Yves Geleyn is a storyteller to his core. He possesses not just a wide range of creative styles and techniques, but also a profound devotion to exposing the small truths that make any story worth telling. For him, technique functions to support the story, not the other way around.
Luckily, Yves is a true master of both. He has a giant toolbox of techniques, but his innate instinct for unearthing the finer details is what makes his work so powerful.
Maybe it's because the details of his own story are so interesting in themselves. Yves was born to a German mother and a French father. His childhood was defined by a mosaic of moveable homes and travels, growing up in Britain, France, Germany, with myriad adventures around the world. His world was an empty canvas, where he could funnel his curiosity—arguably Yves' most defining personality trait—into whatever inkblot shape his passions du jour led him to. He attended rugby school. He attended culinary school. Eventually, he discovered the world of graphic design and motion graphics and fine art.
Over the years, Yves has directed numerous short films and commercial campaigns that have earned him industry awards and major international recognition. His work Monster in the Closet explored the subject of safe gun storage with a powerful and haunting story. His 2014 holiday spot for UK retailer John Lewis, The Bear and The Hare, took the festival circuit by storm and still receives applause from all sides of the industry to this day. His 60-second spot for McDonald’s, Always Working, was aptly indicative of Yves’ quest for perfectionism; he and his team of fifty people spent 12 intensive weeks bringing the spot to life.
Yves is a self-admitted perfectionist. From start to finish, he’s hands-on. By intimately knowing everything possible about a subject matter, he’s able to create an almost subterranean story below the main narrative—something not everyone can see at first, but that they can feel in the finished work. And the finished work has a simple, sweet, timeless quality - like poetry.
