My Senior Thesis

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the idea of brand activism through the creation of an ethical chocolate brand. Evolve, the brand I created, makes its chocolate using 100% ethically produced cocoa, which is a rarity in the chocolate industry. The brand takes its activism a step further by donating 50% of its profits to various social justice organizations working in the areas of race, gender and sexuality. Evolve uses its platform to promote various social justice organizations. Each month four organizations from each focus area (race, gender and sexuality) are selected and the profits for that month are divided amongst the organizations evenly. The profits from each individual flavor is put towards one of the focus areas, which is indicated on the packaging. Evolve customers can vote on which organizations that they would like to see the company work with next on evolve’s website. The evolve website is also a place where customers can find more information about different social justice issues. The website has a page that highlights the brand’s current and past partners, serving as a way to introduce customers to many different organizations they might be interested in supporting. There is also a resource that serves as a jumping off point for people to begin educating themselves further on social justice issues. Evolve was created to be a brand people can trust, and it continually proves itself by taking concrete action in the area of social justice. It is a true activist brand because it actually takes action.

The first step in the design process, after I completed my research on brand activism and competitors in the field, was developing a name for the brand, and creating a logo and branding system. I started my process by brainstorming words and symbols associated with change since changing the world in whatever small way we can is the driving force behind the company. I developed several different ideas before settling on the name evolve and the symbol of the butterfly. The following images are spreads from the brand book I created for Evolve Chocolate.

I followed this up with packaging design. I created three variations of the packaging, one for milk, white and dark chocolate. I worked to make sure the brand mission was clearly displayed on the packaging. I also worked to make the packaging interactive by designing the indie of the box as well. The inside of each box features a moving image and quote focused on the issue the profits from the particular bar of chocolate is going to, whether that be racial equality, gender equality or LGBTQ+ issues. I also designed the outside packaging for different chocolate bar flavors to demonstrate the color system I created.

I created a desktop and mobile of the Evolve website next. One the site you can learn about the company, its mission, the cocoa industry, the company's social justice partners and a bit about social justice issues. You can also purchase chocolate bars on the site. I choose to focus more on the brand values on the site because most of the time people buy chocolate bars in stores so having a site focused heavily on e-commerce did not make much sense. Instead, I wanted to create a site that would inspire brand loyalty through connection with the brand mission, and also give customers the opportunity to start better educating themselves about social justice issues.

Finally, I created two advertising campaigns to serve as examples of how the branding would be used in promotional materials. One of the campaigns focuses on bold photographic imagery and has an edgy, strong and urgent feel. The second campaign is a bit more subdued and has a soft, comforting and hopeful feel that might be more appropriate for some situations.

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