Challenge

TCHO had always stood for craft, ethics, and bold flavor exploration, but their brand expression no longer matched the ambition of their mission.
As the company prepared to become a Certified B Corp, transition to 100% plant-based products, and push into new flavor territories, they needed a brand world capable of signaling leadership in a crowded premium chocolate category.

I was brought in to reimagine the identity end-to-end: reposition the brand, redesign packaging, create new photography and storytelling systems, build an innovation pipeline, design the physical form of the chocolate bars, and ultimately serve as the brand’s creative guardian through four years of evolution and growth.

Discovery

TCHO’s greatest differentiator wasn’t just flavor; it was their fully transparent, deeply ethical supply chain and their obsession with flavor science. This obsession has been a collaborative partner with the co-ops and farmers in each region. Yet none of that richness showed up in the market.

We reframed their truth into a sharp, unifying strategic platform:
Chocolate. Fair & Square.

A single sentence that captured both the ethics of their sourcing and the joyful precision behind their flavor innovation. This became the North Star for every design and storytelling decision that followed.

Craft

Rebuilding the Visual Identity

Premium chocolate was saturated with sameness. Earth tones, rustic cues, overtly illustrated, indulgence clichés. TCHO needed a design system that felt unmistakably modern, ethical, and fun.

We created a bold new identity defined by:

• Vibrant, flavor-forward color worlds that carved out instant shelf presence.

• Witty & Plainspoken tone of voice that reflected the brand’s honesty and playful confidence.

• A custom typeface inspired by the irregular charm of wood type, crafted, human, and expressive.

• A photography Style for Product & Lifestyle, celebrating big textures, raw ingredients, and joyful imperfection. As well as a photojournalistic style to portray the transparency of the sourcing.

• A new geometric Bar-Mold pattern that shattered the standard chocolate rectangle and, at first glance, signaled modernity.

Together, these elements formed a system that was clear, characterful, and endlessly flexible.

A Fresh Brand World

To support consistency across channels, we built a full-scale system that included:

• Brand Strategy & Positioning

• Brand Voice

• Consumer and Wholesale Packaging system with variant architecture

• Typographic hierarchy and layout systems, both print and digital

• Ingredient and product photography guidelines

• Social and campaign templates

• Motion and digital behavior

Everything laddered back to clarity, craft, and joy.

Telling the TCHO Source Story

We elevated one of TCHO’s proudest programs, their direct partnerships with farmer co-ops in Ghana and Latin America.

Working with Ghanaian photographer Jessica Sarkodie, we captured a deeply human portrait of the ABOCFA cooperative, showcasing the people, environments, and craft behind TCHO’s ethical sourcing.
This imagery became a foundational chapter in the brand world, grounding the identity in truth and connection.

A Richer Digital Experience

We rebuilt TCHO’s website with two goals:

1. Empower DTC growth with clarity, craft, and effortless navigation.

2. Deepen storytelling through immersive visuals and transparent sourcing narratives.

The new site brought the brand to life online with warmth, simplicity, and the flexibility to scale with future product innovation.

Brand Guardianship & Innovation (4+ Years)

Beyond the rebrand, I continued to guide TCHO as a creative partner and brand steward, shaping:

• New product innovation and naming

• Seasonal and limited-edition releases

• Retail storytelling and merchandising

• Social, digital, and campaign expressions

• Ongoing refinement of the design system as the brand expanded

• Packaging updates and structural optimizations

• Continued work on bar molds and product form as flavors evolved

This long-term guardianship ensured TCHO stayed coherent, confident, and distinct across every touchpoint.

Impact

TCHO emerged with a bold new identity, one that cut through category sameness and reestablished the brand as a pioneer in ethical, craft-driven chocolate. The redesigned bars, packaging, website, and storytelling united into a system that felt modern, warm, and unmistakably TCHO.

From the brand:

“This has been an incredibly fruitful journey, one of the highlights of my career, no doubt.”
—Josh Mohr, SVP Marketing, TCHO Ventures

TCHO now stands as a category leader with a physical and digital identity worthy of its mission, and built to grow for years to come.