Fortnum & Mason Christmas Range

Agency: Design Bridge
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Fortnum & Mason
Location: London, UK
Packaging Contents: Various Christmas food items

A festive feast for the senses: Design Bridge design new packaging for Fortnum & Mason Christmas range

Following the success of the new designs for the brand’s Handmade English Chocolate range last year, Design Bridge were invited to work with Fortnum’s on the visual identity for the brand’s range of 107 Christmas products. The challenge was to capture the magic and wonder of the festive season, and reflect Fortnum & Mason’s position as the ultimate Christmas destination for Londoners and visitors alike. Partnering with illustrator Kristjana S. Williams, Design Bridge have created a series of beautifully illustrated frames for the packaging which unite all items in the range and which have inspired in-store decorations that help unify this year’s Fortnum & Mason Christmas experience.

Chloe Templeman, Design Director at Design Bridge explained, “We wanted to conjure all of the sumptuous tastes, smells and colourful sights of a bountiful Christmas feast with all the trimmings. Our designs centre around a square frame, like a Christmas table at home, with an array of vibrant and intricate illustrations bursting from within. Each frame is a lively assortment of illustrations including some of Fortnum’s favourite seasonal delicacies, fruits, berries and signature candlesticks and toy soldiers, that together create a mood of joyful celebration and festive cheerfulness.”

Design Bridge also wove symbols from the Christmas carol ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ into the design, as well as exotic birds, butterflies and woodland animals that add a sense of charm and eclecticism to the nostalgia of a traditional Fortnum & Mason Christmas. The team commissioned renowned illustrator Kristjana S. Williams to create each individual item before layering her beautiful illustrations to make the frames for the packaging.

Design Bridge created a total of five frames for use across the range, each one containing a number of interchangeable illustrations to ensure that no two frames are the same across the 107 products. One of the challenges was coming up with a flexible design that could be used on everything from tins of biscuits and jars of cranberry sauce, to boxes of mince pies and Christmas crackers. The frames not only look beautiful and reflect the wonder and awe of the perfect Fortnum & Mason’s Christmas feast, they also visually unite the range as one.

Design Bridge also developed a new Christmas colour palette for the range that includes a deep red, rose gold and a richer tone of the ‘Eau de Nil’ colour. On some of the items they also turned the square frame of the label into a transparent window to showcase the superior quality of the product within.

Design Bridge also created the tone of voice and copywriting for the range, as Holly Kielty, Creative Director, Brand Language, explains, “I had the enviable job of doing taste-testing to ensure that our idea of the ultimate Christmas feast was carried forward into the copywriting and matched the beauty and level of detail of the illustrated frames. To capture the sense of vibrant culinary celebration and appeal to the senses, we developed descriptors such as “A feast of fruity festivity” and “A scrumptious side for everything festive.” Elsewhere the copywriting hints at seasonal food pairings and Christmas traditions.”

Zia Zareem-Slade, Customer Experience Director at Fortnum & Mason commented, “Fortnum’s is the home of Christmas. We’ve been making Christmas merrier for people for over 300 years and people expect nothing but the best from us. It was important to create a design that combines a sense of tradition with the contemporary but also has the stylish, wit and elegant charm synonymous with Fortnum’s. We feel this has been beautifully realised through working with Design Bridge & Kristjana – the end result is remarkable – a gorgeous gift for the foodies in your life and beautiful enough to present on your table.