ikigai
A reason for being - raison d’être.
Design packaging for a boutique chocolate bar and convey the company backstory through the design.
Student brief.

Who doesn’t love boutique chocolate?

Hand crafted in a tiny village in the shadow of Mt. Fuji, using recipies passed down from generation to generation, and unusual blends of traditional Japanese herbs and spices.

The design was inspired by their focus on expert heritage craftsmanship, their esoteric blends of spices and flavours, as well as the juxtaposition between old and new. Familiy traditions and age old recipies coming into the 21st century, with a fresh design aimed to appeal to those with a taste for the unusual and ‘exotic’. The packaging was designed to reflect this juxtaposition, using earthy colours and patterns inspired by traditional Japanese fabrics, twinned with a more moderrn, clean and minimalist aesthetic. The backstory was written on a hand printed business card, and placed into the packaging, so as to keep the design clean, but also because people who love boutique products also tend to love all that extra ‘case candy’ that comes with it.

The label itself was inspired by the Japanese ‘obi strip’ which you see on vinyl in Japan. Holding all the relevant information. It’s a paper strip that fits over the bar itself. Also allowing the patterned wrapping to be removed intact and without any writing on in case our boutique-loving users want to stick it on their wall.