Michiel began his career as a car designer in 2005 at Spyker Cars NV in The Netherlands, where he created the exterior and interior styling of the D8 Peking to Paris SSUV, which was first shown at the 2006 Geneva Autosalon.After he left Spyker in early 2006, Van den Brink teamed up with entrepreneur Ir. Robert C.A. Koumans to start his own design company Vandenbrink Design. The company was set up to design and produce custom coachwork for highly exclusive sports cars, of which the first was Van den Brink’s design for a new Ferrari GTO. Michiel designed the Vandenbrink GTO as a tribute to the 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, and sketched other specialty bodies on the chassis and running gear of the Ferrari 599 GTB, 612 Scaglietti and Spyker C8.

The Ferrari 599 GTB-based Vandenbrink GTO received much acclaim by press and public and has been awarded the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2008 by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, putting Michiel’s name on the map in a short period of time.

In April 2010, the time came for Van den Brink to continue his business as an independent designer, leaving Vandenbrink Design BV to his business partner Robert Koumans. Vandenbrink Design BV continues the development of the GTO, while Michiel will create new designs under the “Atelier Michiel van den Brink” name.