Stef HamerlinckMascot studio
The seahorse was already there.
Guylian had a seahorse on every box. Nobody had ever brought it to life.
Gilly is that seahorse, finally given a face, a personality and a world. Inspired by Guy Foubert, the chocolatier who started it all in 1958.
The seahorseGillyA two-minute launch film about how they met, inspired by Guy and Liliane Foubert. One holiday on the Belgian coast, a swirl in a coffee, a chocolate souvenir.
Gilly is the chocolatier. Giving, expert, sincere and a little fussy. He loves making something and handing it to somebody else, and he never eats it himself.
Warm, generous and never happier than when someone else is smiling. You spot him from across the room: glassy copper-gold fins, a soft ribbed sage body, a tuft of copper mane and big amber eyes that miss nothing.
The Belgian coast, late sixties. Marble, copper, sage panelling and checkerboard floors, framed flat-on and symmetrical. Warm lamplight inside, cold grey sea outside.
Here, seahorses float whatever they focus on and drift as if underwater, in rooms that are perfectly dry. The sea is never far away. And the hotel changes with the seasons: Christmas, summer, a shop window.
Gilly isn't the only one. Every seahorse in this world floats, carries things on its own little current and never grabs. Same fuzzy ribbed body, same glassy fins, each with a personality of their own. Lilly is the artist who marbles everything she touches. The old regular has had the same seat at the bar for forty years.
Gilly turns up wherever there is a gift to give. Behind the café counter, in a shop window, under the Christmas tree. One line is enough to put him in a new scene, and he always looks like himself.
Gilly behind the café counter, serving a coffee
With our new seahorse mascot, we wanted a character people connect with emotionally, while staying true to our premium identity. Finding the balance between warmth, distinctiveness and sophistication was the challenge, and the result captures it beautifully.
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