Our (very very large) Fortune Cookie — Spreading crumb luck this Christmas

As the end of another year rolled around, it was time to design our annual client gift. In what may be our silliest silly season idea to date, we decided there was no better way to show our clients how fortunate we feel to work with them than with a world-record-breaking attempt at a (very very large) fortune cookie.

The concept of a fortune cookie technically originated in Japan before being co-opted and commodified by American-Chinese restaurants into what we know them as today. They’ve since grown into a little symbol of joy and luck across the world that’s equal parts ubiquitous and delicious. Existing in dozens of countries across the world, each in their own unique form, they’re a universal favourite for spreading good fortune. It made sense.

We were fortunate enough to work with expert patissier Esteban Garcia, who shares our love of pushing the boundaries in a playfully creative way, so, naturally, he was up for the record-breaking challenge. After rounds of taste and shape tests (and some real trial and error in the giant folding process), Esteban hit the sweet spot with a perfect limit-pushing recipe.

Each fortune cookie was wrapped in silver foil and placed in a brown takeaway-style bag with a pink and red receipt attached — just like the comfortingly familiar Friday night delivery from your local. The receipt gave us the space to explain the project and write a little note to our clients to say thank you for the year gone and wish them good fortune for the one ahead.

And what’s a fortune cookie without some fortunes? We worked with copywriter Cat Wall to pen some prosperous and playful predictions to make the whole experience as creative as our cookie.

A light-hearted concept and a seriously heavy cookie was well-received by a number of surprised clients.

And as for the world record, we’re still in talks with the Guinness World Records organisation, but we reckon we’re in with a chance.

More luck than sense with this one? Maybe. But that’s half the fun.

The other half was sugar.