Holiday Cards

Design
# Art Direction, Digital Painting, Motion, New York City, NYU, Print, Social Media, Work

Summary

Set of hand-drawn holiday cards featuring vibrant and magical winter scenes on campus.

Each card highlights a particular angle most meaningful to its specific academic unit while retaining a consistent technique and look and feel. Designed for print, email, social media, and environmental usage.

Client

NYU Arts & Science

Roles

Photographer
Digital Artist
Motion Designer

Challenge

NYU Arts & Science houses three academic units: the College of Arts & Science, the Graduate School of Arts & Science, and NYU Liberal Studies. Holiday cards are an important touchpoint between units and their respective community members — administrators, faculty, and donors, to name a few. In efforts to centralize the Arts & Science branding, we had to find a consistent direction that would represent and delight each distinct unit and their audience.

Process

Photography

With a list of campus views in mind to uniquely represent each unit, I set out to take reference photos in a consistent style — using low angles and 0.5x zoom to create an awe-inspiring camera distortion.

Digital Painting

After selecting each reference photo, I sketched and painted the cards on Procreate using a cool-toned but vibrant version of NYU's violet palette.

Motion

Using Photoshop and AfterEffects, I created three different animated versions: email cards (looping snow animation), social media (adding a camera pan effect and music), and as a background slideshow for the Arts & Science holiday party.

See Instagram Reel