Chocolate is having a second. From craft bars to cult packaging drops, it is change into one of the vital aggressive and creatively formidable classes in branding. For studios, it is a dream transient. Wealthy storytelling, together with sensory cues, and the prospect to make folks really feel one thing earlier than they even take a chunk? Sure, please.
Enter Divine Chocolate. The farmer co-owned model has revealed a vibrant new id by London company Wildish & Co., marking its most vital visible replace since launching in 1998. As one of many world’s first Fairtrade chocolate manufacturers, Divine has lengthy had a good story to inform. In response to Wildish, this rebrand provides it a visible world that lastly lives as much as it.
The brand new packaging is assured, vibrant and stuffed with character. Hand-drawn illustrations convey Ghanaian cocoa landscapes to life, whereas a refreshed typographic method alerts a clearer shift in the direction of a premium, flavour-led positioning. It feels joyful and expressive, with out shedding sight of the farmers on the coronary heart of the operation.
The rebrand was designed to modernise Divine’s visible id, strengthen shelf presence and assist reposition the model as distinctive chocolate first, with ethics embedded slightly than shouted. Wildish & Co. was tasked with creating a brand new packaging system and visible toolkit to higher talk style, high quality, and aspiration whereas staying rooted in Divine’s Ghanaian heritage.
Early outcomes counsel the change is working. Put up-launch testing reveals a big uplift in shelf standout, style enchantment and total model attractiveness.
Illustration is central to the work. Wildish & Co. explored a spread of visible instructions, experimenting with landscapes, cocoa pods, folks and farm scenes in kinds starting from detailed realism to extra graphic, print-inspired approaches. The ultimate hand-drawn fashion strikes a cautious steadiness. It feels heat and human, however elevated sufficient to sign high quality.
Typography additionally performs a key function. A brand new serif, Holise Medium, was launched for headlines and on-pack messaging, bringing a way of craft and refinement. It is paired with Divine’s present typeface, Proxima Nova, which provides that additional readability and familiarity throughout longer copy and wider model communications.
Color does a lot of the heavy lifting, too. Somewhat than counting on darkish backgrounds and refined patterning, the brand new system places flavour entrance and centre. Darkish inexperienced and cream type the model’s basis, grounding the id in nature, farming and sustainability. From there, brighter and extra expressive colors are used throughout the vary to assist every bar stand out.
An prolonged palette of deep, brilliant and lighter tones is used to distinguish flavours, with distinction fastidiously managed to make sure legibility and affect in busy retail environments.
“We knew we had a powerful story, however we would have liked a model world that really mirrored it,” says Lydia Stubbins from Divine. “This rebrand permits us to really feel premium, joyful and led by style, whereas staying proudly co-owned and rooted in our Ghanaian heritage. Wildish & Co. helped us create an id that brings renewed power and emotion to the model, whereas giving us the pliability to develop.”
The contemporary id has been designed to scale throughout year-round merchandise, seasonal ranges and future class extensions. In a premium chocolate market that usually performs it secure, Wildish & Co. has created a system that feels distinctive, expressive and unmistakably Divine.
Sam Fresco, MD at Wildish & Co., provides: “In confectionery, having a very good story is now not sufficient. Manufacturers want a visible voice that cuts via. Our purpose was to assist Divine rediscover its confidence and categorical its persona extra clearly. By leaning into color and illustration, we created a system that feels recognisable, ownable and constructed to final.”
Moral credentials are now not a differentiator in themselves, which is why Divine’s new id goals to show that doing good and searching scrumptious can go hand in hand.
