At Pimento, we’re kicking off a new format: conversations with creatives shaping the future of brand storytelling. For this very first edition, I had the pleasure of speaking with Louise Bonizec, a brilliant art director and early adopter of AI in visual creation.
In our chat, Louise walked us through a recent project with Diggers, a vintage thrift store in Marseille, and showed us exactly how AI can be a game-changer for small brands — especially those working with limited budgets and big ambitions.
Who is Louise?
Louise has been an art director for over eight years, mostly in the fashion industry. Her career began in motion design — 2D animation, special effects, and post-production — before she dove into the world of digital fashion media. There, she learned how to translate client briefs into striking visual campaigns for major brands like Chanel and Nike, all while staying true to her creative values.
About a year ago, Louise felt the urge to reconnect with her tech-driven creativity. That’s when she discovered AI as a creative tool — and everything changed.
A Creative Challenge: How to Sell Unique Vintage Without Showing the Clothes
Working with Diggers brought a very specific challenge. Since all the clothes in the store are one-of-a-kind, any piece shown in a campaign might already be sold by the time the post goes live. This created a huge gap between visuals and reality — and potential disappointment for customers.
The brief was simple yet tricky:
- Don’t show actual products, as they sell out quickly.
- Keep the brand’s core identity — especially its tagline: “Thanks AdVintage.”
So how do you create a fashion campaign without using real clothes? That’s where AI stepped in.
The Role of AI: A New Creative Ally
For Louise, AI wasn’t about replacing the creative process — it was about enhancing it.
She kept her traditional workflow: start with a client brief, build a moodboard, define art direction, create visuals, and refine everything in post-production. But AI made each step more agile, more flexible, and more cost-effective — perfect for small brands like Diggers.
Using the Pimento platform, Louise generated visuals of stylized studio shots that aligned with the brand’s values — all while never using actual inventory. She created two custom AI-generated models — Billy and Ellie — and trained them to consistently reflect the brand’s vibe. These characters now embody the brand across multiple campaigns, offering rare consistency for a store with constantly changing stock.
Co-Creation with the Client
One of the most striking takeaways from this project was how deeply collaborative the process remained — even with AI involved.
Louise worked closely with Chloé, the founder of Diggers, to integrate key brand values like diversity (a plus-size model was a must), color identity (purple accents were added in post), and a timeless editorial tone.
The campaign was carefully co-built:
- Louise selected the visuals.
- Chloé refined them with brand insights.
- AI simply helped execute their shared vision.
Why Pimento?
What made the process seamless was the consistency Pimento offers — combining a recognizable visual style, reusable characters, and a smart prompting system to keep everything cohesive.
Louise also praised Pimento’s “Answer Your Prompt” feature, which helped her refine descriptions, improve precision, and elevate each image’s creative intent. The result: a complete campaign that feels human-crafted, emotionally rich, and visually aligned — even though none of the models or clothes technically exist.
Results: 10 Campaign Visuals, Zero Product Photos
Together, Louise and Chloé produced a series of 10 campaign images, carefully curated and delivered in multiple formats (feed, stories, LinkedIn, etc.). Chloé is now releasing them progressively across her channels — building engagement without ever needing another shoot.
Most importantly, this project unlocked a path she’d been imagining for months but couldn’t afford to execute — until now.
The Future of Art Direction in Fashion
We closed our conversation by reflecting on the future of creative work.
For Louise, AI is becoming like 3D — a technical tool to serve a creative vision. The human role is not diminished but elevated. The better the brief, the more precise the direction, the more powerful the result.
Skills like cultural sensitivity, visual taste, and aesthetic curation are more relevant than ever. And for small brands, AI offers not just productivity — it offers possibility.