Zimt Chocolates: Advent Packaging Design

Project Info

Year

2022

Type

Packaging Design

Roles

Graphic Designer, Art Director

Tools

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Overview

Zimt Chocolates, a Vancouver-based vegan chocolate brand, is known for its ethical values, zero-waste packaging, and commitment to animal welfare. For their 2022 holiday advent calendar, they envisioned packaging that could evoke empathy and raise awareness for animals in need. This seasonal product required a special design that would stand apart from their usual packaging while still aligning with their brand’s dreamlike, watercolour-inspired aesthetic.

Challenge

How can packaging stir emotion and action?
Zimt Chocolates needed a limited-edition holiday design that would do more than look festive—it needed to tell a story. The challenge: translate a heartfelt vision into a clear, compelling visual narrative within a small space, while also combining two bars’ worth of information into one.

Goals

  1. Design packaging that tells a visual story with emotional impact
  2. Differentiate the holiday product from the standard line, while staying on-brand
  3. Fit two chocolate bars’ product info into a cohesive design

Concept

The concept visually contrasts two realities: an animal outdoors in harsh winter conditions and the same animal safe and cozy indoors. This before-and-after narrative wrapped the product in compassion, aligning beautifully with Zimt’s values. Clear placement of brand, product, and legal info ensured the design remained functional, despite its emotional weight.

Initial concept mock-up – Early-stage layout used to guide the illustration process.
Final packaging open with product inside – Finished product as sold, showcasing the emotional narrative in full.

Approach

  • Early Alignment: Low-fidelity mock-ups helped translate founder Emma Smith’s vision into rough visuals—clarifying tone, story, and composition.
  • Illustration Partnership: Illustrator Kate Finlason was brought on to create two contrasting scenes—outdoor hardship and indoor warmth—reflecting the brand’s emotional arc.
  • Emotional Resonance: Kate’s tender, whimsical style captured the heart of the concept, helping the packaging connect meaningfully with conscious consumers.

Results

The advent calendar was sold in Indigo stores across Canada during the 2022–2023 holiday season and continued into 2023–2024 due to its strong commercial success. Its warm, story-driven packaging stood out on shelves—fostering an emotional connection with shoppers and amplifying Zimt’s impact-focused brand presence.

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"Joy has been an absolute delight to work with. Her work is professional, unique and incredibly creative. She brings a lot of awesome ideas to the websites she's been building and she also brings a wonderfully positive attitude. I highly recommend working with Joy if you're looking for an amazing experience and beautiful design work done."

Bradley Morris | Majik Media
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" Great communication
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"Joy was a pleasure to work with on a recent graphic design project. She was able to work within the limitations of our deliverables (a toolkit built on Google products and Canva) to produce something truly beautiful and easy for our client to maintain in the future. Great communication and collaboration. I highly recommend engaging Joy for your graphic design needs!"

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" The final prints were perfect
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“Thrilled to have the first week hit the charts! Thank you so much.
Everyone was pleased and the final prints were perfect inside and out!”

Dr.Melissa Mondala | Dr.Lifestyle
Via Email

" I'd hire Joy in a heartbeat again"

"I hired Joy in the spring of 2022 to design the cover for my book, Vegan Marketing Success Stories. [...] I can tell you working with her was an absolute DREAM — and I've worked with some great graphic & web designers in the past. [...] Joy not only presented 3 options for packages but came up with 3 mockups, outlined key deadlines, stayed in communication with me constantly, and provided 14(!) bonus graphics I could use for promotional purposes. When my first proof copy wasn't all that perfect, she encouraged me to wait until I got the next copy before taking photos—a testament to her care for quality. I am THRILLED with how my book cover turned out and having additional graphics support took one less thing off my plate. I'd hire Joy in a heartbeat again, especially if you want a pro who cares about your work just as much as you do."

Sandra Nomoto | Book Whisperer and Vegan Hype Woman
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"Joy was exceptional to work with. She's very clear on her communication and super organized with the entire process. She helped me refresh my website design and I couldn't be happier! Totally worth it!"

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“So thankful for the opportunities to work with Joy! She's professional, level headed, wonderfully creative and excellent at taking feedback/ideas to heart and then putting them into action- a dream. Joy delivered a timeless, clean and fun design as part of a very important project for nationally distributed seasonal consumer packaged goods and I could not be more pleased with the end result! Fantastic communication, too. Thank you, Joy! Looking forward to our next chance to work together again.”

Emma Smith | Founder of Zimt Chocolates
Via Linkedin

"Her patience and high level design
skills are second to none!"

“Joy's excellent design and layout skills were key, in producing the design plans and layout for the current Pravada floors website. Since she left Pravada with some of the most beautifully designed branding, we have continued using her templates and branding standards. I truly miss working collaboratively, playing off each others skills and learning from each other. Her patience and high level design skills are second to none!”

Amanda Arsenault | Marketing Wiz & Former co-worker
Via Linkedin

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