Can Art Work?

2023 was a year of reflection and evolution at Hugo & Marie, and one thing we have thought about a lot is strategy. Core to our creative process since day one, this year we started to explore new ways to codify our strategic approach, working to build infrastructure that speaks both to our sensibilities, as well our clients' business needs. At the end of 2023, our Design Director Fanny Nordmark and Senior Creative & Producer Michael Whitham delivered a presentation at OFFF Seville.

We think of ourselves on the spectrum of The Fine Artist to The Marketer.

The Fine Artist is driven by expression. They may have foundational organizing thoughts, but there is not an effort to solve a particular problem, though there may be an effort to illuminate one. The Marketer creates or commissions images with the express purpose of selling a product, motivated metrics that will drive certain behaviors in viewers, namely, purchasing behaviors.

At Hugo & Marie, we seek to make work with the emotional resonance of The Fine Artist. And working in a commercial context, like The Marketer, we need to create work with a rational basis and communicable intention.

To codify our strategic practice, we began with what we believe:

A unique point of view must be the soul of any business, and beauty and joy should be at the heart of any brand. No longer the mirrors of culture, the best brands are the makers of it.

Then, we looked at what we offer:

We use the sensibility of the fine artist to achieve the goals of the marketer.

Then, we defined four tactics that help us achieve our aim:

i. We go looking for what's there. We get to know a business by getting to know its point of view—its interiority, its people, its soul. We seek to build creative based on what's already there, frequently finding unrealized potential along the way.

ii. We don't ask the typical questions. Instead of asking "how do you want your consumer to behave?" We ask "how do you want your consumer to feel?" We want to seek the human emotions that move people to action.

iii. We look past the marketers demographic data points. We're more interested in the why—why does your customer listen to True Crime, wear Santal 33 from Le Labo, and work out in Alo yoga leggings? How do these choices make them feel about themselves?

iv. Rather than find space, we create it. When a brand expresses something honest, genuine, and undeniable, the work finds its audience. We believe a deep commitment to looking inward in order to create is what makes a brand into a platform—a maker of culture. It creates value that goes beyond a single season or one campaign.

As we consider our strategic approach, we also think about future-proofing. AI tools are more accessible than ever, a marketing manager can generate approximations of our visual style in minutes, and a total novice can build a good website using available templates.

However, fortunately for us, clients don't come to us for an image or video file that has a certain palette and replicable stylistic characteristics, or for a functional website with a familiar aesthetic. They come to us because they have a challenge to solve, a story they want to tell, or a customer they want to reach. They have part of the solution, but they want our studio or our artists to provide the rest.

We strategize by using our unique lens on the world and helping our clients find their own.

Because just like the best artist, your point of view is yours and yours alone. And we believe it's worth sharing.