We had the pleasure interviewing Jakub Hiermann, perfumer and Tomas Ric, creative director and CEO and on their creative drivers and plans.

Where do you seek and find inspiration for your perfumes? And once inspired, what is your creative process?

“Really anything can be an inspiration. I was inspired by the architecture of the First Czechoslovak Republic to create the “Ad Libitum” perfume. I very much admire the architect Adolf Loose. I imagined his masterpiece villa Müller, the interior, how life flows there, its inhabitants, and what they looked like. I researched and found out what kind of ingredients were being used at the time. Each ingredient evokes something different. At that time for example citrus, wood and moss were very popular, almost essential for any scent. I took that inspiration found the matching high-quality ingredients and based my creations on them. For example, my scent “Erotikon” is inspired by the first erotic film ever, and it is of course no coincidence that it was made in Czechoslovakia. At that time we -as a country- were among the cultural powers. In this very delicate film, the main character manages to seduce the man of her dreams thanks to perfume. I do enjoy playing around with ideas hence my inspiration can come from a book, music, a picture, or even a love affair.”

What are the greatest challenges you and the company have faced? And how did you, or do you, deal with them?

Tomáš: “The biggest challenge is to find the right balance between our creative ideas, the growth of the company, and, of course, time and cash flow. In other words, we have so many ideas that we would like to realize, but the right time will come soon. Pigmentarium is 4 years old by now, which means that half of the life we had to deal with the covid situation. We could not present new scents directly to the clients so we have to think further about creative projects and new ways of communication, thus, we created an Instagram filter to transfer the emotion of the scent or produced, in collaboration, a signature cocktail. It was fun, actually.”

What led you to perfumery and the founding of Pigmentarium?

“My love for perfumes has been with me since the early days. When I was a child my grandmother used to travel a lot and always brought us perfume flacons as travel souvenirs from her trips. I used to live in London for 6 years and one day I found out about a perfume course which I was very excited about and, of course, signed up immediately.”

You have participated in a range of artistic art collaborations. How important are these to you? And do you have any more in the pipeline?

Tomáš: “Very much. Art and craftsmanship are core values of the brand. Pigmentarium collaborates with artists, supports them, buys them, and mainly thanks to them we are able to tell our story more precisely without a word. Of course, we have many more in the pipeline. You just have to wait a little longer to discover them.”

Do you have any favorite smells and perfumes? Are there any fragrances you wish you had created?

“I am always in search of special scents and unique combinations. I smell on everything, especially my friends, they are my focus group and they are already making fun of me telling me that I sniff on them all the time.
The most I do love the smell of the fresh bakery, Irises from my grandma’s garden, Marseille soap… but for example -even though it sounds odd- I also love the smell of wired fox-terries, it’s a really special, unusual powdery smell that actually makes you want to cuddle with them all the time. That’s probably a secret of Mother Nature that I’ll never be able to copy and create.
The fragrance I wish I would have created is Kouros by the Master perfumer Pierre Bourdon. Essentially I do love perfumes from the 1970s, they smell like money.”

Prague, May 2022