- Shelly Peleg
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
Your name
Thomas Hervé
Link to concept website
Your creative role and link to your own portfolio website
Art Director & Designer — https://www.hervethomas.com
Instagram: @thomasherve_studio
1 / Tell us a bit about yourself, your role, and how you found your way to a creative career
My name is Thomas Hervé, I’m a Parisian Art director and Designer. After a BA in visual communication a while ago at ECAL(CH) I established myself back in Paris to run my art direction and graphic design studio where I also co-founded HTTB.EU together with Tristan Bagot. Through these two structures and the support of various collaborators, I solve problems within the field of visual communication.
Over the past few years, websites have become a major focus in my work. Designing, consulting and collaborating with an international clientele across a wide range of sectors, predominantly within image, fashion, and art-related industries.
Occasionally, I’m lucky to take part in teaching during workshops, jury sessions and talks for fashion and design schools such as ECAL (CH), Penninghen (FR), and IFM FR).
2 / Please explain the concept of the site in a few words
Waterworks blends ambient soundtracks along with presenting from over 50 Dutch waterworks developed across Japan during the Meiji era when the Japanese government invited Dutch hydraulic engineers “watermannen“ to help improve Japan’s water infrastructure.
The Waterworks site acts as both an interactive archive and catalog base that showcases geographically these engineers structures in geographical contexts. A digital exhibition space where visitors can explore fluidly between soundtracks and spots.
3 / What led you to create this website — was it a personal project, collaboration, or commission?
This commissioned project is the initiative of dutch music label Field Records run by Arjan Rietveld & Sebastien Robert, with the first goal of being presented under the dutch pavillon at EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.
4 / What was the main inspiration — visual or thematic — that guided you in the process of this website?
Thematically, the inspiration is obvioulsy water itself: fluidity, interconnectedness, and movement.
Visually, it is a tangible sense of place. The goal was to create an experience that feels immersive, both intuitive and engaging to explore with the help of a floating transparent UI to maximise the map’s visibility and discovering content in a non-linear way.
5 / Share any tech details, special tools or web-design features you included, or any behind-the-scenes information
The website was developed in collaboration with Arvin Leeuwis, who handled the technical development. It was built with custom code and tailored CMS. The interactive map was build with fully customised theme.
6 / Walk us through the design process of the map
The site is primarily driven by the map as main layer. Its design evolved through constant dialogue with the team. The biggest challenge was determining how far we could reduce textual and topographic informations, to explore how abstract the map could become without losing meaning while pushing it toward something more abstract.
7 / What role does music play in the website? How did you approach the decision-making around this feature?
Sound was an essential part of the brief from the start, from the label’s initial concept. Websites that use sound can be challenging both due to browser restrictions and because users generally don’t like unexpected audio. In this case, though, the ambient tracks feel completely natural, enhancing the experience and inviting you to keep listening. It shapes the atmosphere of the site and connects the different locations. The records themselves, through their ambient quality, define the overall rhythm and tone of the experience.
8 / What web-design project are you working on currently?
Currently working on few exiting E-commerces of various scale, for both existing and emerging brands. Along with some showcases sites for talents and production agencies, a big museum website and an artist, a photographer and a director portfolios.
Thank you Thomas!
