About Origine
Strategy, creative direction, and production under one roof.
Every brand we work with started with someone who cared deeply about what they were building. Whether that is a product, a practice, or a mission, our job is to make sure the brand carries that same care at every touchpoint.
I spent seven years as a senior strategy consultant at IBM's experience agency, leading enterprise engagements in experience strategy, design thinking, and digital transformation. I led workshops, directed cross-functional teams, and helped organizations like Bank of Montreal, Sally Beauty, and McKesson make decisions about how their brands show up at every customer touchpoint. That work taught me how large organizations build brand experiences and where those decisions break down between departments, between agencies, between the strategy deck and what actually gets built.
From there I moved into creative direction and production, working with brands like American Express, Sephora, and TAG Heuer. Later I led brand strategy at Signifly. One rebrand we directed grew retail sales 150%, and our work on BMO’s digital banking platform earned a Red Dot Design Award in 2024. I was seeing the same problem from the other side: strategy that never made it to the screen, and creative work that had no strategy behind it.
Origine exists to close that gap. One studio where the strategist is also the creative director. Where the person who builds the positioning also directs the first campaign under it. One relationship at a time. For brands where meaning is not a marketing angle but the reason the business exists.
The production side of my practice runs under my own name at nicolasabou.com.
Origine means the source. The place a brand begins before anyone sees it. The reason the business exists, before the logo, the website, or the first campaign. That is where every engagement starts. Not at the surface. At the root of what makes it yours.
Strategy and creative direction are not separate steps here. They grow together. That is how brand work compounds over time.