Look Design: shaping the visual identity of a story
When we talk about a look in film and advertising, we tend to think of the final stage: color correction, a LUT, a last-minute creative tweak. In reality, it works the other way round. The look is not something you “apply” at the end: it is designed from the very beginning.
Look Design is a creative, technical and narrative process that defines how a project should feel visually before the camera even rolls. It is the root from which decisions in cinematography, production design, make-up, lighting, VFX and, of course, final color grow.
A look is not a LUT. It is the interaction between contrast, color palette and texture, placed at the service of a story.
JR Lorenzo1. The starting point: the Look Book
The process begins with a document of intent: the look book. This is where the project’s aesthetic vision is condensed and the creative team aligns around a shared visual language.
In it we gather pictorial and cinematic references, color palettes, lighting approaches, desired textures and emotional keywords. This document is built in collaboration with the director, cinematographer and production design, and becomes the project’s compass: without a look book there is no look, only scattered intuitions.
2. What is a look made of? Three fundamental pillars
In a professional environment, a look is not a filter or a preset. It is a visual architecture designed from three pillars that always work together: contrast, color palette and texture.
2.1 Contrast: the emotional structure of the image
Contrast defines the backbone of the look. It determines the separation between lights and shadows, the depth of the blacks, the behaviour of highlights and the sense of volume in skin and space. Hard contrast can make a scene feel tense and sharp; soft contrast can take us to a more intimate, enveloping tone.
2.2 Color palette: emotional grammar
The color palette organises how the colors of the film or campaign should behave: aesthetic dominants, saturation levels, the relationship between primary and secondary colors, treatment of skin tones and which hues should stand out or recede into the background. The palette is not there just to “beautify” the image: it is pure visual dramaturgy.
2.3 Texture: the soul of the (digital or analog) negative
Texture encompasses everything that makes the image breathe: grain or film emulation, micro-contrast, halation, perceived sharpness,
optical response, controlled aberrations or atmospheric density. It is probably the most subconscious component of the look and at the same time
one of the most powerful when it comes to evoking analog cinema, digital hyperrealism or documentary rawness.
Film grain is not cosmetic; it is a chemical reaction. Most digital grain is a layer pasted onto the image and simulates noise rather than behaviour.
Grain modulation should be relative to contrast, with diffusion in highlights and real halation. Its distribution must be sensitive to density across
all luminance zones. At LORENZO Colorlab we treat texture with the rigor it deserves.
Designing a look ultimately means designing how contrast, color and texture interact to tell a story in a way that feels recognisable and coherent in every shot.
3. The science of the look: camera tests and technical trials
Once the aesthetic intent is defined, it has to be turned into something reproducible on set. For that, we carry out camera tests and technical trials that allow us to understand how the sensor responds in different conditions.
We work with LAD charts, color charts, exposure variations, different color temperatures, lenses and filtration. These tests lay the foundations of the project’s “creative negative”: a starting point on which we can build a stable, reliable look throughout the shoot.
4. From intent to tool: building the design LUT
With the pillars well defined and the camera tests completed, we move on to the creation of the design LUT, the “digital negative” that will accompany the project during production. This LUT is not the final look, but it is its operational translation: it allows direction, cinematography and editorial to see an image that matches the original intent while the project is still in motion.
At LORENZO Colorlab, these LUTs are created in DaVinci Resolve on top of color-managed workflows (such as ACES – Academy Color Encoding System) and can incorporate sensor-specific responses, simulated textures with different tools, as well as custom DCTLs (DaVinci Color Transform Language) when the project calls for it.
5. LUT Stress Tests: making sure the look is solid
Before approving a design LUT, we put the look through a series of stress tests. The goal is to ensure that the image remains stable and believable in extreme situations:
- Behaviour in highlights and shadows.
- Response across a wide range of skin tones.
- Scenes with extreme color dominants (sodium, neon, fluorescent, etc.).
- Different exposure levels and shooting conditions.
- Use in exteriors and interiors with very different contrast ratios.
A LUT that breaks under these tests is not a look: it is a risk that will show up sooner or later on set or in post-production.
6. From set to grading suite: consistency throughout the pipeline
A well-designed look does not stop on set: it extends throughout the entire pipeline. In post-production, the work relies on color-managed workflows (ACES 2.0), HDR / SDR deliveries, Dolby Vision profiles and specific transforms for VFX and online, so that the image maintains its visual identity at every stage.
When Look Design is well thought out, the colorist does not “invent” a look at the last minute: they complete it. They refine, adjust, model and bring to full expression something that was born in pre-production.
7. Look Design at LORENZO Colorlab
At LORENZO Colorlab we see Look Design as a central piece of our work in film, series and advertising. We combine research, a deeply cinematic sensitivity and color science to design looks that are both emotionally resonant and technically robust.
Our work includes:
- Creation of look books for film, documentary and commercial projects.
- Design of creative LUTs for set and editorial.
- ACES 2.0 workflows and HDR / Dolby Vision deliveries.
- Cinematic stock emulation and advanced texture design.
- Visual support from pre-production to final master.
If you are developing a project where look, color and texture are an essential part of the narrative, we can help you design the visual identity it needs from day one. Get in touch with us or call us directly.
