Let’s raise a glass of scotch and light the fireworks for the illustrator behind Royal Salute’s Lunar New Year Special Edition box art for 2025!
As Lunar New Year is celebrated in Asia and by cultures around the world, British-Chinese illustrator Jason Lyon has unveiled a project very close to his heart. Working in his colourful style of dreamlike surrealism, Jason has painted the box art for Royal Salute whisky’s 21-year-old Lunar New Year Special Edition. With its symbolic imagery from the Far East, creating the artwork was a journey into Jason’s own heritage as well as a brilliant project to work on.
Aware of Royal Salute’s past collaborations with illustrators for its Lunar New Year editions, Jason dropped the creative agency Boundless Brand Design an email early in 2023. If you don’t ask, you don’t get – and creative director Hamish Shand responded that summer by inviting Jason to work on the 2025 edition.
The design theme was ‘Igniting the Lunar New Year’, and Jason was asked to depict a narrative across the visual that would resonate not just in China but across Asia, including Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The early sketches were more intense and fantastical than the refined outcome.
“To achieve this, we incorporated universal Asian symbols such as the phoenix, crane, fish, and butterflies. These creatures represent renewal, prosperity, fortune, and longevity,” explains Jason. “The phoenix, in particular, holds deep meaning in both Eastern and Western mythology. While it universally symbolises renewal and rebirth, in Eastern cultures, it also represents grace, prosperity, power, harmony, and even connections to the heavens.”
While the next 12 months will be the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese zodiac, the chief character in the illustration is a lion – an image that resonates both in Britain, where the whisky is made and blended and in China, where lion dances are integral to the celebrations. However, a snake does rear its head on the left panel of the box as an Easter egg from the artist.
The Taiwan box wrap and initial concept.
Other elements connecting the product’s origins include the Strathisla distillery in Speyside—casks hoisted skywards by the phoenix, the British crown, and the Tower of London. Always made from a blend of malts aged 21 years or older, the scotch brand itself represents the 21-gun salute given to Elizabeth II on her coronation in 1953.
After creating the initial artwork, Jason was asked to paint a fresh image with a similar composition for a Taiwan edition containing 23-year-old whisky. The work focuses more on Taiwan, also called Formosa, in the colonial era. “In place of the lion, we featured the phoenix, a significant spiritual symbol in Taiwanese folklore that represents wisdom, virtue, nobility, harmony, and many other positive qualities people aspire to,” says Jason. “Additionally, we included the Formosan black bear, which is native to Taiwan, as well as the Formosan rock macaque and the Taiwan blue magpie.”
Using Procreate and Photoshop, Jason worked on the project at home, in cafes, and even during a visit to China, where he was born. He moved to the UK aged 11, attended school, graduated from Falmouth in 2019, and has been a freelance illustrator ever since. For him, this project has been more than a packaging commission. Like his work on Amazing Asia, published last year by Quarto, it has enabled him to delve into his cultural roots.
“Having spent more than half my life living in the UK, Chinese New Year feels both dear and distant to me in many ways,” he says. “Researching, reflecting on memories, and creating these illustrations took me on a journey to reconnect with that part of my heritage. It also helped me realise the kind of artist I aspire to be in the years ahead – someone who bridges and celebrates the unique aesthetics of Eastern and Western art.”
