Oberlin Chocolate Food Type

Oberlin asked me to find a sweet angle on the dark history of chocolate colonialism. I sunk my teeth deep into this article and determined the best course of action was to embrace the discomfort rather than run.

The chocolate industry has remained largely unchanged for 150 years, which caused me to reference old trading company ads and packaging for the visual language. While the article was primarily about West African growers and their lacking compensation, I wanted the treatment to feel like white consumers from the industry’s heyday. The lettering was swirled into Art Nouveau forms with my finger, applying layers and layers of fudge. The cocoa was packed into tight shapes filled in after layers of fudge applications, and after three attempts, “Bitter” finally fit the bill. A drop cap and several rules and a box polished up the final layout, all of which was beautifully laid out by Oberlin’s chosen printer.