Chocolate is an indulgence. Even a small bite or a square from a bar can brighten your mood for no other reason than it tastes delectable. But what is chocolate when it can do more than that—when it’s packed with added benefits and still tastes great?
Well, that might look a little something like Good Day Chocolate.
Good Day Chocolate came about in 2012 when Andy Goldman, M.D., began crafting lollipops with medicine in them for his patients recovering from tonsillectomy surgery. He and friend Simeon Margolis then started brainstorming how they could create vitamins and supplements with Fair Trade chocolate—one, because chocolate is delicious, duh, and, two, because some studies have shown absorption is better when paired with ingesting a whole food, like chocolate.
Today, sweet little treats that also pack a health-focused punch are easy to find, but when Dr. Andy and Simeon founded Good Day Chocolate, there weren’t many other products like this on the market, particularly ones that actually tasted great. So when they hired Moxie Sozo, the Colorado-based global branding agency was faced with the task of creating a visual and packaging design for a new product in a category that really didn’t even exist yet.
“It was an interesting balance of what we want to be seen,” explained Charles Bloom, Creative Director and Partner at Moxie Sozo. “They didn’t want to be only an indulgence. It’s function-forward, but it’s also very mood-forward.”
Good Day Chocolate offers chocolate supplements like Energy, which can give you a little boost (thanks to ingredients like green tea and B vitamins), or Calm, which can help release tension (using things like amino acids and botanicals). The container needed to be easy to toss in a purse or briefcase, highlight the chocolate’s added benefits, and, on top of it all, the consumers needed to understand it wasn’t just good for them, but it tasted good, too.
“We could have filled this tiny little package with the word ‘energy’ and scream it, but we liked the idea of showing it,” Charles said. So rather than rely solely on text, they developed characters for each of the packs inspired by Art Deco and old-timey cartoons from the 1920s (though it ultimately inspired the typography used as well). “It’s a small pack, and getting a face on there is always a good idea to try and connect with someone. So that’s why we leaned into these expressive faces.”
The agency didn’t just consider what the pack would look like, though—they considered ways to make it a complete experience for the consumer.
The box is a soft-touch pack, making it pleasant to hold and also easy to locate in a bag without even looking. When opened, the flip-top makes a click sound—an almost Pavlovian trigger to indicate something good is on the way. Underneath the lid is another image of the character but changed somehow. For example, for their energy supplement, the eyes perk up, and you’ll notice little bolts indicating a bit more liveliness than before.
Because Moxie Sozo was working with limited real estate on the packaging (all while considering FDA regulations), they also had to indicate to consumers this was, in fact, a chocolate product. Yes, it could perk you up or help you sleep, but it did so using (probably) the greatest food on earth as a vehicle for delivery. Here, Moxie relied on color cues. Each SKU had its own color signifier to set it apart, but all the packaging fades to a chocolate brown at the bottom, which helps indicate what’s inside.
With the copywriting, they wanted to bring as much of that playful personality into the packaging as they could. “We created these easy dosage guides,” Charles said. “So instead of saying, ‘two chocolates are this many milligrams of caffeine,’ we’ve described it as ‘a bit of pep in your step,’ or more is ‘jumpin’ Jupiter. It’s a fun, relatable way to describe it because, again, this is functional, but it’s also a treat.”
Finding that balance was the biggest challenge with designing Good Day Chocolate. “We want people drawn to the packaging, and also know that the product works,” Charles mentioned. “We’ve got your attention, now let’s keep it. “That’s the ultimate goal—to have the branding bolster the product.”
Since Good Day Chocolate began and carved out this unique category of supplements slash treats, the brand has since expanded to include a kids’ line and even tapped into additions for their adult supplements like CBD. But the brand is very much true to what it set out to be in the beginning—bite-sized mood enhancers that taste wonderful. Rather than trying to fit into the niche spot for another product, they’ve claimed their place and want to focus on consistency and quality rather than jumping on trends for the sake of being trendy.
Good Day Chocolate has also amassed quite a fanbase, and the packaging—with those expressive characters at the forefront—undoubtedly played a vital role in that. “Creating the connection with these personalities makes them stand out,” Charles added.
“They’re looking at you, and you want to look back and engage and carry them with you. It’s something memorable beyond the name and the function.”
