2026 · Harvey Nichols
A hundred running horses, and the right one came from an ink painting.
A festive object made for a fashion floor, not a festive one.
Brief
Year of the horse, for a landmark of fashion retail. Putting a horse on it looks like the obvious move, and that is exactly what makes it risky. The zodiac arrives carrying a set of expected pictures; Harvey Nichols arrives with its own modern codes. The brief was not to lay a thin layer of tradition over the brand, but to give it a charge of movement that stayed elegant.
Looking for that charge, I went through more than a hundred running horses and found the answer in Chinese ink painting. An ink horse is prized for catching the instant of movement and its spirit, not for describing anatomy. I rebuilt the strokes in Photoshop, then used AI to bring the detail back, so the dry brush would survive a cutting die without losing the flow of the ink.
The lines beneath the horse are not decoration. They are a racecourse abstracted until only the speed remains, so the horse runs on something rather than floating on red.
There is a further idea hidden across the set: the horse climbs a little on every packet. No single packet carries the whole picture. Only when several are laid out together does the run complete. It is a deliberate design risk, and a quiet reward for anyone who collects them.
Detail
- Role
- Creative direction and design
- Scope
- Packaging design · Production
- When
- 2026
- Delivered
- Through an agency partner
Red on red
There is no second ground colour anywhere. Horse and background share the same classic red, and the depth comes only from precise embossing, finished with gold foil. What separates figure from ground is not colour, it is the angle the light falls at.
None of that can be previewed on a screen. Every decision that counted was made on a physical proof under a light: a tenth of a millimetre too deep and the relief stops reading as sculpture and collapses into a dent.
One FSC certified pearlescent red stock throughout, with the weight tuned to the job: 300gsm for the box so it holds its structure, 220gsm for the packet so it opens sweetly. The gold is the only colour in the set that steps out of the red.
Stripped to the fewest parts that still carry the story: colour, horse and speed lines. Take away the ornament, keep what holds the idea up, and let the paper and the making speak.
Credits
- Creative direction
- Elvis Cheung & Gabriel Ma
- Design
- Elvis Cheung
- Project management
- Terry Mok
- Agency
- Dip Mad
Tech & materials
- Red packet
- 3D foil stamping (gold)
Embossing
220gsm FSC pearlescent paper (red) - Deluxe box
- 3D foil stamping (gold)
Embossing
300gsm FSC pearlescent paper (red)