On Giving Form
I work where existing realities meet possible futures, bringing cultural understanding and human connection into creative form.
Creative form may take the shape of an identity, an image, a space, an experience, a system or a way of working and living. It may also begin as a language, a shared direction, a different way of seeing what is already there or the conditions that allow something to emerge. For me, it is the point at which something sensed, understood or imagined becomes perceptible, meaningful and possible to act on.
Giving something form begins before anything is made. It starts with curiosity about what something actually is and what it stands for. That curiosity has to come before the brief, before the concept, before any decision about how something should look or feel.
That is how I have always worked. Understanding a context before proposing anything, letting research inform the direction rather than the other way around, and experimenting with materials and ideas before turning them into a system.
Investigation and experimentation are not stages that lead to the real work. They are how the work takes shape. Sometimes making translates something understood. Sometimes it is how we understand it in the first place.
Form also emerges through genuine exchange. This is particularly true when working with organisations, which I understand as living systems shaped not only by structures and strategies, but also by relationships, habits, tensions and patterns of behaviour. Listening, thinking alongside the people you are working with and for, noticing what is beginning to emerge and understanding what they are actually trying to achieve can be as important as deciding what to make next. It also means being invested enough to push back when something is not right.
I believe in leaving things better than I found them. Not creating dependency, but building capability. The most useful contribution is one that gives people greater clarity, confidence and ability to carry the work forward.
Biography
I am a Creative Director, Senior Creative Advisor and Artist based in Berlin. Over the past 15 years, I have worked across creative direction, communication strategy, branding, photography and visual storytelling in Germany, Brazil and the UK.
I studied Communication Design in Hamburg and left Germany shortly after graduating. First London, then São Paulo, where I spent several years as a partner at Pharus Design, working across branding, editorial and creative direction while building a practice as a commissioned photographer in advertising and brand imagery. Clients during that period included The Coca-Cola Company, Google, Nike Brasil, Natura Cosméticos and Itaú Unibanco, among others.
Brazil changed how I think about making things. The creative mindset, the warmth, the willingness to experiment and the emphasis on feeling shaped a way of working that has stayed with me since.
Back in Europe and based in Berlin, I worked as Creative Director and later Senior Creative Advisor at Whybrand, leading mainly B2B creative work for industrial and technology companies while continuing my photographic practice. Over time, my photography developed into a personal artistic practice exploring questions of identity, belonging and the human experience. Find more on libotte.art
Working closely with complex organisations deepened my understanding of what creative work means beyond individual projects: how to hold a brand together across many stakeholders and decisions, how to build trust over time and how to protect the quality of the work while navigating different perspectives.
Going independent clarified what I wanted to build. Not an agency and not a studio, but a practice that brings together creative direction, photography, investigation and artistic exploration. AL – MA works with organisations, brands and places that are trying to understand what they are becoming and how that might take form.
Alongside my work in creative direction, I trained in change facilitation and systemic organisational development. This expanded my understanding of organisations as living systems and of how relationships, participation and patterns of behaviour shape the way people work and change.
Alongside AL – MA, my wife Adriana Takeuchi Libotte and I founded Space of Hearts, an ongoing exploration of more human ways of being together. Through gatherings, conversations and creative experiences, we create spaces for connection, creativity and collective imagination. Built on the belief that warmth, care and genuine connection matter more than ever, Space of Hearts invites people to slow down, reconnect and remember that we were never meant to do this alone. Find out more at spaceofhearts.studio
Contact
Recognition & Awards
German Brand Award — Excellence in Brand Strategy and Creation, Brand Communication Print MOTUS C14, Wöhner (2023)
German Brand Award — Brand Innovation and Business Model, Brand Innovation of the Year MOTUS C14, Wöhner (2022)
German Design Award — Special Mention, Communication Design MOTUS C14, Wöhner (2022)
Annual Multimedia Award — Silver, Websites & Microsites Future Systems (2022)
Internationale Wirtschaftsfilmtage — Prix Victoria Silver, Imagefilm, Sinit (2022)
Brazilian Design Awards — Bronze, Communication Design É Tudo Nosso, Nike Brasil (2019)
Brazilian Design Awards — Gold, Exhibition Design, Grand Prix, Ambient Design HMF, Coca-Cola Brasil (2018)
iF Design Award — Communication YouTube Insights, Google Brasil (2018)
iF Design Award — Communication Café Leão, Coca-Cola Brasil (2017)
Selected for the 12th Bienal of Graphic Design, São Paulo (2017)
Teaching
Experimental Design, Freie Schule für Gestaltung Hamburg
