At the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Santa Claus float is the last of all, and as a finale, Santa steps down from the sleigh and makes his grand entrance into the Herald Square entrance of the historic Macy's store, kicking off the Christmas / Holiday season. As the second part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade project with Mattson Creative, I had the privilege to illustrate an array of images, create typographic treatments, and develop a logo for the Macy's Holiday Celebrations. This is definitely not all the work, but some are shown here.

A 100 year tradition, Macy's Holiday Celebrations are an integral part of American culture. Macy's wanted us to capture the history, the beauty, and the joy of one of the oldest such events in the country.

The below two images are some early color explorations to find just the right celebratory, whimsical, yet historic and regal color palette. Though these are not where we landed, I do like these two iterations.

These Nutcracker renders were created entirely in Illustrator, using gradients and transparency masks to create the glossy highlights and shadows.