Extraordinary Luxurious
01
häagen-dazs
Indulging in a festive campaign for the extraordinary luxurious ice cream brand.
Agency
Saatchi & Saatchi
Year
2018
Role
Design Director
Skills
Concepting
Creative direction
Visual design
02
the challenge
Make Christmas extraordinary.
Challenged to break the mould, the brand required a departure from familiar festive tropes to create a visual narrative that felt as extraordinary and luxurious as the product itself.
As Design Director, I led the creative development, art direction and execution, working closely with a Designer and reporting directly into the brand's Executive Creative Director (ECD).
Previous Christmas campaigns revolved around aesthetics you’d expect to see during the festive season. This year, the brief was to do something different.
We set out to create a festive campaign that felt extraordinary in every sense – luxurious, expressive and far beyond the familiar packshot on a white background we’d been accustomed to seeing.
Our ECD briefed us to create a concept where shop windows took inspiration from high fashion Christmas window displays that would then be used to dress in-store with a festive feel, inspire a Christmas cake and create a global visual toolkit for markets to localise independently.
04
the output
Opulence. Flair. Decoration.
The concept plays on the aesthetic allure and visual feast that is the festive season, inspired by the thought of special gifts, exquisite food and rich opulent colours.
Designing for our audience
We created a key visual with a centre piece that is a true object of desire and fascination. Something that symbolises the luxury and world of plenty associated with the festive season. A visual feast necessary for an extraordinary campaign.
We designed a a beautifully artful sculptural piece with a surface of jewel tones, glowing iridescence, sumptuous colour and exquisite patterns.
04
the output
Once the client signed off on the concept and scamps, we partnered with the talented 3D artist Peter Tarka to bring our initial sketches and comps to life.
We worked closely with Peter on the composition and lighting of the render and realised that we needed to add a bit more glamour and a little less science to the render. Once we’d achieved what we could in Cinema 4D, we took the visual into Photshop to make some final colour adjustments and glamourise the visual to hero the product further.
05
the impact
Whilst designing the key visual, we were asked to create a pattern for Häagen-Dazs’ signature Christmas flavour which was being developed in tandem. Once this and the key visual were signed off, we created key assets to form a global toolkit for local markets to use.
The campaign was a great example of clients buying into a bigger idea that developed along the way and allowing us to push the boundaries of their brand.
A new visual benchmark for the brand
The campaign redefined what Christmas could look like for Häagen-Dazs — bold, luxurious and indulgent, setting a new creative standard for seasonal work
Strengthened trust and partnership
The client’s willingness to push boundaries, and the success of the work led to additional briefs — including commissioning the Christmas flavour pattern illustration.
A global idea for local markets to own
We created a toolkit to give local teams the freedom to adapt the creative, while maintaining a consistent, elevated brand presence for localisation independently.
Selected works
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© Sheetal Schofield 2025