An orange christmas
Every year, Daan celebrates Christmas in a big way, and each year the Christmas experience has a unique theme and brand identity: the Daan Christmas experience. In previous years, the Daan Christmas experiences were quite similar, featuring dark green colors and images of Christmas trees.
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For the 2023 Christmas experience, I had full responsibility for the concept and execution. This year, I wanted something different: an orange Christmas! Daan is all about orange, and that doesn't change, not even at Christmas.
Moodboard en concept branding
The ideas for an orange Christmas were approved by both the event manager and the marketing manager. I drew my inspiration from elements of previous years and from Pinterest. Orange is the central theme, and to create a strong contrast, I chose the same approach as in previous Christmas styles.
I decided to use traditional Christmas decorations, but adapted to the Daan brand identity. The orange Christmas theme will be carried through in the Christmas packages, on our social media, in email campaigns, and the main highlight: the distribution event. While these are still in development, I can already share an overview of the products.
The christmas packages en identity
From this point, I focused on the appearance of the Christmas packages, which would set the tone for the rest of the style. In the early sketch phases, I tried to find a balance between the Christmas feeling and the bold orange color. The challenge was to avoid it becoming too kitschy or tacky. After numerous inspiration sessions and feedback rounds within our team, we concluded that we wanted to draw more inspiration from Christmas patterns.
These patterns are often found on "ugly" Christmas sweaters, but they also evoke a warm Christmas feeling. With great enthusiasm and new inspiration, I continued experimenting with various patterns. To ensure that the Daan brand identity and branding remained intact, I incorporated some recognizable elements from our other online materials, including the dotted lines, the Christmas ball logo, and hearts.
The Christmas package
The Christmas package is made up of numerous elements to recreate the Christmas feeling. At the bottom, I incorporated the pattern that seamlessly continues on the sides and back.
The orange section creates a silhouette of a hill with a few Christmas trees on top. The dark green section at the top provides a nice contrast and immediately evokes the atmosphere of the dark winter days. In the center of the front is the Daan Christmas ball logo, surrounded by snowflakes.
The sides contain informational elements, such as a QR code that leads to the Christmas jingle, and a short text explaining the concept of the package: together, let's go out.
The backpack for the professionals
The most exciting product in the Christmas package for our professionals is the backpack. My main goal was to design a bag that everyone would want to use for a long time. The combination of black and orange works excellently together. By using orange for the zippers and pockets, it creates a luxurious appearance. The Daan logo with the bounce effect adds more dynamism to the design. The inner lining features the image shown here, which is a seamless pattern of our dotted lines with the Daan logo. I worked closely with the supplier to ensure that this design could come to life.
Picnic blanket
Just like with the backpack, I applied the design to the type of product. By researching picnic blankets, I came up with this design. This time, it's bright orange, but incorporated into a checkered pattern commonly seen on picnic blankets. To further emphasize the Daan look, I added one of our taglines, "Jij bent de leukste" (You are the best). The cover has a simple design that is characteristic of the Daan brand identity. The marketing manager had some doubts and wanted a design with Daan brand images and stickers. This led to two different designs, but in the end, I managed to convince everyone that the checkered pattern design was the right choice.
Kodak printomatic
The design is very simple, but that's what makes it powerful. It complements the shape of the camera and fits well with the recognizable Daan brand identity. By using two areas, the top and bottom are distinguished from each other. The flash and the viewfinder have an orange accent. The sleeve is derived from this and brings more dynamism through the angled area and product photo. The images on the sleeve are photos from Daan, staff parties, winter sports, and the summer festival.
Christmas package (staff)
The presentation of all the products is an important part. In addition to the picnic blanket and the camera, we also have these products for our internal staff. They all fit within the theme "Together on the go."
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The bag, thermos bottle, and laptop sleeve will be engraved. All products were assembled by the marketing team, and both the event manager and I conducted thorough research and contacted various suppliers to make this happen and execute it. The designs were coordinated with the supplier and implemented based on the available options.
Christmas package (professionals)
For our professionals, we had to make careful choices that fit within our budget. As a team, we decided to offer these products: a lunchbox, picnic blanket, and backpack. This perfectly aligns with our "Together on the go" theme. This way, they can easily carry their lunchbox and picnic blanket in the backpack and enjoy a lovely picnic together, perfect for the spring and summer period.