Serge Lutens is a pioneer luxury perfume and makeup brand distributed in countries and regions worldwide. Created by and named after a French artist whose personal approach to beauty spans multiple fields, from perfumes to cosmetics, photography, film and literature.
Getting to grips with the unusual and surprising nature of Serge Lutens’ product innovations and inspirations is one thing but creating a holistic and universally accessible training strategy to support beauty consultants around the globe in being able to tell, and sell, the story of Mr Lutens’ is another. Just as well we accepted the challenge.
In certain corners of the beauty industry, the name Serge Lutens is spoken in hushed, reverential whispers, as the mysterious creator of some of the world’s greatest and most mythologised scents. Even for those who don’t instantly recognise his name, you will, at one point or another, have seen his work.
Serge Lutens has built a reputation as one of the world’s most celebrated and innovative perfumers, make-up artists, hair stylists and designers. But when asked how he would go about describing his polymathic career to someone unfamiliar with his work, Lutens is typically cryptic.
Known for flipping beauty ideals quite literally on their head, Mr Lutens still to this day remains involved in steering the direction for the brand and bespoke product ranges in his own undeniable style. We were tasked to create a brand bible for Serge Lutens, a “Book of Emotions” for any beauty consultant or sales rep associated with the brand to immerse in, in order to improve their education around the brand, and ultimately boost sales results across the globe.
Until now, the Serge Lutens brand had not worked with a dedicated creative agency and a lot of the work was carried out inhouse, so we were delighted to be appointed as the agency of choice to drive the training aspect of the brand forward.
“Our team have a vast amount of experience in the beauty sector, so we understand the challenges a prestige brand faces when trying to ensure their NPD training is accessible without compromising the exclusivity of the brand. It’s important our training concepts offer tangible benefits for the beauty consultants to apply directly in store to ensure sales targets are met in this very niche sector.”
Clear Thinking
Working in close collaboration with our client, the idea behind the “Book of Emotions” was to house everything in one place. Beauty consultants are bombarded with training materials throughout the year and ensuring that everything is kept and referred to regularly is no mean feat.
By developing a beautiful work of art, we not only pay homage to Mr Lutens’ career of exploring true art and beauty, but we create something so compelling, no beauty consultant would want to put it down.
The Book of Emotions effortlessly combines chapters of Mr Lutens’ biography, his most poignant press release interviews, literary texts and his eclectic mix of perfumes, with specific emphasis on his iconic Collection Noire fragrance line. Our designers worked hard to give every page their own unique identity and story.
We carefully mixed existing key visuals supplied to us by the brand with newly created visuals of our own, to ensure the reader could easily lose themselves in the inspiration of each fragrance but by carrying certain design cues throughout the book, we achieved a sense of continuity, familiarity and warmth.
To help navigate through the different chapters and ensure the Book of Emotions was just as experiential as it was educational, our bespoke printing finish united a series of different stocks together so that each chapter ‘felt’ different from the next. From uncoated stocks, to high gloss, textured parchment all the way through to translucent sheets unveiling bold and iconic imagery of Mr Lutens’ career, we brought the Book of Emotions to life!
The striking, and bold identity of the Book of Emotions reflects the nature of Mr Lutens’ and his prestige product offering. It celebrates diversity, variety and going against the norm. It’s intimate, friendly, distinctive and quirky – unique, eccentric, adventurous, and every bit what we hope Mr Lutens would say about his life and his work.
The Book of Emotions was launched during an internal training conference in Marbella to an audience of training managers and representatives of the brand from around the globe. The Book has since been translated and rolled out to all Serge Lutens Beauty Consultants within 35 different countries and regions.
“The Book of Emotions was exquisite work there is no doubt about it! I am so pleased with the level of quality and it’s a pleasure working with Guerilla!”