Fragrance
Shama
A perfume house making oud since 1977, given films for two collections and its Abu Dhabi opening night.
- Video & Film Production
- Campaign Film
- Art Direction
- Photography
- Events & Activations
The Brief
Films, a still-life and lifestyle library, and opening-night coverage for Shama, a fragrance house working since 1977.
The films carry the eaux de parfum: Amiri, Layl, Dahab and Mirage between grey dune sand and lantern light behind a carved arch; Raghad, Taif and Sougha as a trio in smoke; the Oud Ma'attar gift set opened box by box; and Safwa cut vertical for the feed. The photography builds the same world in stills — bottles half-buried in raked sand, mirrors and a plaster arch standing alone in the dunes, coloured leather and satin ribbon, limestone with a vanilla pod and oud chips, and the rosewood and velvet cases that hold the house's own line. Then the house got a room. We covered the opening of the Abu Dhabi boutique — the ribbon, the violinist under the fringed canopy, the fragrance bar, guests trying it on the back of the wrist — as a vertical film and a stills set built to sit inside that world rather than beside it.
The Approach
The line runs wider than one campaign usually stretches.
Square 100 ml eaux de parfum, faceted attars with brushed brass caps, dehn al oud laid in rosewood and olive velvet, mukhallat cartons, incense chips in drawer boxes, an electric bakhoor burner, a gold travel atomiser, a body spray. Photographed flat and together, that spread reads as a shelf. It had to read as one house. The mark gave the way in: the Arabic logotype draws the name as a lit flame and the bottle stoppers repeat that shape in fluted gold, so light rather than product became the through-line and every set was built to be a place where light behaves. The second problem was harder. A boutique opening is the day a brand stops being an image and becomes a room, with a floor, a queue and people inside it. Coverage of that night either belongs to the campaign, or it looks like party photographs filed under the same name.
What we did
The execution.
01
Art Direction
One rule across the whole library: every set is a surface the fragrance could plausibly have come from, or been carried on. Raked dune sand and driftwood for the desert eaux de parfum. Coloured leather and satin ribbon for the ones that live indoors — deep red for Taif, amber for Safwa, and a frame where the leather is torn and the bottle stands behind it. Limestone with a vanilla pod and oud chips where the notes are the story. Olive velvet and rosewood for the dehn al oud. Mirrors and a bare plaster arch planted in the dunes for Mirage, so the name is staged rather than captioned. Nothing floats on white.
02
Photography
The stills library was shot landscape and vertical at once, so one frame serves a page and a feed. Product alone; product set into the world; and a lifestyle thread that puts the house on a person rather than on a plinth — a man at lantern light in a panelled room, the book open, the engraved gold atomiser caught mid-spray. The gift sets have their own build: a lit mashrabiya arch, a crescent moon over dark water, silk bundles and tasselled cords, suede pouches and calligraphy-printed boxes under gold ribbon — a season, not a sticker.
03
Film
Campaign films for the lines, each named for the bottles it actually shows. Amiri, Layl, Dahab and Mirage. The Raghad, Taif and Sougha trio behind the lit arch. The Oud Ma'attar gift set opened box by box. Safwa cut vertical for social. All of them close on the same sign-off: the flame, the logotype, since 1977.
04
Events & Activations
Coverage of the Abu Dhabi boutique opening, produced as a vertical film and a stills set. The ribbon between brass posts banked with coral flowers; the violinist in white under the fringed canopy; the fragrance bar, the attar discovery tray, guests testing on a wrist and a collar; the gold logotype backlit on sage-green joinery. Shot in the room's own palette, so the coverage cuts straight into the campaign instead of interrupting it.
Shama · Film
The films.
What we did for Shama
One team, 2 disciplines.
Creative Production
Creative direction and content that brings the brand to life.
Events & Activations
The brand, live — key visuals and coverage.
Tell us what you need — we'll pre-fill the rest.
Work with us like Shama didA house, a room, and an audience standing in it.
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