhi­bi­tion also aimed to inspire stu­dents and emerg­ing design­ers by high­light­ing the impor­tance of exper­i­men­ta­tion, curios­i­ty, and the con­tin­u­ous explo­ration of visu­al lan­guage. It encour­aged dia­logue between pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice, edu­ca­tion, and the next gen­er­a­tion of designers.

We were asked to do the art direc­tion of the brand new brus­sels-based fes­ti­val called Abrupt. To kick off the release, we col­lab­o­rat­ed with motion design­er Vincent Van Lieshout to cre­ate the fea­tured cam­paign video. Be sure to check out the new web­site cod­ed by Studio Dier / www.abrupt.brussels

We worked around the idea of ​“por­tals”. We regard music as a trans­for­ma­tive force that guides lis­ten­ers through var­i­ous spaces and dimen­sions, each genre offer­ing a unique audi­to­ry jour­ney. Our visu­als reimag­ines music as an art form capa­ble of instan­ta­neous trav­el, tran­scend­ing time and bridg­ing dif­fer­ent uni­vers­es.

Project togeth­er with graph­ic design­er and artist Victor Verhelst. Thank you to all par­ties involved for trust­ing this style and let­ting it grow with the festival

We were asked to design the new web­site of respect­ed Belgian archi­tects Robbrecht & Daem. The web­site fol­lows a very strict grid and plays with­in the lim­i­ta­tions of these self-made choic­es. Following Robbrecht en Daem’s unique count­ing sys­tem called ​“Louie” (Named after the American archi­tect Louis Kahn) the web­site only uses lines and one weight and height of a grotesk type­face to make a log­ic view­ing sys­tem. Referring to archi­tec­tur­al plans or sketch­es and the way a build­ing is based on lay­er­ing the cor­rect mate­ri­als. We hope you get lost and are chal­lenged by the uncon­ven­tion­al inter­face, when going through their projects, encoun­ters and thoughts. Besides this min­i­mal­ist sys­tem, we also tried to includ­ed the use of a visu­al hori­zon. We want­ed this con­cept to be the start­ing point of the home­page. We hope view­ers expe­ri­ence a vir­tu­al land­scape of build­ings or projects going from left to right. Their unique approach on design need­ed to have a unique dig­i­tal out­come. Besides this port­fo­lio web­site we also helped to to cre­ate a per­son­al dig­i­tal data­base and made sure their newslet­ters are made auto­mat­i­cal­ly. Project togeth­er with web devel­op­er Rein van Oyen. Visit the web­site www​.rob​brech​t​en​daem​.com

Poster and Vinyl design for the instal­la­tion and per­for­mance called ​‘Ramble Song’ by Antwerp based col­lec­tive BERLIN. With Ramble Song, BERLIN pro­pels music — a dri­ving foun­da­tion in ear­li­er work — and the cin­e­mat­ic into the fore­ground. A poet­ic ram­ble full of beau­ty but also dis­ap­point­ment unrav­els in a series of tableaux. Ramble Song mean­ders between melan­choly and black humour, inspired by the fig­ure of the drifter ­— the nomad who cul­ti­vates a form of inde­ci­sive­ness and who lurks in each of us. Onstage there is a the­atri­cal instal­la­tion. This organ­ism in sleep mode, with some­thing that resem­bles a con­tin­u­ous­ly audi­ble and vis­i­ble res­pi­ra­tion, is ani­mat­ed through live music and footage. The sound­track is wide-rang­ing, fea­tur­ing echoes of new-clas­si­cal music but also ener­getic krautrock and a diver­si­ty of synth-dri­ven sound­scapes. The dai­ly noise between our ears here gives way to a musi­cal uni­verse that gets crys­tal­lized in images — and vice ver­sa. More infor­ma­tion on www​.berlin​ber​lin​.be

With great pride, I’m hap­py to share our next project: a unique port­fo­lio book that brings togeth­er five years of work by artist Victor Verhelst. The book was designed by Corbin Mahieu, Lennart van den Bossche, and Victor Verhelst, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Albe De Coker and Fedrigoni Worldwide. Special thanks to Xavier De Coker and Larah Lezy from Fedrigoni Group. The goal was to blur the lines between book­mak­ing and art. Books are often under­es­ti­mat­ed today — where they were once con­sid­ered small works of art, they are now too often seen as dis­pos­able objects. This time, the design­ers want­ed to cre­ate some­thing that goes beyond a fleet­ing cof­fee table book. They aimed to cap­ture the joy of unre­strained cre­ation, free from the lim­its of con­sump­tion or rigid purpose.

Using a brand-new Fedrigoni paper and an inno­v­a­tive dig­i­tal print­ing tech­nique — FOGRA59 on the KONICA MINOLTA KM1 — they com­piled an almost Pantone-lev­el body of work across near­ly 500 pages by the young dig­i­tal artist Victor Verhelst. To ele­vate the book into a true art­work, they ensured that each copy is unique.

Every back cov­er includes a dif­fer­ent frag­ment of a mas­sive art­work that Victor cre­at­ed espe­cial­ly for this book. The full piece only becomes vis­i­ble when all books are laid side by side — a moment that will take place just once, dur­ing the open­ing of his solo exhi­bi­tion at Plus One Gallery on April 3, 2025, in Antwerp, made pos­si­ble by Jason Poirier dit Caulier and Thomas De Ben.

Because the artist and design­ers want­ed full con­trol over the book, they chose to pub­lish it inde­pen­dent­ly, with­out a pub­lish­ing house. They want­ed to show that with ini­tia­tive and vision, dreams can be made real. The book launch itself becomes a unique event and an art­work in its own right.
We are incred­i­bly proud of the final result, which we hope will con­tin­ue to inspire across many fields for years to come.

“Print is not dead; it has sim­ply become art.” — Corbin Mahieu & Victor Verhelst