By Ruth Rowland
It’s always a compliment to be asked back by a client, so I am delighted that British luxury chocolatier and cocoa grower, Hotel Chocolat, have asked me to create the hand lettering for their Christmas campaigns for three consecutive years.
Based on the lettering style I created for their original witty Christmas campaign, the brief was expanded to include more phrases. Lettered in different formats to work across a range of media, the playful writing highlights individual products and ranges. Do you recognise yourself in any of the descriptions?
Briefed by talented designer, Steph Davies, I started out by producing some initial roughs with brush and ink, for her to discuss with the Hotel Chocolat design team. Once the style was approved, I then started work on a series phrases, taking care that they worked both individually and as a set.
Each phrase was created with a carefully balanced hand lettered lock-up for cohesion throughout the campaign, in various formats, online and in print. It was a pleasure to see my lettering write itself across the screen in these delightful animations - if only it was that easy in real life!
After final approval, the lettering was then incorporated across the whole campaign by Steph and the Hotel Chocolat team. You can find the campaign lettering in store on shelves and in the Christmas Catalogue, animated in windows displays and online, as well as on the Hotel Chocolat website.
This year the Hotel Chocolat Ultimate Chocolate Guide is particularly tempting. I've posted a flip through below, obviously I know you’ll be riveted by my hand lettering and not distracted at all by the pages of gorgeous chocolates...
If you’d like to see more of my hand lettering for ad campaigns, take a look at my Advertising folder or read about my recent hand lettered campaign logo for Daytona Beach.