TALES OF SCALES is Fictionist Studio’s self-promotional gift box to usher in the lunar new year of the dragon in 2024. Inspired by the age-old Chinese idiom ????, literally translated to carp leaping over the dragon’s gate, which represents an overcoming of hardships and triumph through perseverance, we designed a set of interactive pop-up red packets that showcases this folklore. Glimmering with vibrant colours and golden scales, the humble carp on the red packet hides a surprise — pull its tail and the red packet transforms itself into a majestic dragon.
Every year we design red packets which are given out during the festive month as a gesture of blessings and good luck for the incoming year. We wanted to challenge ourselves to go beyond a two dimensional design and explored how we could evoke the voracious energy of the zodiac animal, dragon. What resulted was an addictively interactive red packet and a testament to the power of paper and its transformative qualities.
