Every designer has a client that pushed them to become better at their craft. Most designers also have a few clients that become real stakeholders. For me, Jamie at JK Fine Chocolates is both of these things.
We have been working together for a while, we know each other’s businesses, strengths and weaknesses and through that relationship both of us have become better at what we do.
I started working with Jamie in 2015, starting by redesigning his logo:
Redesigning the logo was simply a case of cleaning it up and making it easier to recognise whilst keeping the charm and character of the original.
The goal was to create a logo that could be flexible enough to work in different colour palettes across multiple product ranges so future products could be marketed independently whilst still maintaining a robust brand identity
This was the first bar created by JK Fine Chocolates and as part of the process we created a strong style that would allow us to create a range of bars in a similar style, both to speed up the design process for future products, but also to create a stronger brand presence.
The Bar itself was a limited edition bar for charity, specifically the Akany Avoko Faravohitra Orphanage in Costa Rica.
Through this process we also experimented with various visual styles, textures, typefaces and graphical elements. This was crucial to establish a flexible visual identity that can be used across any product range.
The final result of the development work was a simple bar with a clean layout, all in a small format.
The packaging for these rustic truffles was developed along side the Grand Cru packaging.
There were a host of design challenges and decisions that needed to be resolved on this project, from packaging material to production costs and retail considerations.
There are three different products in this range, all of which use the same production method but have very different flavours.
We wanted the colours to stay mostly muted with a single spot colour for each variety used to differentiate them.
The Wondrous Collection was created as a way of showcasing single origin cocoa with a complementary flavour.
The first in this range was Golden Eye, names after a naval legend from Costa Rica.
This blend of single origin product and local culture led me to develop a more stylised version of packaging, each using two overlaid geometric patterns.
The base patterns were each inspired by traditional art from the relevant regions, each bound into geometric shapes reflective of the name and stories used to inspire each product.
This range was always designed to sit besides the rustic truffles. Using the same layout for the packaging was an intentional way of tying the two product ranges together.