DIRECTION / DESIGN / MOTION · 2020
Diptyque
International Days
Selected sequences.
FILM
A short selection from the 45-minute International Days film.
The video could not load. Open this film directly.
THE PROJECT
45 minutes
of Diptyque.
In 2020, Diptyque replaced a convention cancelled during Covid with a 45-minute film for its International Days. Produced by Éléphant At Work, it brought the house’s teams, collections and creative universe together on screen.
My work covered the visual concept and art direction, directing the green-screen shoot, then editing, animation and image postproduction with Robin Kobrynski. A long-format project with animation running throughout, built around the speakers and Diptyque’s graphic identity.
- Client
- Diptyque
- Production
- Éléphant At Work
- Concept, art direction & direction
- Raf / Raphaël Mechet
- Editing, animation & compositing
- Raphaël Mechet & Robin Kobrynski / Pôle Nord Studio
- Original format
- Convention film · approx. 45 min
- Year
- 2020
01 / CONCEPT & ART DIRECTION
The oval as
a starting point.
The oval label became a frame, a pattern, a transition and a way into each chapter. I developed the visual language through photographic collage, paper textures, illustration and typography, with distinct settings for the collections.
These early boards explore the balance between Diptyque’s black-and-white identity and a wider palette of textures and colour.
Early research / Photography, paper and typography.
Early research / Layered patterns around Tam Dao.
Early research / Four directions for the collection chapters.
02 / GREEN-SCREEN SHOOT
Filming for
the composition.
The shoot was planned around the compositing. Camera angles, full-length framing and room for graphics were defined before filming, so the speakers could move between an oval portrait, an illustrated landscape and a composition of products.
Two days of green-screen filming at Studio 49 supplied the live-action material. In the finished sequences, black-and-white portraits sit within coloured collages and animated graphic environments.
Finished frame / A portrait within the brand’s image collection.
Finished frame / A paper landscape and a filmed speaker.
Finished frame / Products and live action share the composition.
03 / ANIMATION & POSTPRODUCTION
A long film,
composed in layers.
After Effects carried the animation and compositing across the film: keying the speakers, building the graphic environments, animating type and patterns, and connecting the chapters.
The challenge was the scale: sustaining a coherent visual language and a changing rhythm over roughly 45 minutes, while keeping each presentation readable. With Robin Kobrynski, I carried that work through the image delivery and subsequent recuts.
Chapter title / Dancing Ovals.
Lettering and pattern / Orphéon.
Graphic motifs / Variations on the oval.
Illustration and archive / A layered visual history.