JOE LYCETT // ART DIRECTION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY // CREATIVE DIRECTION

A campaign that retools Christmas iconography through a queer, critical lens.

​

For the Christmas campaign for Joe Lycett’s Art Hole, I developed and directed a series of still-life and character-led photographs that extended the book’s anarchic visual identity into a satirical festive world. Designed to be both ludicrous and pointed, the campaign plays with the language of seasonal gift-giving – skewering its excesses while wrapping them in sugar-pink cellophane. This was a continuation of my close creative collaboration with Joe Lycett, where the visual identity of Art Hole was always conceived as more than just a cover – it was a disruptive brand in its own right. The Christmas campaign extended that sensibility into a saturated, gift-wrapped fever dream: part protest, part pantomime, part Poundland Surrealism.​

​

Shot against deep red velvet drapery and staged on Barbie-pink tabletops, the images are both saccharine and sinister – riffing on festive tropes with a sharply critical edge. Props were sourced and assembled to amplify the queasy materialism of the season: diamanté stilettos, candy canes, plastic poodles, satin bows. At the centre of it all, the book’s riotous concentric rainbow cover acts as a visual anchor – the eye of a kaleidoscopic storm. Across the set-ups, we embedded punchlines: a passive-aggressive note to Santa, cerise anal beads, a mug of Pepto-pink nog, a set of perfectly wrapped presents tagged with “Socks again…”, “Single use shit…” and “Useless tat…”. In one shot, a pearl-draped Tory matron unwraps the book with visible disgust – a pointed reminder that Art Hole is not your average coffee-table fare.​

​

The campaign was art directed to feel at once gaudy and exacting – dialling up the chromatic intensity and absurdity without tipping into chaos. I made a conscious decision not to polish the images into high-gloss perfection. It lends texture and realism, a subtle wrongness that reflects the spirit of the book. The result is a campaign that mirrors the publication’s tone – surreal, joyous, subversive – and firmly places Joe Lycett’s Art Hole as the only piece of Christmas tat worth unwrapping.

​

Client: Joe Lycett

Creative Direction: Billie Temple

Photographer: George House