We wanted to create a simple but unique touch in the look and feel. We wanted it to resemble some of the incredible iconic images captured of Ali under the ring lights. It needed the aesthetic to be stripped back so it would never sacrifice the power of Ali's words, Yasiin's performance or Niels' art to elaborate production design or flashy camera moves. We ended up re-imagining the ring as a stripped down theatrical stage, an unmistakable and magical atmosphere where both artists would feel free to work and express themselves without restraint while capturing their raw and breathtaking performance.

The Louis Vuitton Journeys campaign has been featuring some of the world’s most exceptional individuals who live exceptional lives. Muhammad Ali’s actions had been an inspiration for millions during the 60’s, helping to change the world at the time. But 40 years later what was the best way for people to rediscover this iconic figure?

We found out that Muhammad Ali “slammed”, creating visionary poems. To pay tribute, we invited Mos Def, actor, rapper and spoken-word artist of “Def Poetry”, to reinterpret 4 of Muhammad Ali’s poems. He was passionate about Ali and had been influenced by Ali very early on and was one or our ardent supporters of the campaign. He had a similar life experience to Ali as he has recently changed his name from Mos Def to his Muslim name “yasiin bey”, coming out in the open about his religion to the public, a difficult move to make.

Visually, Louis Vuitton has had a history of working with great artists like Stephan Sprouse or Yayoi Kusama creating incredibly strong graphic statements associated with the brand. To enhance the beauty of these 4 poems, we asked world-renowned calligrapher Neils “Shoe” Meulman to transcribe one word from each poem into a unique calligraphic artwork in the boxing ring. Neils had moved from street art in his youth when he tagged Paris, New York and his native Copenhagen, to the modern art world, with his work in the permanent collection of the MOMA in San Francisco. When he was young, Ali symbolized change and this had inspired him when he was painting in the streets. When Neils and Mos Def (yasiin bey) met to talk about the project the meeting was creative and one of extreme collaboration.

We started with the print campaign done by Annie Leibowitz. To help people to understand the impact that Ali had, and still has on the world, the ad invited people to soon discover Ali’s great words on louisvuittongreatestwords.com. At the same time a teaser was launched parallel, to the over 10 million Louis Vuitton fans on Facebook. Then, in July the “Louis Vuitton Greatest Words” mini-site hosted the four videos that were, at the same time, posted to the LV fans. Influencers from the fashion world and the music industry picked up on the campaign and the fire started.