MY APPROACH
I bring a comprehensive systematic method to brand analysis and development by applying tools and techniques formulated in the humanities.
Integrating social trends & cultural patterns into the creative process will make your brand communication more coherent & impactful.
Integrating social trends & cultural patterns into the creative process will make your brand communication more coherent & impactful.
COMPETENCIES & SERVICES
ANALYSIS, CREATION, EDUCATION
STRATEGY: brand analysis & developmentManagement is immersed in operations, in studies of market trends and consumer behaviour. Complete comprehension of the cultural and social landscape enables anticipation of causes and effects, extrapolation of long-term consequences, preparation for change. Grasping competitive strategies and creative trends helps define one's positioning.
CREATIVE: brainstorming sessions for creative teamsTranslation of concepts into visuals; study of archives and their rendering to the present, preparation of storyboards, orchestration of visual narrative through different touch points. Development of product and sales environment features: shapes, textures, materials, color schemes, etc...
Better understanding of cultural connotations and social landscape enriches and fosters the creative process.
SALES & MARKETINGDeeper understanding of meanings and values that the brand promotes, mastering the brand narrative and its semantic codes increases efficiency and motivation of teams. Throughout my career in the luxury industry in Houses, like Dior, Cartier or Louis Vuitton, I have realized that their employees master the heritage of the brand but often ignore the thousand ties which link it to broader cultural history.
TRANING & EDUCATIONLectures for professionals, students and brand clients. Creation of visual materials: videos, graphic illustration and more (see videos below).
KEY CONCEPTS
ICONOLOGY: Visual Literacy
or Creativity as Device
or Creativity as Device
"Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images, that have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing can come of nothing: he who has laid up no materials can produce no combinations."—REYNOLDS, Discourse II
There are two different modes of perception: conceptual (rational) and aesthetic (intuitive). Navigation between the two requires visual literacy and a lot is often lost in translation when words are converted into images and vice versa.
A hundred years ago the Russian Formalist school and Aby Warburg in Hamburg came to a similar conclusion – that cultural forms merely migrate in time: “Images endure and last. From century to century, from country to country, from poet to poet, these images march on without change. They belong to no one, except perhaps to God."
The work of successive schools has consisted essentially in accumulating and making known new devices of verbal/image arrangement and organization. The artist does not so much "think" in images as "recollect" them.
Our industry which requires balancing creativity and business acumen will benefit from integrating iconology into its cultural fabric.
Iconology was originally inspired by the fleeting, ecstatic figure of the dancing Nymph. Since the dawn of fashion she has animated its visual field. Her figure traverses historic periods, beliefs, artistic styles and proves that forms endure and last bringing along cultural heritage and reverberating the Zeitgeist.
There are two different modes of perception: conceptual (rational) and aesthetic (intuitive). Navigation between the two requires visual literacy and a lot is often lost in translation when words are converted into images and vice versa.
A hundred years ago the Russian Formalist school and Aby Warburg in Hamburg came to a similar conclusion – that cultural forms merely migrate in time: “Images endure and last. From century to century, from country to country, from poet to poet, these images march on without change. They belong to no one, except perhaps to God."
The work of successive schools has consisted essentially in accumulating and making known new devices of verbal/image arrangement and organization. The artist does not so much "think" in images as "recollect" them.
Our industry which requires balancing creativity and business acumen will benefit from integrating iconology into its cultural fabric.
Iconology was originally inspired by the fleeting, ecstatic figure of the dancing Nymph. Since the dawn of fashion she has animated its visual field. Her figure traverses historic periods, beliefs, artistic styles and proves that forms endure and last bringing along cultural heritage and reverberating the Zeitgeist.
Creativity as Device
Behind every creative act there is a method, a device.
