Microsoft
2023 Holiday Campaign Characters: Rethinking in 3D
Overview
The Microsoft Studio team is responsible for developing creative assets for holiday sales, including key promotional moments like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We create themed backgrounds and holiday graphics, which are then distributed to cross-channel teams and creative agencies. These assets are used to produce deliverables such as digital ads, social media posts, and emails. One of the most meticulous aspects of our work is assembling a comprehensive toolkit. This toolkit acts as a rulebook, guiding users to create cohesive content and ensuring the quality of the work.
What's On Deck?
As December rolls in and Christmas carols fill the air, it's time to start on the next holiday project. For FY23, our holiday campaign team was tasked with refreshing FY22 creatives, including our beloved characters. My new challenge was to bring depth to our flat character illustrations from FY22, closely following the ever evolving Microsoft's Fluent style.
We also needed to rethink the roles of our characters. The bird was widely used across all channels, even in small ad placements. The penguin brought in new energy and motion for storytelling. The llama was popular overall for its whimsical personality. With these top three characters stealing the spotlight in the FY22 holiday campaign, the deer and the fox unfortunately didn’t have much of a role. So, the team and I said farewell to these characters and introduced a newcomer—a hopping rabbit.
Creative Process
Before jumping into anything, I needed to understand what Microsoft Brand, or Fluent design, is all about. Microsoft Brand style follows three principles: human, vibrant, and dimensional. For our characters, I implemented these principles with these pointers:
Human: Our characters are vessels of human emotions. They amplify sense of closeness, familiarity, and connection.
Vibrant: We will use rich colors to bring life to the characters.
Dimensional: We will build our characters in 3D using layers of 2D materials and texture. This will bring depth and perspective to our storytelling.
Our elements received a major upgrade inspired by Fluent design. While our gifts, ornaments, and trees remained relatively simple in shape, our characters required a step further. We sought an interesting mix of textures to make each character unique, charming, and hand-made. Think crafts with tactile materials like wood, fur, felt, and paper. I needed to find a good balance using these materials to create a simple, yet premium look.
I worked with an amazing 3D artist, Edvins, to elevate these 2D characters into another dimension. This collaboration was a big learning curve for me. I had to understand Edvins' creative process and figure out how to communicate my art direction as clearly as possible. I asked Edvins what kind of files he needed from me and how I can help to make this creative process as smooth as possible.
First, I revisited each character’s illustration file to prepare it for handoff. I updated their look, cleaned up the file, and separated individual layers. I guided the material choices for the rabbit’s body and pivoted when textures didn’t work together. I sought Edvins' advice on technical aspects of 3D modeling, such as whether each leg for our llama should be separated into parts. We went through many trials and errors to determine the best order for assembling the layers that made up the rabbit’s face. Once all animals had been recreated with 3D textures, I added colors in Photoshop.
Final Work
After countless revisions and versions named “final_final_final,” we landed on these beautiful characters (and elements) ready to launch for FY23.
The new look and feel of our FY23 holiday campaign design received positive reviews from our team and fans alike. We were so pleased with the results that we decided to carry the creative forward to FY24, incorporating some tweaks and slight color upgrades. Many stakeholders also requested additional pre-made groupings for FY24, allowing for easy drag-and-drop into their deliverables.
Conclusion
The FY23 holiday campaign was the most complex design system our team has ever created. From backgrounds to characters, we brought color uniformity with Microsoft brand. Onboarding a 3D artist for this project was a journey and a significant learning experience for me. It made me realize how much I’ve learned through this creative process by working closely with someone who has a completely different background and skill set. From that, we found synergy and created beautiful things together.
The process of refreshing creatives is interesting. For months, you pour your heart and soul into creating something so thorough and so grand. For the next season, you have to take what you thought was near perfection and somehow make it better. Refreshing the design system means refreshing your perspective. There is always room for improvement, and possibilities are endless even when you’re not entirely creating from scratch.
Creative Lead: Milena Dedijer
Editorial: Tammy Weisberger, Rebecca Wagner
Project Managers: Tina Muzzy, Lisa Porter
Design Team: Eunice Choi, Anthony Tschopp, Stefanie Lo, Sara Kaiyala, Peter Duong, Moon Kuk
3D Artist: Edvins Puzinkevics
