The challenge
A holiday gift that outlasted the holiday.
Birchwood NY wanted a year-end gift that lasted past the gift-giving cycle — something a client family would still be reaching for in February, not something that got opened, photographed, and forgotten by January 3rd.
The deeper brief: a gift that felt regional and personal, not generic and luxury. Birchwood is a neighborhood business with neighborhood relationships. The gift needed to feel that way too.
The concept
Commission an original illustration. Turn it into a puzzle.
We commissioned an original illustration of the Birchwood neighborhood in late thaw — the moment when the snow is half off the sidewalks and the windows of the corner deli are foggy. Then we turned it into a custom 500-piece puzzle. Numbered editions, linen-finish box, branded velvet bag for the pieces, a small card with the illustrator's name.
Quiet on the outside. Full of detail inside.
The outcome
Thank-you notes in March.
The puzzle outlasted the holiday cycle in the best way — clients sent thank-you notes in March, with photos of half-completed tables and a few good-natured complaints about the harder corners. The numbered editions made it feel like an artifact, not a giveaway.
The illustration is now licensed back to Birchwood for use across their print materials. The object kept giving long after it was given.