In advertising and branding these methods are used consciously and conscientiously. The main techniques are:
In advertising and branding these methods are used consciously and conscientiously. The main techniques are:
- Calque or strong inspiration
- Assemblage
- Meaning reversal
CREATIVITY AS DEVICE
Frequently Used Iconographic Formulas
While the Industry is abuzz with new concepts and is exploring new territories like Metaverse, its "big forms" (perfume and fashion ads, fashion shows) remain dominated by a few iconographic formulas inherited from Christianity and Antiquity dating back 2-3 millennia:
It is possible to establish an extensive catalogue of such visual formulas, track their frequency, develop algorithms to assist and enrich the creative process.
- Ascension and Flight
- Stairs to Heaven (and back)
- Threshold (doorway) crossing
- Birth of Venus
- Hermaphrodite (as expression of completeness)
- The Tree of Life and Death
It is possible to establish an extensive catalogue of such visual formulas, track their frequency, develop algorithms to assist and enrich the creative process.
The ABCD of Advertising
She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards, and the Mercury Prize
What Else is Possible and Why is It Important?
It is possible to develop visual databases and algorithms that would assist the creative process suggesting various visual solutions for a given theme/product/pose/pattern, ...etc. based on classical art and on current industry applications.
For example, perfume bottle staging can be compared to the symbolism of the vessel in art and ritual (from alchemical retorts to cinerary urns or libation vessels).
It is important to have a visual vocabulary available to foster creativity, not to re-invent the wheel but rather to breach the conventions.
For example, perfume bottle staging can be compared to the symbolism of the vessel in art and ritual (from alchemical retorts to cinerary urns or libation vessels).
It is important to have a visual vocabulary available to foster creativity, not to re-invent the wheel but rather to breach the conventions.
From Sacred to Superfluous
"To inherit something one has to understand it; inheritance is, after all, culture". – Thomas Mann
"To inherit something one has to understand it; inheritance is, after all, culture". – Thomas Mann
Understanding cultural provenance and connotations of an image is like knowing the etymology of a word - it makes it easier to inscribe it into different contexts and enhance or subvert its meaning.
Iconographic Vocabulary as LEGO for Impactful AD Campaigns
Knowledge of classical art and of the symbolic meanings of:
Potentially, AI will assist creation of thematic campaigns by drawing on the vast classified iconographic database of the world visual forms.
- Composition
- Motives
- Attributes
- Characters ..
Potentially, AI will assist creation of thematic campaigns by drawing on the vast classified iconographic database of the world visual forms.
Chanel 2011 S/S campaign is based on the Iconography of the Paradise cycles
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire" - Gustav Mahler
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire" - Gustav Mahler
NARRATIVE
Contemporary luxury brands develop communication strategies for different product categories with diverging life cycles through multiple channels (fashion shows, advertising campaigns, store windows, websites and social media).
This trans-media narrative must remain coherent and recognisable (to remain a brand) while constantly reinventing itself to intrigue and expand the audience.
Most often there is no single Mastermind executing this job but an internal team collaborating with creative agencies focusing on different product categories and media.
A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to develop a narrative structure balancing current FADS & TRENDS (what Baudelaire called the "sugar-coating on the divine cake") with the UNIVERSAL and A-TEMPORAL internal armature would orchestrate work of different departments across categories and touch points and ensure a brand's dynamic stability.
This trans-media narrative must remain coherent and recognisable (to remain a brand) while constantly reinventing itself to intrigue and expand the audience.
Most often there is no single Mastermind executing this job but an internal team collaborating with creative agencies focusing on different product categories and media.
A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to develop a narrative structure balancing current FADS & TRENDS (what Baudelaire called the "sugar-coating on the divine cake") with the UNIVERSAL and A-TEMPORAL internal armature would orchestrate work of different departments across categories and touch points and ensure a brand's dynamic stability.
METAPHOR
Luxury consumption is driven by Desire. Desire is insatiable, it is “eternally extended towards something else*". What can be consumed is the Sign, but not the true Signified (the object of unconscious desire). Consumption is a permanent quest for the concealed object of desire.
