The City of Sydney local government area is ushering in Christmas this year with a six-week campaign to cover the CBD and surrounds in festive spirit.

Created by local brand and design studio, HOLT, the campaign concept centres on the clean lines of a triangular, tree shaped identity to represent a recognisable Christmas motif in a contemporary way. The tree motif is made up of hundreds of smaller prismatic triangles in a myriad of bold, rich, jewel-like colours with small ‘leaves’ of colour blown from the tree into its surrounds. The Christmas branding campaign will be promoted across the spectrum of outdoor, digital and print media channels.

Christopher Holt, Creative Director at HOLT says that the 2014 Christmas campaign will be highly visible throughout inner-Sydney via city flags. He explained that the visual brand developed for Christmas this year was inspired by the famous woodcut Travellers Caught in a Sudden Breeze at Ejiri by 19th Century Japanese print-maker and artist Hokusai, and Jeff Wall’s contemporary photographic interpretation of this work, A Sudden Gust of Wind.

Employing a palette of more than 350 individual colours, Holt said the use of colour aims to create a joyful sense of celebration and a festive mood amongst city-goers.

The campaign, which represents the commercial activations and community celebrations of the 2014 Christmas period in Sydney, will cover the city as it rolls out across metrolights and citylights, city flags, banners, large-scale outdoor billboards, posters, print and online advertising, website, promotional collateral, experiential executions, digital applications and retail activations.

Steve Howlett, Head of Creative at the City of Sydney, whose in-house team will roll out the creative, says the annual Christmas brand and campaign is integral to the City’s standing as Australia’s only global city.

Referring to the Christmas experiences created in some of the great cities of the world that make them even more joyous destinations at that time of the year, he said the City of Sydney’s annual Christmas campaigns aim to put Sydney on the global ‘festive season map’, creating strong commercial returns for business, making it a special time of year for the people who live and work in this city, and drawing in visitors from around the world.