Total Mattness
A global campaign that turns Smeg's matt finish into a design language.
Six matt shades, each with its own natural world. A campaign about the finish more than the products.
Matt is everywhere. Smeg wanted it to mean something.
Matt finishes are everywhere in today's homes. Smeg asked for one global platform for its whole matt range, small and large appliances alike, so that a kettle and a range cooker would speak with the same voice.
The brief was to present matt as a design system rather than a list of products and colours, keep the brand premium, and give each shade a character of its own.
“Matt absorbs light. It deepens colour and softens volume.”
So we started from the finish instead of the appliances. If matt changes the way light behaves, the light was the story.
Total Mattness: every shade is a place.
Each of the six shades got its own natural world, made of landscapes, textures and sensations: a horizon for Storm Blue, warm earth for Amber Clay, the night for Black, clouds for White, living green for Emerald Green, soft light for Moonlight.
Nature holds it all together, and it links the finish to the rooms these products actually live in.
Six shades, six invitations.
Each colour story pairs a product with its world and a single line, written as an invitation:
- Storm Blue: Let your spirit wander, vast as the open horizon.
- Amber Clay: Let warmth settle gently, like earth beneath the sun.
- Black: Let your eyes wander into the depth of the night.
- White: Let your thoughts float, light as clouds.
- Emerald Green: Let your senses awaken, full of living energy.
- Moonlight: Let natural light settle in, softening everything around you.
Light and surface: a finish you can almost touch.
On social we split the finish into its two sensations. Light is about how matt balances tones and draws clean lines. Surface is about touch, the soft feel and the texture of the material. We used architectural sets, stone plinths and controlled shadows, so the finish is the first thing you notice and there's never a reflection.
“Photography and AI generation in the same frame.”
Every image in the campaign is a mix of real photography and AI generation. Working with both, we could keep the products true to life (the matt finish, the colour, every detail) and still produce many more scenes, angles and variations.
At this scale, that was how we could meet the brief. A global platform needed key visuals, six colour stories, carousels and adaptations for every format. Working this way we made a lot of images in much less time than usual, all following the same art direction: controlled light, depth, softness, no reflections.
One visual world for everything Smeg makes.
- Concept and art direction: the Total Mattness platform and its visual rules (controlled light, depth, softness, no reflections).
- Key visuals: one master, adapted into ten formats for digital and advertising.
- Colour stories and social: a story for each of the six shades, plus carousels about light and surface.
- Photo + AI production: photography and AI generation in one workflow, with small and large appliances in the same scene, delivered fast.
- Hero film: directed with the same rules for light and material.
- Based in
- Milan, Italy
- Currently
- Senior Art Director at INDACO
- Ask for
- Spe