Those brands succeed who can weave an arabesque of desire deferral and yet create a viable metaphor in which desire can capture its subliminal object and experience temporal discharge procuring satisfaction.
This concerns not only brand communication strategy but also the sale ceremony.
*Jacques Lacan, Desire and its Interpretation
Those brands succeed who can weave an arabesque of desire deferral and yet create a viable metaphor in which desire can capture its subliminal object and experience temporal discharge procuring satisfaction.
This concerns not only brand communication strategy but also the sale ceremony.
*Jacques Lacan, Desire and its Interpretation
Creating the currency of metaphor or Münze (coin)
“The language of priests are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins ." Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
By giving lustre to old metaphors (used in Antiquity and in Christian religion) successful brands have appropriated some of the religious feeling that provides the sense of belonging not only to a privileged group but a to transcendental a-temporal force/figure of super human potency.
“The language of priests are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins ." Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
By giving lustre to old metaphors (used in Antiquity and in Christian religion) successful brands have appropriated some of the religious feeling that provides the sense of belonging not only to a privileged group but a to transcendental a-temporal force/figure of super human potency.
MY VIDEOS
This series is about forms and meanings that brands appropriate from the cultural legacy and about the values they create and project into society.
BRAND DECRYPTOR PREVIEW
Fashioning Archetypes, Episode 1
Christian Dior 1947-1957. The Philosophy of Love
The Platonic notion of Eros, the topography of the Garden of Love, the triad of the Great Goddess, the birth from the female blossom, the attributes of Catholic Mariology - Christian Dior imbibed all these concepts and transposed them into the dresses that he used to baptise and into perfumes that had "to exude Love".
Fashioning Archetypes. Episode 2.
John Galliano 1996-2011: The Snares of Desire
In its 75 years of existence the Dior brand has epitomised in its narrative major cultural patterns and social trends. This episode addresses the period of John Galliano and demonstrates its multiple affinities with Modernism. Theories of Desire and Seduction are applied to advertising campaigns and fashion shows revealing different aspect of la Femme Fatale and of her interaction with the Masculine.
Fashioning Archetypes, Episode 3
Dior: From the Eternal Feminine to XXI century Feminism
00:00 Feminism and femininity. Three designers, three feminine types
06:05 Christian Dior. Tradition and Transcendence
08:39 John Galliano. The Modernist Genius
11:42 Maria-Grazia Chiuri. The post-modern success.
19:10 From Baroque to Classic. The Sartorial vocabulary of the brand
31:00 The Woman "ONE" or an instance of Duality. The feminine between Past and Present, between Perfume and Couture
48:10 Death and Resurrection of the Subject. The transformation of the Western Subject in philosophy& fashion. Nomad VS Pilgrim in advertising and fashion shows.
01:02:47 The Feminine & The Masculine. Social conventions VS sexual relations. Beauty, Violence and Eros.
01:12:10 Titles
06:05 Christian Dior. Tradition and Transcendence
08:39 John Galliano. The Modernist Genius
11:42 Maria-Grazia Chiuri. The post-modern success.
19:10 From Baroque to Classic. The Sartorial vocabulary of the brand
31:00 The Woman "ONE" or an instance of Duality. The feminine between Past and Present, between Perfume and Couture
48:10 Death and Resurrection of the Subject. The transformation of the Western Subject in philosophy& fashion. Nomad VS Pilgrim in advertising and fashion shows.
01:02:47 The Feminine & The Masculine. Social conventions VS sexual relations. Beauty, Violence and Eros.
