The world as it is simply isn’t enough for Geoffrey Lillemon and Anita Fontaine, aka design duo Champagne Valentine. Not content with the world’s physical properties, they endeavor to add a digital layer on top; one that takes elements of their visually hyperactive, fantasy-like aesthetic to create luxurious, mixed-reality worlds for people to immerse themselves in. It’s a tall order – redesigning the world – but one the duo, who understand not only the tech but how to creatively execute on these platforms, are amply equipped to do.

Lillemon, a Fort Worth, Texas-native, and Fontaine, who hails from a small town close to Brisbane, Australia, met while studying mobile application development at the Banff New Media Institute in Canada. Even their initial meeting flouts the normal order of things in favor of something lusher.

“There are these really nice natural hot springs in Banff and I saw Anita walking through this huge misty overtop area with a glacier in the background and she was applying lipstick inside one of the natural hot springs,” recalls Lillemon.
“Geoff [in turn] was popping a bottle of champagne and I was really thirsty,” says Fontaine.

They have since collaborated on a range of work in the digital landscape, from online campaigns for Diesel and VH1; audio-reactive live concert visuals for Paul Oakenfold’s 2008 world tour and a Napster campaign, for which their film was
broadcast in a public space with a microphone sensor that  allowed participants to remix the filmed content using their voice.

It’s the projects that Champagne Valentine are currently prototyping however – the duo makes a habit of developing projects first and then shopping them to clients later – that are the most retina-meltingly awesome.

Interested in the migration of traditional media into the digital space, the duo envisions augmented reality music videos broadcast onto the viewer’s body. They’re currently developing an iPhone app that uses GPS technology to deliver rich media content that correlates with the user’s location. And, in their most impressive melding of the physical world with interactive fantasy worlds, they’re proposing an interactive mirror. So, for example, if a Prada shopper was trying on a garment and checking how she looks in the mirror, a garden would start to bloom in the reflection, rose petals and all falling off the clothing.

“We want to take elements that people can relate to,” says Lillemon, whose thoughts on their approach is perfectly finished by Fontaine: “And make technology have more emotion.” Q

> The artist on the art
“We just spoke at OFFF in Lisbon and visited a castle called the Quinta da Regaleira while we were there. The garden surrounding the castle is filled with alchemical and sacred connotations and we embarked on an impromtu photoshoot. Our friend Eva Vermendal looked so regal in a photo that we based the concept for this piece around her powerful and queenly spirit.”

www.champagnevalentine.com