The Unexpected King

HOPE CITY CAROLS SERVICE'22/

2023.02.14

Overview

The story of the birth of Christ, the unexpected King.Unexpected in many ways because nobody would've thought that the King of kings and the saviour of our world would be born in a manger, surrounded by livestock in a small Middle Eastern town. It wasn't a luxurious, glamorous or regal birth by human standards, but it was exactly how God planned it to be. This is the theme chosen by the church for our 2022 carols' service

Shots

We decided to do things very differently with this one. Going in the opposite direction of what one would expect a Christmas production to look like.
Heavily driven by illustration and graphic elements, this gave us the room to be able to create many interesting forms of imagery
Most of the imagery created was heavily abstracted and stripped down to the core representation of each frame, without clutter and absolute focus on the story being told
It challenged our thinking and approach to what Christmas could mean, and our church community welcomed the story with open arms, viewing it from a perspective they've never seen before.

Creative Direction

Running with the 'unexpected' theme, we decided to do something different creatively. Taking a step away from the usual classy, winter, snowy vibes most people are used to for Christmas. We went back to the story and it's setting, highlighting the main elements surrounding Christ's birth; putting that front and center. We were also inspired by the cold lonely night of the birth, the warmth of the middle east and the colorful culture of both Bethlehem, & Africa where we find ourselves.

Brand Identity

Identity

Influenced by the birth of Christ in an Arabic country & the star that directed the wise men to the manger; the typography, visual motifs, color schemes & the general design language was made to properly reflect the actual story of the birth of Christ. A perspective that we feel has been ignored in the wake of Christmas being associated with winter, snow and classiness. But there was nothing classy oilsegal about the birth of this King and we drove the concept home with a strong visual representation that is very different but memorable.