Merry & Bright

Each year our festive greeting adopts a different format – grown from a meaningful idea and developed into something beautiful by our design team. Last year we delighted recipients with a build-your-own Christmas tree poster, which was a lovely opportunity to step away from the screen and get crafty. In 2015 we partnered with local chocolatiers, Dorset Chocolate, to design bespoke packaging for their delicious confectionery.

This year Gold was on the cards, literally, with a number of projects and clients associated with the precious metal – in particular our exciting website project for Commonwealth Games England. Sparked from a single word, we set about exploring the idea “dipped in gold”.

After trialling 10 different paints, and testing its interaction with various stocks, we settled on a combination that would complement our Christmas message, “Merry & Bright”.  We hand-picked 4 brightly coloured cards from the kind folk at GF Smith, embossed them with our festive message and began working through the mountain of paint tubs in the studio.

The idea didn’t stop there though. What better way to embody the word “Merry”, than to gift a few delicious bottles of red wine to recipients to enjoy over the holidays. Sourcing a European wine with a black neck and an easily removable label was a tough feat, but after taste-testing a few options (in the interests of business, of course) we settled on a rich, old-world, Spanish red.

We’ve spent many years pouring love and effort into bespoke Christmas cards and gifts, but this year has certainly been a significant labour of love for Salad. It was a project that we all invested in, with everyone sprinkling a little gold dust into the creative process at one point or another.

As designers in an increasingly digital world, we scarcely get the opportunity to ditch the pixels and produce something palpable (without a Command-Z quick fix). But our more traditional, handmade approach has resulted in a collection of beautifully unique Christmas cards. Each one may have its imperfections, but in truth, they’re part of the charm. And when stood next to the standard supermarket multipack card, we hope they’ll bring something a little more special to the line-up.