COLETTE NATIONAL is a research-led studio practice working across image, space, and object.
Founded by Sarah Hein, the studio brings together photography, creative direction, production and spatial design, object-based work, and curation. Drawing on a background in image-making, fashion, material practice, and fabrication, projects are developed with an understanding of both how things are constructed and how they are ultimately perceived.
The studio's work considers the relationships between body, object, material, and environment — and the ways composition, proportion, and context can shift those relationships. This thinking may take the form of an image, an environment, an object, or move between them over the course of a project. Creative direction extends across the studio's practice, bringing together research, concept development, and visual, material, and spatial thinking to establish the direction of a project. COLETTE NATIONAL may develop a project from its earliest conceptual stages or contribute to a specific aspect of an existing commission.
COLETTE NATIONAL develops commissioned and self-initiated work for fashion, design, art, and cultural contexts.
Based in Los Angeles.
001 — IMAGE
We approach image-making through research, intuition, and a close reading of the subject and its cultural context. Each project begins with visual investigation, drawing connections across photography, fashion, art, design, and material culture to develop a point of view specific to the work.
From this research, we develop a visual language specific to the project. Photography and experimental processes translate that language into a distinct visual point of view, responsive to the identity, audience, and objectives of the work.
Photography within COLETTE NATIONAL is led by founder Sarah Hein, whose practice moves between analog and digital processes and may extend into print and material experimentation.
Photography / Creative Direction / Editorial / Campaign / Still Life
002 — SPACE
Spatial projects begin with consideration of the complete visual environment and the specific purpose it needs to serve. Research into the subject, cultural context, architecture, design, and material language informs the development of each concept and its visual and spatial identity.
Our approach draws from production design, fashion, photography, fabrication, and material practice, bringing an understanding of both physical construction and image-making to the development of a space. We consider how scale, proportion, material, and atmosphere shape the experience of an environment and how that environment translates through photography, film, performance, or live presentation.
Projects include sets, environments, installations, and presentations, developed in collaboration with the fabricators, artists, and specialists appropriate to the work.
Production Design / Set Design / Spatial Design / Installation / Runway & Presentation
003 — OBJECT
Our object practice brings together material research, fabrication, design history, and an ongoing interest in the relationship between form, function, and perception. Projects develop through close attention to material, proportion, construction, and use, with processes ranging from fabrication and casting to textile work, assemblage, and collaboration with specialist makers.
Furniture and objects may be designed, commissioned, sourced, or brought into new relationships through curation. An understanding of historical and contemporary design informs this work, particularly the way objects carry cultural associations and establish relationships with the body, an image, or the space around them.
The studio develops singular works, furniture, functional and sculptural objects, prototypes, and editions, both independently and in collaboration with artists, designers, brands, and cultural partners.
Object Design / Furniture / Editions / Material Studies / Curation & Sourcing
RESEARCH ATELIER / CNRA
The Research Atelier is the independent research practice within COLETTE NATIONAL, providing a structure for ongoing experimentation across image, space, and object and for questions that may not yet have a prescribed form or outcome.
Research may begin with an object, material, image, process, or observation and develop through photography, fabrication, casting, textiles, assemblage, and spatial studies. These investigations create a working archive of material tests, prototypes, images, and objects that can evolve over time and establish connections between otherwise separate areas of the studio.
Some studies remain independent works; others develop into editions, installations, images, objects, or larger collaborative projects.