Louise O’Brien is a Master Chocolatier and owner of MoonRiver Chocolate, based in Limerick, Ireland. Louise started her business in 2011. MoonRiver Chocolates are carefully made by hand in County Limerick. All products are 100% preservative-free and include only natural cacao bean and fats. The result is uniquely healthy chocolates that are wonderful in flavour and rich and velvety in texture.

It was critical in such a competitive market to get the brand strategy right for this new product from day one. We worked with Gillian Horan of The Pudding who worked with us on the brand strategy. From this understanding of the new brand values and ethos, we experimented with the concept, fonts and colour schemes. Each element is as important as the other and it is the final synergy of these components that creates the end result.

Firstly, we experimented on paper to create ideas for the new concept. We took advantage of the two “O”’s side by side and linked them together, using the shapes in the first “O” to create the moon and the shapes in the second “O” to represent the waves and reflections on the river. There is a hint of this again in the word “Chocolate”. We also experimented a lot with fonts but quickly zoned in on this final font for the brand. We fell in love with this font as it fitted perfectly with what we wanted to achieve.

In deciding the corporate colours, we enjoyed the experimentation and we went through a few variations of the brand corporate colours before we were 100% happy with the final pantones. We have specific variations for the colour scheme, depending on its use. The chocolate box tags are printed with a gold foil, which immediately adds that luxurious look and feel. The final colour scheme combines our primary colour of antique blue and cream and brown with gold foil on the tags and metallic gold on the stationery. These colours are consistent across all material including the chocolate box tags, labels and wraparounds to her stationery and eCommerce website.

Louise is continually developing her business and her range of products. You simply have to taste them (a must for chocolate lovers) as Her range of products includes so many amazing flavours! Working with Louise is such a treat (in more ways than one!) as she is very passionate about her business and she has a real appreciation for branding and consistency. We love working with clients who really understand the importance of the little details like the uniformity of fonts and getting corporate colours printed congruently every single time. There is always a reason behind a design element and these seemingly-minor components synergise to showcase the whole of the brand. At Blink Design™, we are really passionate about getting those little details right.

We have been busy designing new packaging labels including tamper-proof labels, labels for gluten-free products, round labels for new tinned products and wraparounds for new bars in yummy flavours like blackberry and passion fruit, so watch this space.

Log onto www.moonriverchocolate.ie to view the eCommerce site.