“Happiness is all about perspective” is a set of 8 red packets (also known as red envelope) collaborated with a Hong Kong paper company Antalis to promote their new paper line “Brisk”. 

Traditionally the visual of the red packet is related to the animal of the year, a lot of red packets will be wasted after the festival and will not be reused because animal sign changes every year. With the mission to reduce the waste, I choose to use Koi fish as the theme for this set of red packets. Koi is a symbol of prosperity and fortune. They are vivid, energetic and which has the same energy of the paper company. They are also timeless and able to be reused every year. I used illustrations to present the different perspective of Koi fish. From the lotus ponds on the outer box to different angles and composition to show the markings and their shape underwater. The design echoed with the message “Happiness is all about perspective. Be inspired by a new insight to welcome a fruitful new year.”

During the production, I encountered quite a lot of challenges to get the printing effect right. Each design of the red packet has its own printing effect. Working closely with the printer, I adjusted a lot of detail while we were test printing every single design. We embossed parts of the fish multiple times to make the perspective of the Koi is well presented. We used laser cut to present the shape of a swimming koi, the size of each dot has been adjusted carefully to get the balance the aesthetic and the possibility from the machine. The texture of each paper is also considered in the design, I used “Brisk Original” to print for design contain more rich color and “brisk nano dot”, “Eggshell” and “Granite” to print for designs that are more simple.