Scentual Healing

By Tali Minor This year diptyque marks its 60^th anniversary with a yearlong celebration and a limited-edition collection. Presented in a series of five chapters over the course of this year, the anniversary collection debuted with a graphic renewal of its design codes as envisioned by acclaimed art director and designer Yorgo Tloupas. Get to know this image-maker in our exclusive interview, and stay tuned for the next chapter in the diptyque collection, Orpheon, coming soon to Bal Harbour Shops. When first commissioned to design this anniversary collection, what was the initial spark that set your design process in motion? I visited the Parisian Headquarters of diptyque and was really impressed by the global coherence of the brand and by the way every detail looked different from the other, with letters that were both hand-drawn and irregularly set-up, yet by a whole that was extremely coherent and harmonious. A form of organized chaos, which seemed far from the usual minimal codes of design in beauty and cosmetics. I personally felt that my “style,” if I have such a thing as a design style, was too far from diptyque’s brand codes, too rigid. But I was asked to try and apply this language to the 60th anniversary, and discovered that the house had a history of optical pattern design, so the match felt more natural all of a sudden. Indeed, the Maison disposes of many pieces of archives created by the founders at the very beginning of diptyque in the 60’s: incredible fabrics with avant-garde pattern that inspired me a lot. What are your preferred instruments when designing a logo? I always start on my Smythson notebook, with a variety of pens, but inevitably I switch to the magical tool that is Adobe Illustrator, a fantastic piece of software that enables even the clumsiest of all of us, like me, to create geometric perfection. Which artists do you feel most akin to, or have been most inspired by? My father Philolaos, was a renowned sculptor and designer, and I grew up in a house that he designed and built, where almost every piece of furniture came from his hands. I’d be lying if I pretended that I wasn’t inspired by this. Today I design chairs, tables and bottles for my house and office, very much like he did in the 60s and 70s. What are your top five all-time favorite logo designs (and feel free to elaborate on why)? The golden era of logo design basically happened before the advent of the personal computer, when craftsmanship was king, and skills required to draw geometric shapes with perfection, but there is a current renewal of talent that bodes well. My list if was to draw one would be:

• AT&T by Saul bass in 1983, where the globe looks like it’s drawn with shadows and gradients, but is in fact purely sharp and monochromatic.
• NBC by Chermayeff & Geismar in 1986, where the peacock only exists thanks to the minuscule detail of its beak in couter-shape. The animated version is a masterpiece as well.
• Mitsubishi has a logo that has barely changed since the late 19th century, and the 1953 symbol, composed of three identical lozenges evocative of the family shields of the founders, hasn’t changed an inch since then.
• Habitat introduced a symbol in 2002, made by GTF in London, which summarizes what the brand brings to the customers: love your home, and bring love to your home.
• The 1972 Renault logo by the artist Vazarely, a stroke of genius in its monochromatic geometrical impossibility.

Do you have a favorite diptyque scent? My favorite is Feu De Bois, ironically, I didn’t design graphics for this one… Hint at diptyque with multiple blinks for a potential new collaboration! Browse this limited edition collection and more at diptyque Bal Harbour Shops, on Level 3.