Two French artists were hired to do production design for The Fifth Element.
Jean-Claude Mézières ( [ mezjɛʁ ] ; born 23 September 1938 ) is a French comic strip artist and illustrator . Mézières has also worked as a conceptual designer on several motion picture projects -- most notably the 1997 Luc Besson film , The Fifth Element -- as well as continuing to work as an illustrator for newspapers , magazines and in advertising . Jean Henri Gaston Giraud ( [ ʒiʁo ] ; 8 May 1938 -- 10 March 2012 ) was a French artist , cartoonist and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées tradition . Mœbius also contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction and fantasy films , such as Alien , Tron , The Fifth Element and The Abyss . The Fifth Element . Comics writers Jean `` Moebius '' Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières , whose comics provided inspiration for parts of the film , were hired for production design .