Creative agency OTHERWAY have created a dazzling packaging and campaign for Fortnum & Mason, created in collaboration with celebrated Berlin-based artist Olaf Hajek — and brought to life by Studio AKA. 

Commissioned to reimagine Fortnum’s Christmas 2024 packaging, OTHERWAY has spent the past year collaborating closely with the iconic retailer’s product and design teams. The result is a rich, storytelling-themed design concept dubbed ‘Tales of Christmas’, showcased across more than 100 products—from handcrafted Christmas Puddings to Festive Teas. 

Rooted in the narrative language of storytelling, the collection features festive characters, intricate frames, and patterns in a luxurious Georgian inspired Christmas palette. The packaging brings to life the provenance of each product, celebrating the joy of togetherness and seasonal splendour. Renowned for his vibrant, nature-infused artistry, Olaf Hajek hand-painted a series of detailed scenes that blend nature and artifice. These illustrations became the foundation for OTHERWAY’s creative vision, adding depth and enchantment to the designs. 

To elevate the launch, OTHERWAY in close collaboration with Fortnum’s marketing and brand teams, partnered with Studio AKA and director Marcus Armitage to create a series of animated 15-second films featuring five hero products, with an additional 30-second film bringing all of the action together in one place. The animations, inspired by the tactile, paper-like quality of Hajek’s illustrations, combine CG product and photorealistic food renderings, with 2D textures in a whimsical stop-frame style reminiscent of childhood memories. 

The products are set against a beautiful yet simple patterned background to keep the focus on the new items being showcased. With so much happening between the 2D paper-cut illustrations and CG products, it was important not to overcomplicate the films. This multi-media approach was central to Otherway’s brief for the campaign, honouring the tactile and cosy spirit of Hajek’s illustrations while highlighting F&M’s products in all their glory. Both elements posed fun technical challenges for us to overcome, animating Hajek’s designs faithfully to the world he created and building photorealistic renderings of the food products.

In addition to the animated films, we created a stills campaign featuring billboards, as well as both print and digital posters. It was a joy to bring this campaign to life and to collaborate with the great teams at Otherway and Fortnum & Mason. The stills campaign amplified these elements with explosive compositions and even more gold to draw you in. Keep an eye out for these delightful (and mischievous) creatures during your holiday shopping this season!

“Working with both Otherway and Fortnum & Mason on this project was a delight. Each character has a unique personality that we tried to match up with the product it lives in — The Crackerdile, explosive and dramatic, bursting out of the cracker. The Starling, relaxed and motherly, sipping on a warming cup of tea. The Pelicans, playful and argumentative, fighting over who gets the coin. We had such great source material in Olaf’s illustrations and Fortnum’s beautiful packaging, making our task that much simpler: Bringing to the screen what we do best, charming and characterful animation that is immediately engaging.”

— Dir. Marcus Armitage