Designing a Holiday box for Purolator Inc.
Purolator is one of the top national shipping companies here in Canada. So when I received an email via my contact form asking me to complete work for them - I honestly thought it was another scam. I don’t know about you — but I get a lot of scam emails and calls! Like I wake up to them and I receive them all day. It is not ideal. So, when I started reading this email from Purolator’s Marketing firm, I thought “Yeah, yeah, sure”. Then I saw that they’d booked an appointment with me, and the realness hit me!
The weeks to follow were a bit of a blur. I hopped on a Zoom call with 12 other artists and designers across Canada a few days later for a project briefing. I was extra excited when I signed on and saw that Jud Haynes from Newfoundland was also on the call. I’d seen him speak a couple of years earlier at the Islands design conference, Dotgain, and had a great chat afterwards at Craft Beer Corner. So it was nice to have our paths cross again professionally. He waved when I signed on and I don’t know if it was at me but I’ll take it 😅.
Within a couple of days of our briefing, our initial sketches were due. To my relief, they required close to no edits outside of making sure I spelled everything correctly.
I felt it was important to recognize the Island’s rich indigenous history in the design. Prior to settlers arriving on the Island, the Mi’kmaq people were the lone occupants of Epekwitk and they took great care of the Island. I consider every day I spend here to be a gift - from those who were here before us.
I reached out to L’Nuey, a non-profit organization on the Island that works hard to preserve Mi’kmaq history and educate Islanders. I was honoured when two representatives from the organization responded and helped me find the appropriate symbolism to represent their heritage.
From our conversations, I landed on including some beautiful ornate details on an ice skater’s coat, and including the Mi’kmaq translation of “Winter in PEI” on the box. I arranged these translations in order of historical significance- Mi’kmaq, French, followed by English. A large thank you to Jenene and Annie from L’Nuey and Robin Gallant from Eventurous Consulting for assisting me with these translations.
On the Indigenous skater’s coat, you will find three symbols. The L’Nuey symbol for The People, the double curve motif, and the eight-point star that represents the Mi’kmaq nation. These symbols are common across Indigenous culture along the East Coast. You’ll often see them in quill-work and embroidered on clothing.
The skaters I illustrated are situated in Downtown Charlottetown, at the skating rink in front of Founder’s Hall, a popular landmark. As they exchange a gift, surrounded by twinkling lights, Eckhart (as depicted by Island writer, David Weale) watches on. There’s some symbolism here, but I will leave it open to interpretation.
The front of the box features bits and pieces of quintessential Prince Edward Island. A wharf, fox, Anne of Green Gables house, our provincial bird - the blue jay, the Cape Tyron lighthouse and rolling farmland, windmills, and adventurous snowmobilers. I specifically remember sitting amongst the trees in the snow when I was a kid. Listening to the wind howl through the tree as they swayed and creaked. A snowmobile breaking through the insulated silence in the distance. Winter on PEI is truly magical.
Once my initial sketch was approved, I got to work drawing out all the elements in Illustrator. When they reached out to me I asked which of my past projects drew them to me and where they found my work. They had come across my work through Instagram and specifically liked the style of illustration that I’d completed for Pride PEI. A very clean, bright, flat aesthetic.
I had a few days to complete the vector illustration before sending it back to them for another round of approvals. And after just a few edits to the layout, it was complete!
The weeks to follow were exciting! The 13 artists were featured in numerous media outlets across the country. And I was interviewed by Nicola MacLeod in front of Founder’s Hall about my design!
Purolator Holiday Boxes > By the Media Numbers
To date, there have been 47 unique stories, and 196+ stories including syndication and rebroadcasts
An impressive 30% of the stories were broadcast features, 17% were radio interviews and 10% were in print. The remaining 43% were online. 17% were national stories, a quarter focused on the four western provinces, 20% were from Ontario, and about 15% each from the Territories, from Atlantic Canada and from Quebec.
Every artist was interviewed or primarily featured at least twice, and some up to ten times. Seven national stories substantially featured four or more artists by name and background.
There were seven unique CBC stories in local verticals (Northbeat, Moncton, PEI, Saskatchewan, Thunder Bay and Yukon), and a total of 12 from the ‘hard-to-crack’ publication if we include syndication.
Unique stories also appeared on eight different local CTV affiliates (including Vancouver, Atlantic, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Winnipeg, CTV Two Terrace) as well as multiple GlobalTV ( Saskatoon, Regina), NTV, and CityTV stations across the country.
The huge Toronto Sun feature (Season’s inspirations packaged up for the holidays,) which featured images of all 13 boxes, was syndicated 96 different times, including in print editions in Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton. (pictured below)
The program and your works were also featured in print in the Globe and Mail Style and 24 Heures Montreal, plus the Toronto Star.
Northern, Inuk and Indigenous-focused Canadian media included APTN, Cabin Radio, NNSL/Yellowknifer, CBC North, CBC Northbeat and more.
The most recent stories to launch are on dailyhive in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal, and their respective social channels.
In Michaels Stores Newsletter (pictured below)
Working with the ad agency, Weber Shandwick and Purolator was a delightful experience and I can’t wait to see where they take the campaign for years to come!