Coley Porter Bell has unveiled its latest seasonal work for Tesco Finest, introducing a refreshed, rich and sensorial Christmas design for 2025, centered around the creative idea of “A Midwinter’s Feast”. Marking the third consecutive year the agency has partnered with Tesco’s premium tier on its festive packaging, this year’s work offers a more optimistic, contemporary expression.
Coley Porter Bell was tasked with making the Finest Christmas range stand out as best-in-class, enhancing quality, taste, occasion and festivity. The team worked to evolve the design for Finest – to elevate what already works, introduce emotional, festive cues tied to moments and product benefits, and create a clear step-up from Core Christmas. This was all while respecting the existing Finest brand architecture and designing for a wide range of formats, including large selling faces, watch-strap packs and items without food photography.
This work spans brand strategy, creative platform development, a packaging design system and toolkit, photography direction, typography exploration and guidance on in-store brand expression. The project was initiated through a competitive pitch and was brought to life in collaboration with photographer James Murphy.
At the heart of the creative lies a beautifully constructed, modern, regal tablescape, imagined as an intimate, warmly lit gathering where food and occasion come together. Deep forest greens, natural foliage, fresh eucalyptus and fir, warm fairy lights and subtle gold detailing sit alongside fig and plum-purple accents to signal quiet luxury and elevate taste appeal. These visual elements draw directly from consumers’ desire for intimate festive moments that feel contemporary and relatable, where natural textures, deep greens and rich purples set the tone for a premium, shared celebration.
Coley Porter Bell went further than a traditional seasonal refresh to capture ‘A Midwinter’s Feast’, which felt ownable to Tesco. The team created a bespoke handmade backdrop, commissioned a ceramicist to produce tailored tableware with enough variation to complement every product, and conducted multiple rounds of test shoots to perfect every detail. Photography was directed with a “just-served” quality to it and captured from overhead or three-quarter angles to enhance appetite appeal, a sense of occasion and a distinct, premium step-up from all-year-round Finest.
Caroline Kelly, head of packaging design at Tesco, said: “Our approach for this year’s Finest Christmas design is one that is rooted in generosity rather than extravagance. By elevating the natural beauty of the winter season, we’ve created festive packaging that feels aspirational yet completely accessible — a small, affordable moment of magic on every table. It is this everyday elevation that is what we want to showcase with the Finest brand.”
Sam Stone, creative director at Coley Porter Bell, said: “Midwinter may be the darkest point of the year, but it’s also when nature offers its most opulent palette — deep greens, jewel-toned fruits, burnished golds, the generosity of seasonal ingredients and the joy of a shared feast. It reflects our Finest ambition perfectly: premium, but not elitist; festive, yet entirely attainable. By celebrating craftsmanship and natural seasonality, we’re giving customers a moment of everyday luxury, wrapped in a design language that feels both considered and joyful.
