Once you’re working with a well known model, it could possibly typically be difficult to navigate legacy, tight briefs, and artistic freedom. However when a model like Hermès reaches out, you realize you are in for an thrilling expertise. The model usually calls on artists to reimagine its heritage, and as an alternative of asking for a boilerplate replication of the model everyone knows and love, they offer makers the liberty to precise their artistic skills, imaginative and prescient, and elegance.
Linda Merad, a French illustrator primarily based in Paris, is a kind of artists. In 2025, she was contacted to create illustrations for the model’s Instagram account, producing a sequence of vibrant, textural items crammed with attractive nods to nature and playful characters – sneakers kissing, human mushrooms, and experiments with lithography. Hermès appreciated it a lot that the artwork director, Rachel Cazadamont, requested for extra and needed Linda to make an animation utilizing her signature lithographic aesthetic.
Her first foray into animation left Linda greater than excited. And the preliminary thought to supply an Instagram animation quickly advanced into a complete digital marketing campaign to construct the worldwide universe, each on the social media platform and on the web site. Linda labored with artwork director Jérémy Givord to develop the visuals for the e-commerce platform, and with Quentin Klein to animate her illustrations, alongside Pascal Armand, who composed the music. “There have been solely 5 of us within the artistic crew, and it was actually nice to work with individuals who had been so expert of their fields,” explains Linda. And regardless of the dimensions of the model, the method felt intimate, nearly studio-like in spirit.
Working to a theme of ‘Enterprise Past’ – which is Hermès’ theme for the 12 months – Linda took inspiration from the French saying “l’appel du Massive” which interprets to “the decision of the open sea”, and urged a journey past the ocean and into an “upside-down world” the place, Linda says, “the ocean is the sky and the clouds are the bottom”. In a surrealist, weird and fairly frankly lovely world, we’re taken into unknown territory the place something can occur. “We comply with the start and journey of a Hermès seahorse, which we named Hippolitho, because it encounters Hermès merchandise and implausible animals, primarily birds and fish.”
You may spot the seahorse wrapped in an Hermès silk scarf, swimming amongst its sea buddies; a girl’s watch taking a plunge into this magical land; an octopus-like creature taking a stroll (or swim?) in a number of pairs of Hermès sneakers, one for every of its legs. All of which is sprinkled with Linda’s colour-blocked model, first created with pen and India ink, scanned, then despatched to Quentin, who introduced the illustrations to life utilizing 3D software program. Linda additionally scanned flat areas of lithographic ink so they might use the textures within the shifting picture.
When requested about her stylistic selections, Linda explains that the aesthetic for this mission was absolutely impressed by lithography, a follow she started experimenting with round 4 years in the past alongside her illustrations. “I find it irresistible! The feeling of drawing on stone is sort of like meditation, and my sense of management is sort of shaken up. I improvise, I’ve enjoyable, and I draw with out a particular plan,” she explains. “Accidents occur, and that is what makes lithography so charming; you need to cope with the motions of randomness and the surprising.”
It is a model that feels refreshingly at odds with the polished precision we frequently affiliate with luxurious branding. “I discover it fairly radical in comparison with what you would possibly anticipate from a luxurious model,” says Linda.
With a portfolio wealthy with work for shoppers together with The New York Occasions, The New Yorker, and types reminiscent of Usonia Wines, Bantu Chocolate and Roos & Roos perfumes, Linda is properly on her strategy to making a mark on the planet of business collaborations. And since launching this marketing campaign for Hermès, she has obtained much more invites, which she’s totally grateful for. “I might wish to discover a higher stability between commissions and private work, which is one thing I’ve uncared for a bit as a result of an absence of time,” she provides. “However 2026 appears very promising, and I hope to tackle extra thrilling and impressive tasks!”
