Prince Gyasi Brings Accra’s Colour To Martell’s Heritage

Prince Gyasi is entering a new venture with Martell, bringing his highly recognisable visual language into one of Cognac’s most established houses. Announced on 6 October 2026, the Ghanaian artist has been appointed Creative Partner, opening a longer term collaboration spanning film, design, cultural experiences and future Maison initiatives. It is a natural meeting of two worlds: Martell’s centuries of heritage and Gyasi’s contemporary approach to colour, identity and storytelling.

Gyasi’s work has always operated across photography, fashion, art and design, with colour playing a defining role in how he constructs his images. His perspective is strongly connected to Ghana and Accra, while his work has increasingly travelled into international fashion and culture. One of his early major creative projects came through Apple, when he created A Great Day in Accra, photographing Ghanaian musicians and using the project to spotlight the country’s hiplife scene to a global audience. He later became part of Converse’s Create Now. Create Next. campaign, placing his work alongside a roster of international creatives.

Fashion has become another significant part of Gyasi’s practice. He collaborated with Balmain and Olivier Rousteing to reinterpret The Little Prince through imagery for the house’s Fall 2022 collection, before taking the relationship further for Balmain’s Fall 2024 menswear collection, where his photographs were translated onto garments. His visual world has also intersected with Off-White, while his growing relationship with fashion has established him as an artist capable of moving between image making, clothing and broader creative direction.

His appointment with Martell now gives that practice a new setting. The first expression of the partnership comes through a film conceived by Gyasi and directed by TJ Sawyer at Château de Chanteloup, Martell’s historic estate in Cognac. Instead of simply documenting the Maison, Gyasi approaches the location as material for his own visual language, transforming the Château through colour, movement and atmosphere. Martell describes the film as a meeting between the calm of the French countryside and the energy of Accra, creating a visual conversation between two places and cultures.

The collaboration also follows a period of significant recognition for Gyasi, including his appointment as the photographer behind the 60th anniversary edition of the Pirelli Calendar, where he photographed figures including Naomi Campbell, Angela Bassett, Tiwa Savage and Idris Elba. His work has consistently moved between established institutions and contemporary culture without losing the visual identity that made it distinctive in the first place. That ability to enter established worlds while bringing his own perspective is precisely what makes this Martell partnership interesting.

For Martell, Gyasi represents the Maison’s engagement with African creativity while giving its heritage a new visual vocabulary. For Gyasi, it adds another major cultural institution to a growing body of collaborations that stretches from Apple and Converse to Balmain, Pirelli and now Martell. The Château de Chanteloup film is the opening statement, but with further films, experiences and creative initiatives planned, this looks like the beginning of a much larger conversation between Cognac, Accra and the wider contemporary creative world.