Combining the expertise of a branding agency and a web agency, the Bonhomme design studio places digital art direction at the heart of its work, the discipline that gives each project its distinctiveness, its memorability and its ability to faithfully embody what the brand is.
1. What a coherent art direction produces
A coherent art direction produces immediate recognition, durability — the digital expression of the Lasting Brand System — and differentiation.
2. What the most recognized brands have understood
Bottega Veneta has built a digital art direction with absolute consistency with its offline values: an absence of ostentation, the primacy of material, discreet branding. Its site lets the product exist in its own space, formal generosity is itself a signal of luxury.
Bang & Olufsen has turned restraint into a radical art direction: black, white, product photography in total isolation. This direction doesn't vary by collection, it is the brand. Recognition is immediate.
Glossier, in an accessible-premium register, has built an art direction entirely grounded in community identity: real customers as models, a signature pastel palette. This direction embodies the brand's values as clearly as its product offering.
3. The five components of a strong digital art direction
1. Typography as the first stance. 2. The color palette as territory. 3. Composition logic as language. 4. Image treatment as signature. 5. Movement as expression.
4. The Bonhomme method: the Digital Art Direction Process
As a web agency in Paris, Bonhomme applies the Digital Art Direction Process — four phases: immersion, exploration, development and systematization.
5. Duroc 2017 and Black Messiah: two distinct signatures
Duroc 2017: an art direction that transforms a mass-market product into a premium experience. 11 distinctions including Site of the Day and Mobile Excellence at the Awwwards, CSSDA Website of the Year.
Black Messiah: the Bonhomme web agency imagines five scenes where interacting with words changes the meaning of the sentence, an art direction that fuses form and content. Daniel D., CEO of Morfeus: "Bonhomme allowed us to create a genuine digital identity."
6. Recurring mistakes
• Transposing the print style guide as-is.
• Changing art direction midway through.
• Neglecting states and interactions.
• Confusing originality with consistency.
7. The Bonhomme vision
For Bonhomme, art direction is the most consequential decision in a digital project. Drawing on its expertise in web, the agency has amassed more than 200 international awards that attest this rigor is recognized.
"A successful art direction is one you can't imagine having been any different."
— Morgane Urbain, co-founder & creative director
"The consistency of an art direction is measured by how each page confirms the same brand conviction."
— Emmanuel Cruellas, co-founder & design director
