Tom Andries (b. Leuven 1969) is a Belgian multidisciplinary designer and contemporary artist. Trained as a typographer and graphic designer, Tom founded branding agency Today (part of 62MILES), which he is still passionately running. His art consists of monochromes painted in heavily textured black ink. Tom uncovers the essence and hidden beauty of typography, abstracting basic geometric forms from letters. Together with his partner, the artist Christl Martens, and their vizsla dog Hoedan, he lives and works in the stillness of his self-built modernist home called Oito, on the edge of a slope in the middle of the woods of central Belgium.
"After founding my own company, Today, I focused on brand design for bigger companies. In the artistic world, designing for corporate business is often perceived as ‘selling out’. I find that to be untrue. Every discipline has its paradigms, its clichés – and its craftsmanship. I didn’t feel like I was creatively wronged, working for big brands. What I did miss was the actual act of designing. As our company grew, my business partner, Mathias Delmote, insisted that I spend more time on non-operational or more high-level activities, reviewing design and explaining the concepts behind it in client meetings. The world of branding and communication is fast-paced, with choking deadlines. When I came home from the office, I wanted to unwind and feel the freedom that I have always felt when expressing myself through visual arts. And so, I found peace in painting." - Tom Andries.
Want to know more about Tom’s side projects? Get his first book 'Hidden landscapes of letters' for € 69 (incl. VAT).
Hidden landscapes of letters’ is the first monograph of the upcoming Belgian artist Tom Andries. With heavy brush strokes, Andries creates dark, abstract, minimalist paintings that are very much appreciated in the design world. Time to get to know him? Here’s a beautifully designed book.
Tom Andries’ artistic practice consists of series of abstracts painted in black ink directly onto the canvas. With a few strokes of a heavy brush, he covers the surface from edge to edge, creating abstract forms derived from typography. Often working in black on white, he purposefully uses curve-linear and angular compositions to add tension. Tom has developed his own ink with a very specific viscosity – a mix of acrylic, Indian ink and charcoal – which gives every painting a surprising depth. Inspired by minimalism, modernist painting and mid-century architecture, his work reflects an ongoing quest for the absolute minimum. Tom’s canvasses convey an extraordinary calmness and a natural spontaneity at the same time.
The Antwerp-based Vitra Partner Store installed a Vitra apartment inside their storeroom back in 2020, creating a personalized workspace for artists whose visual language aligns with the furniture brand’s. The interior of the apartment is decorated by the artists themselves. The workspace reflects their character, offering visitors a glimpse of the workings of their minds. In 2022, Tom Andries had the honor of being invited. He modeled the apartment after his own workspace back home, filled with a myriad of modernist furniture and paintings. Vitra Partner Store is run by Goele Vermeeren and Filip Versmissen of the Belgian company Master Meubel, who have become Tom’s friends.