Giorgi Popiashvili

I think in visuals, my memory is visual, every emotion, feeling, or even neutral bit of information is translated into imagery in my head. Visual perception is clearly my primary way of orienting myself in this vast and incredible universe.

This process works both ways—visual language is also how I communicate back with the world. Disciplines and professions are secondary to me; I am equally fascinated by any expression that exercises the mastery and the elegance of the visual language.

Graphic Designer

A major influence on my career was my father, an architect who worked as a graphic designer. Watching him work introduced me to visual language and graphic software early on.

Old Boys Branding
Label designs
Occupied passport cover

Art Director

Beyond visual aesthetics,
I have always been drawn to simple, smart ideas. Advertising was the ideal space for this, as it revolves around original ideas expressed through visual language.

Mercedes / Smart ParKing
Greenpeace

Film Director

After collaborating with dozens of film directors, I decided to step into directing myself. After directing over 20 commercials, in 2024, I wrote and directed my first short film. Being on film production set is one of my greatest creative joy!

Claptocracy short film
Alan Watts
Museum without frames
Ikano + Nirvana
Director’s Reel
Floating Gravestones

Artist

During two decades in advertising and commercial art, I always felt a pull toward fine art and crafts. Currently, I am pursuing a master’s program in painting at The New York Academy of Art.

Paintings
Drawings
Milk Mug
Giordanno Bruno Candel
Film Photography
City Cam OCD
Invisible Wall - Statue concept

giorgi@popiashvili.com
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City Cam OCD

By shifting time, not position, I align multiple people onto the predefined, invisible grid, revealing a hidden order within real-life randomness.

City Cam OCD is my ongoing personal project. I screen-record live city camera streams from around the world and examine them frame by frame.

I look for moments when a person naturally appears at a specific point. I don't alter or move the figures—each one is shown exactly where they were in that moment.

USA / New York / Times Square

SPAIN / Madrid / Callao Square

JAPAN / Tokyo / Shinjuku Crossing

MEXICO / Mexico City / Constitution Plaza

FRANCE / Nancy / Place Stanislas

Invisible Wall

Statue concept

3D Scanning: Archil Lazariashvili, Levan Bakhia

Music: Nils Frahm - Re
Video footage was created using stock images & generative AI - Veo 3

Poem by: ChatGPT
Voice Over: Elevenlabs

Behind every wall we tore down,
There was nother.

No bricks.
No wire.

Harder to point at.
Easier to walk into.

They don’t block tanks,
Just glances,
Ideas,
Certain kinds of people.

We don’t build them exactly.
They just appear.

Like fog.
Like habit.

By the time you notice,
You’re already on the wrong side.

Floating Gravestones

I came across drone photos from 2022. One showed a cemetery permanently submerged due to rising sea levels. It made me wonder—will we need floating gravestones? What will those future cemeteries look like? How will we grieve?

Music: Nestor's Saga (The Tale Of The Ancient) by Jack DeJohnette and John Surman

Footage created using Veo 2 / Veo 3 / DALL·E 3 generative AI.

Branding for coworking
space “Old Boys”

In Georgia, school desks were more than just furniture—they were canvases for unfiltered creativity and expression.

Students carved, scribbled, and doodled everything imaginable on their desks—insults, sketches, nicknames, love confessions, and plenty of crude drawings. Over time, these layered expressions vanished as schools replaced old desks. But I couldn’t forget them.

Logotype

Bag

One of the actual desktops found in my school.

When my friends at Old Boys asked me to create their branding, it all clicked. I searched for surviving desks, reaching out to people and scouting schools. Most had been renovated, but at my former school, I found eight worn-out desks filled with extraordinary visual history.

Business cards.

I digitized the desk artworks and built a brand identity around it.

More than nostalgia, these desks captured creativity, collaboration, and untold stories—etched into a shared surface.

Example of a social media content.

Mug.

Launge space wall decoration.

Badges.

Shirt

Label designs

I mainly focus on wine labels, although I do different packaging projects. There are many reasons I love working on wine labels. First and foremost, I love wine—it's an incredible product and culture. Winemakers are fascinating, unique people, and we get along well. Beyond that, designing wine labels is a multidisciplinary craft that combines many of my interests.

One of my first clients was so pleased with my work that they offered me a three-month sommelier course. During that time, I truly fell in love with the world of wine. While I haven’t yet succeeded as a winemaker, I’m happy to contribute to the industry as a creative, helping winemakers find the right visual language for their products.