01:12:10 Titles
BIOGRAPHY
Svetlana Fateeva-Nalven
Svetlana Fateeva-Nalven
Work: LVMH, Paris; Richemont Luxury Group;
GUM & Bosco di Ciliegi, Moscow
Education: ESSEC MBA
GUM & Bosco di Ciliegi, Moscow
Education: ESSEC MBA
- SPECIALISED EDUCATIONI graduated from the ESSEC Luxury Brand Management MBA in Paris in 2005
- JEWELRY AND WATCH EXPERIENCE. STORE DESIGN, LAUNCH AND MANAGEMENTI started my career in jewelry working for Cartier when the brand was opening its first flagship on the market. In 2005 I was invited to launch a watch and jewelry department at the legendary GUM department store on Red Square while 3 other stores under my management multiplied their turnover. It was a 360° experience from store design to team recruitment, from commercial negotiations to brand portfolio management.
https://gumrussia.com/shops/sublime-by-bosco/ - LVMH STRATEGY DEPARTMENTIt was during my tenure at the Strategy Department of LVMH in Paris while leading a project for the President of the Group that I identified the most exciting aspect of the industry: branding. I completed a semiotic research on a major competitor of the Group and was requested to coordinate a project on communication strategy of the House of the Group between different legal entities and throughout various touch points.
Other projects involved quantitative and qualitative analyses and recommendations from restructuring a retail network of a major company of the Group to revamping a product category within a successful brand. - BRAND_DECRYPTORThroughout my career and specialised studies I identified the lack of a systematic approach to the creative side of the business. It seemed paramount to me to establish a regular link between creative, analytical and management functions in the Industry. Since the birth of our son I have dedicated my time to the development of such a method. As I was teaching the Semiotics of branding at the British School of Design and lecturing to the broader public, I identified the need for this type of knowledge among designers and consumers of fashion and luxury brands. Therefore, I started producing visual content on the subject. Beyond conceptualization this demanded a lot of technical expertise as well as human and management skills.
At the same time, I consulted startups on development of their brand concepts and aesthetic codes such as: silhouettes, shapes, forms, materials, textures, colour schemes, distinctive features and stylistic elements.
TESTIMONIALS
The main purpose of an analysis, a video production or a visual design is the creation of a dialogue with the Other - a colleague, a student, a client. It is in the moments of shared creativity that we experience life to its fullest.
- When I discovered Svetlana's approach to branding it appeared so inspirational and original that I organised a series of her lectures at my design studio at Artplay in Moscow. They were extremely successful and became a forum for cultural exchange.Elena DenisovaFashion Designer
- I am mesmerised by the aesthetics and language of Svetlana's videos. They have the breadth of a PhD thesis and at the same time they are entertaining and easy to watch. It is great to see such in-depth thought about fashion.Natalia Dogadina
- I met Svetlana a few years ago and discovered the universe of fashion semiotics. We have completed a few interesting projects together: we curated the exhibition of diploma projects for the graduates of the BSD, we worked on a launch of a luxury sportswear brand and on a number of educational initiatives. Each time I was amazed at Svetlana's erudition, her capacity to quote and tie together different works of art, music and literature and relate them to the world of fashion and to our students' work.
I am always looking forward to her feed back, videos or posts. They provide a unique insight that I can not find anywhere else.Anna ChernyhHead of the Fashion Design Program at the British School of Design, Moscow, Russia - I had the pleasure to work with Svetlana in a startup project for a luxury sportswear brand. Svetlana was in charge of marketing strategy. I was impressed by the thoroughness of her market research, meticulous study of product attributes and in-depth investigation of sales channels. She developed product positioning and scripted brand narrative both for the launching event and for further brand communication throughout different touch points.Nelly IlichevaPhD in Fashion Technology, Fashion Business Consultant
My name is Korshunova Ekatrerina. I am a student at the British School of Design, Svetlana started teaching a course a few weeks ago. She embodies wisdom and creativity and she helps us understand what we are doing and create fashion design endowed with meaning. Svetlana's lectures were a turning point when I ceased making SKUs and started creating meanings. It is the beginning of a new story for me as a designer –even in my everyday life – the way I think about it now has changed. I am therefore, very-very grateful.
Ekaterina Korshunova, British School of Design, 2020
VLOG / BLOG
Location
Now based in New York City area.
Email
svetlana.fateeva@gmail.com
Telephone
+1 914 229 8945
