Premium Beauty News - With more than 6000 references achieved for major international brands, Aesthete is one of the most recognized design agencies. Why then did you engage in this new organization?
Thierry de Baschmakoff - Because customer demand has changed considerably and so has what they expect from a design agency. We had to rethink our way of working to make clearer our service offer, by capitalizing on our main skills and various expertises acquired over the years. Today a design agency not only creates forms, it is also at the heart of the brand value creation.
Hence, our creative offer was restructured around three modules:
– The Studio, which is at the heart of the agency’s system of creation, such as it was founded 30 years ago, and which is recognized for its expertise in the design of luxury products, with clients such as Guerlain, Jimmy Choo, Versace, Dior, etc.
– The Brand Machine, a service dedicated to the construction of the brand identity and image, and their enhancement, a service which can be entrusted with the overall creation of a brand, the relaunch of sleeping beauties, the repositioning or diversification of brands,
– And EATS, for Extrude Along The Spline, a kind of garden centre for innovators, which is an opportunity for us to support young designers in a start-up spirit.
Premium Beauty News - The construction of brands’ identity seems to be more and more at the heart of the designer’s activity.
Thierry de Baschmakoff - It is both a reflection of a time where brands appear increasingly as the most powerful creators of values and a logical evolution of our business. Design is a major element of the identity of a brand, even if it is not, far from it, the only component. From this point of view, perfumery is an excellent school because each launch is an opportunity to tell an almost completely new story.
Over the years and with the growing reputation of our agency, we were asked to work on different briefs, far beyond the usual design activity. We had to develop internal skills or rely on external expertise. The combination of our experiences has enabled us to acquire quit a unique know-how that we divided into 10 phases of interventions, which can be treated in full by the agency, either internally or with partners. Finally, as a design agency, we also have an additional advantage: a mastery on the implementation of projects.
Premium Beauty News - What are the brands for which you worked on this concept of identity?
Thierry de Baschmakoff - One of our very first experiences was the development of Parfums Bulgari. The idea was to create a brand territory of its own and not just make a perfume variation of what was proposed in jewellery.
We can also mention our achievements for the British brand Atkinsons. Founded in 1799 in London, the brand had a very strong DNA but it needed to be relaunched. By analysing its history and values, we had the idea to create the shield, which is now an integral part of its brand identity.
The list is too long, but I want to mention also The Different Company, a global brand that we created from scratch and which was elaborated to be able to express itself in different territories.
Premium Beauty News - Compared to the Studio and The Brand Image, two modules more brand oriented, EATS appears more like a free electron.
Thierry de Baschmakoff - It is a place conductive to freedom and exploration. It is a talent incubator through which we want to help reveal a new generation of designers. It also represents for us a way, in spite of the difficult economic environment, to continue to imagine, create and innovate. EATS creates, develops, design, extrudes everyday objects to turn them into objects of tomorrow. It’s this structure who hosted the team who created OBO, the much talked about new perfume brand with its nomadic jewel-applicators.
