Thierry de Baschmakoff: “Design remains the most profitable investment in a launch!”

Thierry de Baschmakoff’s experience in luxury packaging design is undoubtedly among the most extensive in the industry. His track record, he explains here, is "that of a designer who was fortunate enough to come across the right brands and the right projects at the right time. The right moment when I met Bulgari, which had never made perfumes before, Dior, which wanted to revamp its makeup line, the Amore Pacific group, which wanted to launch its first skincare range outside Korea, and Jimmy Choo, which was releasing its first fragrance... Creating a first opus is a wonderful creative opportunity to be savored, one that doesn’t come around twice, but of course there is a follow-up to that first launch, which in the case of Bulgari lasted ten years.“
A beautiful story with the same message throughout: ”While budget remains a major issue for a launch, design is not the most expensive item and it remains very effective."

What is your assessment today and what is your vision with the arrival of AI and new technologies in general?

Thierry de Baschmakoff: I have always believed that our professions had a limited lifespan and that sooner or later they would become marginalized, even before the arrival of AI.
There are many reasons for this, primarily the arrival of designers from all walks of life in a market that remains fairly small, the integration of creative studios within certain brands, and brand art directors who are increasingly involved in the process of creating new product lines.
It was therefore necessary to diversify well before this trend became effective, which I did by exploring other markets such as watchmaking, leather goods, and more generally, luxury product categories.
The arrival of AI is obviously a fairly sudden and rapid change that will profoundly alter certain professions, particularly in the creative field.
Like all new phenomena, we need to allow time to absorb them and then see the counter-movements that are bound to emerge.
We are already seeing projects that claim not to be the result of AI, implying that it was indeed a human brain that created the project.
When 3D printers first came on the market, I was the first to think that this technology would find its way into homes and agencies and make individual production a reality. In the end, that’s not what happened at all, and additive printing has become a manufacturing tool mainly for professionals and industry.
Personally, I use AI much more than 3D printing. I believe it is a major change that is here to stay because it is accessible and constantly evolving. It will lead to the decline of certain professions and the emergence of others, as was the case with the internet.

We experienced together what I dare to call a “golden age” when you and some of your famous colleagues were designing perfume bottles for brands. Without falling into the trap of saying “things were better before,” what were the strengths and weaknesses of that era?

Thierry de Baschmakoff: The major difference was what I mentioned earlier: brands and manufacturers naturally gravitated toward specific areas of expertise, which reassured them and reinforced their choices. The paradigm shifted when brands began seeking collaboration with other creative horizons, which forced us to diversify.
You have to be able to identify change quickly so you don’t get left behind. Having quickly perceived the risk, I was also lucky at that time to take on much broader artistic direction assignments, such as Asprey in London and Lalique later on.

Environmental protection is a major focus today, imposing numerous restrictions on the use of certain materials. What do you think about this, and is this situation a hindrance to creativity or not?

Thierry de Baschmakoff: Constraints are part of the fundamentals of a designer’s job. We create within constraints, and within this restrictive framework, it is quite easy to play around with them and use them to our advantage to achieve a relevant result.
Personally, I like to take on new challenges and use them as a kind of test to overcome them. Eco-responsibility is one of those challenges. I am very forward-thinking on this subject, without having set out to be. The first bottle for Bulgari was as eco-friendly as could be. No plastic parts, only glass and metal for the bottle, refillable of course, no spray, the box made from 100% rag paper and the core of the box from recycled cardboard. This was in 1992.
It would be impossible to do something so clean today. Obviously, the product was completely out of step with the market, but it allowed Bulgari to get noticed. I repeated the exercise in 2000 with The Different Company, using a single material for the caps, and everything was refillable, even the 10ml travel size.
It’s hard to do better in terms of product reuse, which in my opinion is the most effective approach, as the product avoids the waste bin, which is much cleaner than recycling.
Creativity is not hindered by eco-design; on the contrary, it opens up new creative perspectives with the diversion of technologies or the use of totally unlikely materials.

In general, do you think that creativity in design has been impoverished or not? More than ever, money is still the key to success! Is this even more true today or not?

Thierry de Baschmakoff: Creativity has not really declined; it has simply shifted, depending on the brand, to other areas of interest such as social media content.
In some cases, design can be considered one element among many in the mix, and its conception will be more basic because it is seen as a simple visual medium.
But on the other hand, some brands have decided that the object, as a spokesperson, must be original and reinforce certain facets of the brand’s DNA.
There has always been a balance between design that explores and takes risks and design that seeks consensus.
Money has long been the driving force behind any launch. I must repeat what I have been saying throughout my career: design is the most profitable investment in a launch. I deliberately use the word investment and not expense because, in the case of perfume, design naturally generates 10% of sales. This is a very conservative estimate and low compared to other product categories. The ratio between investment and return on investment over the first three years is 100 on average. It’s hard to do better than that!
So even if the budget remains a major issue for a launch, design is not the most expensive item and it remains very effective.

The journey of a Russian-French-Swiss-Italian in the world of luxury

Thierry de Baschmakoff was born of a European mix with a touch of exoticism on his Slavic side.
He often says that he is a quarter of each! 25% Russian, 25% Italian, 25% Swiss, 25% French. The order varies depending on where he is... Born in Grasse, he deeply loves this region that dominates the French Riviera and is full of beauty between Provence and the Pre-Alps. However, he does not fall into the world of perfumes, despite the perfumers who surround him and who, in a way, sensitize him to this universe. This original composition will certainly shape his style and allow him to take advantage of this tension between his diverse roots.

He trained as an engineer, but his uncle, the designer François de Baschmakoff (who designed watches for Lip), encouraged him to embark on a creative adventure and motivated Thierry to set up his own agency.


He moved to Paris in 1985. He was 25 years old at the time and created his agency without going through the traditional steps of working for other designers.
This is undoubtedly what allowed him to approach the profession with great freedom and a new tone.
Thierry de Baschmakoff decided to call his first agency AESTHETE for both strategic and philosophical reasons. The word Aestetica comes from a book written by 18th-century author Alexander Baumgarten. It is therefore a recent concept that deals with beauty in its most global dimension.
Very quickly, Thierry de Baschmakoff’s main idea was to blend into—not to say disappear behind—the universe of the brands for which he was designing.
This rather discreet approach to creation guided the agency’s development until changing attitudes demanded a more involved approach from art directors, or even a more direct signature.
After 30 years spent promoting the work of an agency, the time had come to move to the other side and sign directly with his own name. A new page was turned with a form of contemporary collaboration and a new approach to the profession.
For 25 years, he has been collaborating with the biggest luxury brands in the fields of perfumery and cosmetics, as well as leather goods, watchmaking, and accessories: Dior, Guerlain, Bulgari, Lalique, Burberry, Cartier, Jimmy Choo, and more. With more than 6,000 objects designed and brought to market, his adventure continues today with a tailor-made vision of the creative profession.