Alo Handbag
Product Launch
When Alo came to us to help visualize a completely new product category, we saw an incredible opportunity to build a visual world that felt unmistakably Alo, while giving their new handbags a distinct identity of their own.
The brief was straightforward: create two films showcasing four new handbag assets, balancing product accuracy with an atmospheric and elevated expression of the brand. Our creative direction was guided by a set of keywords: air, breath, yoga, quiet luxury, brass detail, and shadow play.
The challenge was to introduce the handbags in a way that felt premium and visually engaging, while connecting naturally to the existing world that Alo has built around movement, wellness, and refined design.
We started by looking beyond the handbags themselves. Instead of only presenting the bags as finished product objects, we explored the physical qualities and materials that could surround them: leather, wire, crystal, brass, perforation, light, shadow, and air. These elements became the building blocks for the visual language.
Our early R&D explored a series of ways the product could be discovered, constructed, and activated.
A crystal could push through rock and a fractured landscape, suggesting something rare being unearthed. Wire could coil and tighten around it, turning tension and precision into a signature detail. Two planes of leather could pull apart as the camera travelled through the opening and landed on the completed bag. Perforated leather could become an abstract field of light, while folds of leather could transform into an almost architectural landscape.
Additionally, we looked at the bag's material movement as a storytelling device, and a mechanism for revealing the products. A drawstring could orbit the frame and pull the camera into the next shot. A cinch could tighten and transition into the silhouette of the finished bag. A continuous drawn line could travel across the screen, tracing seams, handles, edges, and hardware before resolving into the object itself.
One of the key challenges was ensuring that the handbags remained the hero without allowing the work to feel like a series of isolated product renders. We needed to establish a consistent visual system while still creating moments that highlighted the individual details of each bag.
The solution was to build the world around the products rather than placing them inside a predetermined environment. Every material, transition, movement, and lighting moment was designed to reveal something about the bags while contributing to the larger visual language.
Our collaboration process also played an important role. Before each WIP stage, we held a creative workshop to align on direction and make decisions together. This created a stronger shared understanding of the work early in the process and helped reduce feedback as the project progressed.
Once we established the visual language, we translated the strongest ideas into a cohesive system that could work across two films and four different bag assets.
The films were developed in Cinema 4D and Houdini, giving us control over the physical relationships between leather, hardware, wire, crystal, light, and movement. Each bag needed to remain accurate and recognizable, while existing within the same elevated visual world.
AI was used experimentally during early stages, primarily to explore certain CG shots. This allowed us to test ideas quickly and understand which visual explorations were worth developing further before bringing them into the final CG production.
The two films became the final expression of this visual language: a series of controlled, tactile moments where the handbags emerge through material, movement, light, and shadow.
Instead of revealing the handbags up front, we wanted the viewer to encounter fragments of the material first: a flash of brass, a perforated surface catching light, leather moving through the frame, a crystal emerging from material, or a cinch tightening. The camera moves through and around these elements, gradually revealing how they relate to the finished bag.
This visual approach allowed the products to feel tactile while maintaining the sense of movement and restraint at the heart of the Alo brand. The final silhouettes become the payoff: the moment when all of the individual materials and movements resolve into the final product.
A World of Its Own
The films were launched across Alo’s social media profiles and website, providing the brand with a campaign system for introducing their new collection through their digital channels.
The project demonstrated how to approach product launches as opportunities to build worlds around objects, rather than simply displaying them. The handbags became part of a visual system where leather could move, light could reveal, materials could transform, and the product could emerge through the process itself.
Ultimately, the project brought together concept, craft, technology, and visual identity to give a new product category a world of its own, while making it feel unmistakably Alo.
Client
AloCreative Director
Daena Lorne
Directors
Pablo Alfieri, Daena Lorne
Art Director
Runbo Chen
Production Company
Tendril
Design + Animation
Bureau Klaus Alman
Model
Bureau Klaus Alman
Lighting + Render
Bureau Klaus Alman
Compositing
Corey Larson
Executive Producer
Ivelle Jargalyn
Producer
Ashita Narang
Music + Sound Design
Niko Hook
