The delicious flavor of Cal Poly Chocolate isn’t going anywhere, but the look of the chocolate is getting a face lift. A group of graphic communication students teamed up to create the chocolate’s new logos. The new product launches today.
“We are competing in an annual product design and printing competition sponsored by the Flexographic Technical Association,” team member and graphic communication senior Audrey Van Camp said. “This year’s theme for the competition was ‘Campus Market.’ We were instructed to redesign and repackage a maximum of four products that would be found in a campus market.”
The Flexographic Technical Association is a technical society in the flexographic printing and in-line converting industry which has teamed up with the Phoenix Challenge Foundation to make this competition happen.
Other students on the Phoenix Challenge team are: Chris Hernandez, Kendra Jaqua and Eli McNutt. Graphic communication professor Malcolm Keif is the adviser. The team will present the rebranding project March 17 in San Antonio, Texas.
The competition gives the students involved something to look forward to, but also gives Cal Poly Chocolates an updated new look. Cal Poly Chocolates is the only university-based chocolate production course in the country. The chocolates produced are both organic and fair trade certified.
“We ended up starting a relationship with Anna Nakayama and Simon Zhao, the student managers of Cal Poly Chocolates, when they approached a graphics teacher because they wanted to redesign the CP Chocolates logo,” Van Camp said. “The teacher they approached happened to be our Phoenix Challenge adviser, and we proposed redesigning their logo and packaging as part of our competition.”
The team of graphic communication students has been working with the student managers since December and are making a public release of the new branding and packaging today.
“Cal Poly Chocolate is a completely student-made product, from start to finish,” team member and graphic communication senior Kaela Soohoo said. “It’s cool to say that we really are learning by doing as it is all students that produce these products. While GrC was completely in charge of packaging, from design to print and display, (Cal Poly Chocolates) was in charge of the production of making the finished chocolate products.”
The re-branding team of graphic communication students, under the Phoenix Challenge Foundation work as a consulting group for Cal Poly Chocolates.
“They, in a sense, ‘hired’ us to redesign their packaging,” Van Camp said. “In that type of relationship, we strove to give them exactly what they wanted, and were in addition able to produce a product that is within the parameters of our competition. ”
The team sent out surveys to Cal Poly students and faculty to research market data. Combining the data received with the vision and expertise of the Cal Poly Chocolates managers, the end result was nine new packaging lines for the company.
“We wanted to make Cal Poly Chocolates have more of a brand identity, and look more professional,” Soohoo said. “We felt that the old packaging didn’t give us that chocolatey feeling, so we wanted to add that and make it more fun and accessible for students on their way to class but also nice enough to be given as a gift.”
It has been years since the last labels were created for the Cal Poly Chocolates line.
“Students spend so much time producing and packaging the chocolates, so we wanted them to be excited to see them in store,” Van Camp said. “We attempted to create a design that stood out and would be noticed on the shelf.”
The team will pass out free samples during University Union Hour at Campus Market today. Other locations on campus that carry Cal Poly Chocolates will have the new packaging once they run out of their current inventory.