Tejas Chocolat

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Within @chocolates_rapanui´s line of chocolates, Tejas is one of the most refined. It is simply 10 square slices of chocolate of the highest quality. The presentations range from 60% to 90% cocoa and a version of milk chocolate.

These little sheets when stacked form a small cube. It is a product to be consumed by only one person, but, due to its quality, it is necessary to communicate through the packaging that it is something very special.

Something else: Diego, the master chocolatier, stressed to me from the first day that this type of chocolate is very delicate, so it must be very well protected from the atmosphere.

So I tried out various box formats. One of them, consequently, to the shape of the product, was a cube, but with a very subtle and special formal gesture: It was missing one of its apexes.

In the first presentation to the client this proposal stood out from the others. At that time it was a white cardboard cube, the graphic design was not planned and until the work was completed its three-dimensional shape did not vary and I only tried some sizes.

Above these lines an unfolding of the box and its assembly. Although there were adjustments, this approach was satisfactory for everyone and I also achieved the very interesting feature that the lid could be closed again. I could even put a snap that can be seen in the photos.

So from this moment on everything was adjustments, but the box is so small that a half millimeter adjustment could complicate the assembly and make the box crooked, not closed or even up to the direction with which the die cuts in relation to the fiber of the cardboard was decisive.

I did a lot of testing by hand and after that I sent my files to Mariano from Artes Gráficas Fuccillo who made new adjustments and instead of using his CNC router he made a die just for testing.

This box gives the product a sought-after image, but still does not give it the degree of protection that Diego intended.

Something else was needed for the interior of this box. We tested the Flow Pack technology but it took up too much space. We assumed with Diego that, with this option, the final size of the box would generate an erroneous expectation in the client regarding the size of its contents.

So I proposed a small thermoformed PET capsule.

The idea generated a lot of enthusiasm. Within a few days they sent me a test matrix and the corresponding prototypes.

These capsules close so well that I tested them by immersing them in water and still maintain their airtightness, and they can be opened and closed again.