Conceptional objective:

There is no better time of the year than Christmas. The meeting, greeting, and eating with friends and family – we are all inspired by the cornucopia of emotions that it brings. Most of these are overwhelmingly positive but it is always humorous to poke fun at some of the niggles.

That was the inspiration for the P&W Christmas card 2023. Over the last three decades we have crafted physical cards using carefully chosen materials. This year we decided that a wholly digital approach was the only option that seemed appropriate.

Creative response:

P&W’s 2023 Christmas Card design involved a bespoke continuous line drawing style, where a single, unbroken penmanship forms a ‘timeline’ associations that go hand in hand across the festive season. These ‘perfect pairings’ consisted of different sets of P’s and W’s taken from the company’s initials.

This illustrative style was combined alongside a clever animation effect that brings the timeline to life, taking us through the pairings one by one, creating a visually stunning story.

P&W’s approach began with the illustrative design, created in Adobe Illustrator, where each pairing was crafted and coloured shapes were applied over the top of the lines to elevate the drawings. Once all of the illustrations had been mastered, and the timeline was formed and the animation process could begin. Using Adobe After Effects, animated effects were applied to the continuous line giving the sense of them being drawn up in real-time and the camera would follow the tip of the line throughout its horizontal journey from the start to finish. Paul Klee called this “taking a line for a walk”.

A carefully selected audio track was sourced and manipulated to complement the visual display bringing the final touch to the uplifting and feel-good Christmas campaign.

Commercial conclusion:

Most importantly the festive season must culminate into an optimistic spirit and that was an essential part of our message. Our solution this year seemed to make a real connection with: clients, friends and family. As John Lennon put it “give peace a chance” (even at Christmas)!