Challenge

The Chinese community in Canada faced discrimination, hate, and bias amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2020 and 2021 reports of workplace discrimination against Asians grew by 348%, denial of service grew by 187%, cyber racism increased by 73%, and shunning by 52%.

As the Lunar New Year approached, the client, TELUS, wanted to create a red packet design that would bring positivity and harmony to the community. The challenge was to create a design that would reflect the cultural significance of the festival and TELUS’ brand identity while appealing to the Chinese community.

Insights & Strategy

To understand the Chinese community’s cultural beliefs and values, we conducted research that led us to discover that the Chinese zodiac identified 2023 as the year of the Rabbit, a symbol of longevity, harmony, and prosperity. These cultural insights became the foundation of our design process, which focused on incorporating the Rabbit as a positive sign in the Red Packets design. The Yin-Yang concept was also introduced to represent harmony, polyphony, and equality.

Execution

The design incorporated a traditional illustration of the bunnies, reminding people of the sanctity of the festival rooted in traditional patterns. The two rabbits are shaped in Yin-Yang and surrounded by Lunar-New-Year-themed items, including tangerine (a symbol of luck), longevity peach (a symbol of long life), fireworks (a symbol of celebration), gold ingot (a symbol of wealth), flower (a symbol of prosperity) and other culturally relevant items.

We created two colour variations of this design: one in traditional red envelopes and the other in purple. The colour red is widely associated with the Lunar New Year across different cultures. The colour purple is not only the TELUS’ brand colour but also a symbol of luck, fortune, and spiritual awareness in different Asian cultures.

Results

As a giveaway, the Red Packets were strategically placed in stores located in densely populated Chinese communities such as Vancouver, Richmond Hill, Markham, Richmond, and Toronto amongst others. The designs were in high demand as Chinese communities ushered in the year of the rabbit with a renewed energy and positive outlook.