Photography by Eli McFadden
Nothing gets you in the holiday spirit more than having Johnny Reid belting out the classics. The big church sound captured by Bob Ezrin is unmistakably the most epic Christmas record we have ever heard. The direction for the art however was to be more subtle and timeless. We were created three versions of Johnny’s A Christmas Gift To You, a standard album, a deluxe digipak with bonus content, and a special Tim Hortons edition containing the song, “A Little Taste Of Home” written for their 50th Anniversary campaign. We used subtle decorative elements throughout the package to enhance the spirit of the record, using silver metallic inks on key pieces. In multiple conversations with Johnny he mentioned that, hope, peace, love, and happiness, were the main theme for this album. With that in mind we made sure to include those key words in the deluxe package and featured one on each of the four collectors holiday cards.
We also had the privilege of creating the platinum award for this release. We mimicked the red border of the album cover by custom printing the matte with the subtle red “wrapping paper” stripes used on the deluxe package, and selected a brushed silver frame to finish the piece. Johnny was so thrilled with the results, that he commissioned an additional 27 awards to be created for each of his musicians and crew that were part of the A Christmas Gift To You Tour.
