Overview
Role: Senior Designer
Client: itison Events
Scope: Brand identity, campaign creative, OOH, merchandise, set pieces, signage plan
Timeline: Year 1 launch campaign, ongoing creative for years 2 and 3
Client: itison Events
Scope: Brand identity, campaign creative, OOH, merchandise, set pieces, signage plan
Timeline: Year 1 launch campaign, ongoing creative for years 2 and 3
Elfingrove was Scotland's biggest Christmas event to date that transformed a historic venue into an immersive winter spectacular. I was responsible for developing the visual identity and executing the full suite of campaign and event creative across digital, print, merchandise, and environmental design.
The Challenge
• Create a new brand from scratch that felt magical, premium and family-friendly. Think 'Night at the Museum' meets Christmas-time
• Drive ticket sales for an untested event concept in its first year.
• Develop a campaign look and feel that could scale across formats — from social ads, press. OOH and on-site branding.
• Deliver under pressure — balancing campaign creative with live event production and last-minute pivots.
My Approach
I led the design process from ideation to delivery, building out a full visual identity including:
• Creating the brand ident, avoiding stereotypical tropes for Christmas-style branding. This had to feel like an event.
• A festive but non-cliché colour palette and typographic system
• Iconography and magical design elements for motion, print and web
The branding created was used across a cohesive campaign that had various touch points such as:
• Digital ads and social content for pre-launch and on-sale advertising
• OOH advertising across Glasgow & Edinburgh
• Event and wayfinding signage throughout the site. This included 100's of signs and brands for on-site food vendors, bars, mallow toasting points, merchandise stalls, silent snow disco and directional signage throughout the museum.
• Merchandise (Children's storybook, embroidered patches, sticker packs and other items)
Impact
💥 100k+ tickets sold in first 24 hours
🎟️ Sold out the full month-long run in Year 1
🧑🤝🧑 Became one of Scotland’s most talked-about seasonal events
✨ Brand scalable across 3 years of events
📈 Strong uplift in brand recognition and press pickup
Summary
Elfingrove was a rare opportunity to build a brand world from the ground up, shaping not just how it looked — but how it felt in a real-world space. From various sub-brands, signage to social, everything was designed to immerse people in the magic.
It was a great test of design thinking, adaptability, and cross-team collaboration — especially under tight deadlines and high expectations.
