Chinese New Year Collaboration At PandaExpress

Some people might think that Chinese New Year is a very exclusive holiday, but at the core, it’s just about celebration and togetherness and eating a ton of food.

Panda Express Founder Impressed Me

My name is Janeway and I am an illustrator based in New York, I was excited to work with Panda Express because I grew up eating Panda Express. The more that I learned about the founder’s story and about what the company was built on the more excited I became about the collaboration.

I felt like they’re very closely reflected, my own experiences growing up as a Chinese-American. I started out designing for the cup, and I wanted to feature the dragon dance, because there was just such a huge celebration, and I wanted that to be a very prominent part of the design for the Hale design.

I want The Scenes Of Chinese New Year

I wanted to have one central dinner scene but also incorporate a lot of smaller moments around the table like a grandmother handing her grandchild, a red envelope for the kids, meal design.

I wanted to feature the number eight playfully because the number eight is very lucky. It’s the luckiest number in Chinese culture. I wanted to make it kind of fun by creating eight out of noodles.

What I love about celebrating Chinese New Year now is that living in New York people are coming and going, I’m meeting new people all the time, and I can still celebrate with the people that I love who are around me and introduce new people to the culture and the traditions.