The educational projects offered at Spéos regularly place students in situations that closely reflect professional practice. In July 2026, around twenty students took part in a creative challenge based on a communication brief inspired by the French perfume house Annick Goutal.
Working in small teams, they were given less than five days to develop a creative reflection on how a perfume house can express its identity and uniqueness. Their proposals were presented during a final pitch before a jury assembled for the occasion.
A brand challenge as a learning experience
Annick Goutal is renowned for its sensitive and poetic approach to perfumery. The challenge was built around the brand’s universe—French heritage, authenticity, emotion, and its signature, The Language of the Heart—as the basis for a pedagogical exercise.
The objective was to propose a contemporary vision while respecting the values, history and craftsmanship associated with the brand. Students first developed a strategic concept before illustrating it through creative photography and video proposals.
This project was entirely educational: the aim was for students to experiment with a creative methodology and professional workflow, rather than to produce content intended for commercial use.
An immersion into a real-world creative project
Throughout the week, the teams were coached by Antoaneta Metchanova and Denis Quimbrot, who guided them in refining their concepts, artistic direction and recommendations.
After several days of research, production and preparation, the students presented their projects during a final pitch to their coaches and representatives of the brand, who provided professional feedback on their work.
This experience allowed them to tackle every stage of a communication project: understanding a creative challenge, building a strategy, producing visual content and defending their ideas in front of professionals.
Three award-winning projects
At the end of the presentations, three teams were recognised by the jury.
Commercial Photography Award
Look Again, Beauty Is There
Olga Theofila, Elias Leridon and Matthieu Muller.
Photojournalism Award
What Remains
Luke O’Shea and Sacha Belloir.
Special Jury Award
Awakening
Agnese Garrone and Antoine Leven.
These awards recognised the creativity, quality and relevance of the students’ responses to the challenge.
Learning through experience
Beyond the creative challenge itself, this workshop proved to be an invaluable learning experience. In just a few days, students had to analyse a communication challenge, develop a strategic recommendation, produce visual content, and present and defend their work.
It is exactly this type of hands-on experience that prepares Spéos students for the expectations of the professional world, illustrating the school’s teaching philosophy based on practice, real-life scenarios and immersive creative projects.