Our history

The unassuming beginnings of Design Board can be traced back to an American named Cliff Shaten, who started the art studio C. H. Shaten Studios in 1919 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company grew over the years and, in 1959, was purchased by seven of its employees, who renamed it Studio Art Associates.

A decade later, Mac Cato joined together with one of the seven, John Johnson, to create Cato Johnson, a major design supplier to Procter & Gamble. When P&G expanded into Europe, Cato Johnson opened an office in London in 1969 to serve them, and later accompanied them to Brussels in 1972.

In 1975, Cato Johnson was acquired by the advertising firm Young & Rubicam and became Cato Yasumura Behaeghel (CYB). The late 70s saw Y&R leave P&G to become a global advertising supplier for Colgate Palmolive. This resulted in two management buyouts: one in Cincinnati, where the company became Libby, Perszyk, Kathman (LPK), and one in Brussels, where Julien Behaeghel and partners purchased CYB Brussels and renamed it Design Board.

After more than 20 years of growth, Behaeghel sold the agency in 1994 to the French group Teleperformance, giving it a sister office in Paris. Design Board was transferred again in 2005 to the Parisian group M plus. In March 2007, a few key managers and investors made a final management buyout, and Design Board re-established itself as an independent agency.

With a colourful history that spans continents, Design Board today has reclaimed its international identity with a fresh outlook. Offices in strategic locations across EMEA - Brussels, Sofia, Geneva and Cairo - our "windows to the world", provide the ideal platform for sharing knowledge and competences. This way of working supports our intercultural approach, through which we examine cultures, languages, religion, history and lifestyles and apply our learnings within a design context.