Theo Chocolate 2024 Holiday Collection
For the 2024 winter season, Theo Chocolate undertook a refresh of its popular Holiday Collection.
The challenge: to create a unique story and visual identity for the product line that could scale across product packaging, retail, and digital spaces. It also needed to be brand-right and giftable, and evoke the spirit of the winter season.
The solution: A core visual concept centered around a winter cityscape, featuring scenes and elements inspired by the products’ flavors. Illustration assets show people gathering, celebrating, and decorating their homes - creating the light, magic, and cheer of the holiday season. The illustrations are heavily featured on pack, while extensive campaign assets expand on this concept through photo, video, animation, and in retail spaces.
Project Deliverables: core concept; style guide & asset toolkit; product packaging; spot illustrations; campaign assets including emails, paid promotional digital assets, brand.com and Amazon.com assets, photography, and videography; retail merchandising, signage, and displays
All images and videos property of Theo Chocolate.
What I did: Creative Direction, Illustration, & Packaging
I developed the collection concept and overall creative direction, beginning with trend and market research, and proceeding through an iterative design process that gathered input and feedback from a variety of sources.
In addition to the core story concept, final deliverables included a comprehensive style guide and asset toolkit for the product line and campaign, which enabled multiple creatives and agency partners to seamlessly create assets across the seasonal campaign.
The style guide and toolkit includes a variety of spot illustrations and patterns to be used across the campaign, as well as detailed guidance on color, copy, and type usage.
I also created the original design and illustration for the following products’ packaging, and art directed other creatives for the remainder.
Peppermint Crunch 70% Dark Chocolate Bar, Gingerbread Toffee 55% Dark Chocolate Bar, Peppermint Cocoa Cups (individual, 8pc box, and gravity feed), Holiday 4-bar Pack, and Winter Wonderland Confection Collection.
I especially designed the packaging for the Holiday 4-bar Pack and Peppermint Cocoa Cups 8pc Box to integrate the packaging format and illustration in a bespoke manner. Each item plays on the house shapes as part of the overall packaging design.
Photography and Videography
As part of the launch campaign asset creation, I led a photo and video shoot, working alongside Theo’s marketing and design team to bring the campaign concepts to life. I provided detailed art direction and styling, built the shot lists, and even got to break out some crafting skills to create hand-painted backdrops and props!
Digital Campaign Assets
I provided art direction for digital campaign collateral, including emails, social media assets, multichannel paid promotional ads, and brand.com and Amazon ecommerce assets. Shown here is a small sampling of digital campaign assets I did original design work for.
“Holiday Moments” Social Media Assets
Paid Promotional Ads
Holiday Sneak Peek Email
Retail Signage & Displays
Created holiday-centric displays and designed signage for two retail locations. One was a pop-up at Bellevue Square that was designed entirely around the holiday campaign.
