While most of the world wraps up the Western New Year’s celebrations, Vietnamese people are starting to prepare for the biggest and most important holiday of the year: the Vietnamese Lunar New Year or Tết Nguyên Đán.
Abbreviated Tết, the date of the lunisolar-calendar-based holiday changes annually, with this year’s festivities happening on January 29th, 2025. Tết is a holiday about family reunions, paying homage to ancestors, celebrating new beginnings, and gifting traditional presents to loved ones.
Unlike Western gifts, most Vietnamese ones offered during this holiday abound in symbolism and traditions, carrying the country’s cultural essence at their core. Aiming to highlight the importance that the Lunar New Year gifts carry but also to “pay tribute to [their] valued customers who have been creative with [them] during the past year,” consulting agency and branding studio A Novelty Creative was challenged with developing a New Year Gift Box that is traditional — almost ceremonial — while being sprinkled with modern elements.
The “Ất Tỵ 2025” concept mirrors the habits people embrace around this time of the year: The priceless moments families share and create around a pot of Banh Chung, the peaceful pagodas times, the vivid decorations proudly worn by markets and cities, and the dynamic lion and dragon dance ceremony.
The Ho-Chi-Minh-City-based studio further highlighted the festive vibe of the Gift Box by including traditional architectural elements within the packaging design, choosing the image of the unique window frames to creatively outline the Calendar as well as the Red Envelopes.
Following a minimalist design style, the agency picked a red color palette to underline its meaning in the Year of the Snake; Tỵ represents the sixth sign in the Vietnamese Zodiac and is astrologically associated with Fire.
Although the design is already an outstanding visual statement, the Scanimation effect turns the red envelope into an eye-pleasing poem, enabling users to interact with the zodiac sign in a unique manner. The Year of the Snake is thus an experience that can be enabled once the users pull the inner card of the envelope, allowing them to catch the silhouette of a snake making its way out of the card.
CREDITS
Creative Director & Graphic Design: Angles / A Novelty
Graphics Motion: Long / A Novelty
