Responses by Sophie Brown, project director, Freytag Anderson
Background: A boutique chocolate brand, COCO has become a canvas for artists and artisans—those who innovate, inspire and challenge. Crafted in exciting flavor combinations by an Edinburgh-based team of chocolatiers, COCO’s luxurious bars and drinking chocolate are made from the finest South American cocoa and wrapped in original works by artists around the world. COCO is big on ethics; its chocolate is palm oil free, sustainably produced and refined at origin to keep more wealth in the place it comes from. With help from Render Studio, we began working with COCO to refresh its brand identity and reposition its offer firmly as ‘The Art of Chocolate’ for a premium international audience. Central to this was the development of packaging using commissioned art pieces.
Reasoning: With art underpinning the brand, we referenced gallery captions in the typesetting of the labels, keeping focus on the art piece. The rear label was restructured for clarity, and a set of icons created around COCO’s ethical credentials. Tactile papers wrap the chocolate like gifts.
Challenges: COCO is in the process of B Corp certification and has an uncompromising stance on ethics. With that, goes a commitment to responsible packaging, which in turn affects production budgets and supplier choice. Over the past few months, we have carried out a lengthy sourcing and consultation process with various suppliers to find sustainable solutions that don’t sacrifice premium quality.
Favorite details: We’ve designed an icon system that feels elegant and intuitive with the brand typography. It’s a subtle prompt that makes buying decisions easier.
Visual influences: Inspired by the art pieces that are a distinctive characteristic of the brand, the “gallery” concept has informed everything from label layouts to product images—a forthcoming set of which will play on various iterations of a “gallery” setting. In the longer term, a real-life gallery space is in the process of being developed, which will combine chocolate decadence with space for emerging artists.
Specific demands: Tight time constraints—and buyer schedules—added a challenge to our production sourcing. For example, we’re finalizing 2019’s advent calendar prototypes now. That’s retail, though!
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