Natenadze’s Wine Cellar

Tsinandali Estate

Pirali Distillery

Occupied passport cover

In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. The war lasted only a few days, but its impact never faded. Even now, 20% of the country remains under Russian occupation, and many Georgians are barred from parts of their own land. Yet outside of Georgia, few people are aware of this ongoing reality.

Getting the world to pay attention isn’t easy, especially for a country 250 times smaller than Russia. That’s why Giovanni Morra, a Georgian accessories brand focused on self-expression, decided to take a different approach. Instead of just raising awareness, they created something tangible:

A passport cover that is 20% occupied—just like Georgia.

A practical item that carries a powerful message, turning every journey into an opportunity to start a conversation and make this issue impossible to ignore.

Product Idea - GIOVANNI MORRA team
Case video:
Art Director - Juarez Rodrigues
Copywriter - Vicky Jacob-Ebbinghaus

Case Study

Smart ParKing

During my internship at BBDO Proximity Berlin, I came up with a stunt idea for Smart ForTwo—turning a test drive into a city-wide game of musical chairs with Smart cars. The agency brought the idea to life after I left to continue my studies, and the project went on to win two Silver Lions at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.

Credits:
Wolfgang Schneider - BBDO Germany, Chief Creative Officer,
Jan Harbeck/David Mously - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Creative Managing Directors,
Max Millies/Marius Lohmann - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Creative Directors
Idea: Giorgi Popiashvili
Marius Lohmann/Rene Bieder/Nicole Nikolopoulou/Nina Mendez BBDO Proximity Berlin, Art Directors
Max Millies/Nicolas Linde - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Copywriters
Dirk Spakowski - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Managing Director
Sebastian Schlosser - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Client Service Director
Steffen Schumann - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Account Director
Joris Jonker/Anne Hohmann/Irina Hartung - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Account Manager
Yassin Taibi/Rene Bieder/Sebastian Heidfeld - BBDO Proximity Berlin, App Concept
Silke Rochow - BBDO Proximity Berlin, TV Producer
Steffen Gentis - BBDO Proximity Düsseldorf, Head Of TV
Cobblestone Filmproduktion / Berlin, Production Company
Juri Wiesner/Nora Hässner - Cobblestone Filmproduktion, Producer
Anna-Lisa Reinfurth/Robin Niehoff/Philip Teltz - Cobblestone Filmproduktion, Production Assistants
Ben Ramson - Location Manager
Kai Klinke, Director
Kai Klinke, Director of Photography
Max Millies - BBDO Proximity Berlin, Script

Greenpeace
Posters

I developed the communication idea and visual solution for this Greenpeace campaign, which aimed to inform people that GMO products contain genes from insects and other living organisms. The campaign went on to win a Silver award at the Epica Awards.

Credits:
Agency: BBDO Moscow
Brand: Greenpeace
Art-director: Giorgi Popiashvili
Layout: Fabiano Marques
Photo: Goran Tacevski
Copywriter: Ilya Petrov, Tanya Moseeva
Client service: Anya Bogdanova
Creative Director: Andrey Illiasov

Reel

I’ve worked many times as an art director or creative director on production sets, primarily for TV commercials. Over time, I gained the confidence to try directing myself, and now I have over two dozen commercials in my portfolio. I love the concise storytelling format of TV commercials.

This compilation includes videos I’ve directed. While I haven’t updated it in a while, it still reflects my interests and style in direction.

Claptocracy - short film

At the start of production, I told the crew there was no project more important than this one—and I truly meant it. The idea had been with me for three years before I could finally bring it to life. My friend, George Bokhua, once shared an episode from The Gulag Archipelago, where people were forced to clap for an exhausting 11 minutes until one factory director took the risk of stopping—only to be arrested and sent to a Siberian prison that same night.

As someone who had always dreamed of making a short film, I immediately envisioned an 11-minute real-time piece capturing the fear of an audience afraid to stop clapping.
Beyond the creative challenge, the film’s message is deeply personal.

Born and raised in Georgia, a nation long resisting Russian dominance, Claptocracy is not an abstract concept to me. I have witnessed wars, invasions, and the tightening grip of authoritarianism. The urgency of this struggle became even more real when our close friend and team member, Giorgi Okmelashvili, was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for protesting the so-called “Russian Law,” a bill imposed under Kremlin influence in 2024.

We dedicate this film to Giorgi Okmelashvili.

Production: Enkeny Films
DOP: Omar Gelashvili GCA
1st AD: Tamar Shubitidze
Poster Photo: Ninutsa Jakeli

Trailer