Alter Eco
A chocolate bar redesign.
The Challenge: Create a proposal for the packaging of Alter Eco’s dark chocolate product line that utilizes sustainable design and highlights the company’s commitment towards fighting climate change and ethical cacao sourcing.
Methods: Researched company values, explored industry future forecasting, and conducted market research to inform the development of a design that represents the company and reaches the target audience that I determined through my study.
Solution: Proposed three distinct visual directions that maintain brand continuity while better enabling Alter Eco to market their product and look towards a more sustainable future.
Existing design.
About the company.
Alter Eco a chocolate company dedicated to making food that restores rather than depletes. Focused on creating high-quality chocolate with organic ingredients, Alter Eco delivers a delightful tasting experience while empowering farmers and working to tackle climate change and inequality.
Alter Eco utilizes small-scale, fair-trading framing practices, and is a carbon-neutral B corporation. They exhibit transparent business practices and are always looking towards the future.
Existing Design
Alter Eco is committed to sustainability, advocacy, and quality, and they are dedicated to building a more holistic agricultural system that restores the Earth rather than depleting it. While their company mission resonated with me, I determined that their current design landscape was outdated and busy. In each of my proposals, I simplified the nutrition label to increase legibility and highlighted Alter Eco’s use of only five ingredients under the new headline “Just the Good Stuff”. In my design, I sought to modernize, streamline, and future-proof the company branding to attract new consumers and ensure that the Alter Eco mission can continue to create positive change for years to come.
Proposed Target Demographic
Through my market research and analysis, I determined that the current Alter Eco target demographic is too narrow. I proposed expanding the profile to include a broader range of age, race, and gender identity.
Meet Kai:
Kai is a recent college graduate who lives in Boulder, Colorado. She is a working professional making $90,000 per year and is politically motivated and progressive. She spends as much time as she can in nature and cares about her impact on the environment as well as what she puts into her body.
Meet Flynn:
Flynn is a project manager working in San Francisco, California. Mindfulness, health, and wellness are very important to Flynn, and they practice daily yoga and meditation. They also love journaling, reading, and painting, as well as hosting beachside socials with their friends.
Meet Alex:
Alex is a vegetarian, retired, and lives in Portland, Oregon. He enjoys visiting his local farmer’s market on the weekends and picks up his remaining groceries at Whole Foods. Alex is willing to pay a premium for high-quality, local products, and prides himself on being a thoughtful consumer.
Design Vision Board
Before sketching out my ideas, I created a vision board of design inspirations that I wanted to guide my work.
Proposed Guidelines
Iteration 1
For the first iteration, I wanted to create a version with minimal yet strategic change. To appeal to a more conservative client, this version remains very true to the original design, yet it has been shifted in key ways. I wanted the design to appear bolder, cleaner, and more sophisticated without losing a sense of playfulness and approachability.
Iteration 2
In the second iteration, I wanted to highlight the company’s green initiatives and close connection with the rainforest ecosystem. While the first iteration subtly shifted the photography towards a more illustrative style, here the illustration wraps around the entire package to create a holistic viewing experience. It also engages with the logo in a new way and simplifies the forest diagram on the inner label. The aesthetic of this layout is clear, fun, and striking - allowing it to stand out on the shelf while still clearly communicating its messaging.
Iteration 3
The third and final iteration was the most dramatic departure from the original packaging. In this version, I pushed the design to create an ultramodern geometric layout formed by warm earth tones and sections of bright green for a striking pop of color. I changed the logo by selecting a more angular sans serif font and removed the surrounding circle to match the rectilinear background. The goal with this proposal was to create a bold approach that would clearly differentiate the Alter Eco product from other competitors in the market.
