How we created a Gen-Z snack brand

Last year, Carter Pecan in Florida reached out to us with a problem most branding agencies would kill to have: “We’re launching a new line of globally-sourced, bold-flavored nuts. We have the product. We have the funding. We have distribution lined up. But we don’t have a name yet - and we need a brand that doesn’t look like every other nut on the shelf.”

Timeline : 12 weeks

1. The Challenge

Create a nut snack brand from absolute scratch - including naming - that appeals to flavor-forward consumers in North America while standing out in one of the most competitive retail categories on earth.

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2. The Branding Process

Every branding job we do consists of 3 steps:

1. Discovery

2. Strategy

3. Design

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3. Discovery

This is where we learn everything about your business and the products you plan to sell through a 1 hour workshop. You can now download the exact Discovery Deck PowerPoint we use to onboard every branding client.Some of the questions we ask includes:

1. Tell us about your business?

2. Tell us about the products you offer?

3. What price point are you selling them?

4. How are looking to be perceived in the market?

5. What can you tell us about your target customers ?

6. What type of people are they?

7. What would be the main message for your customers?

8. Who are your 3 biggest competitors?

9. Why would your customers choose you over your competitors?

10. What’s the goal for the next 1 / 5 / 10 years?
    

BRAND PERSONALITY SLIDERS

We then ask you to move these brand personality sliders, to find out how you want your brand to be perceived.

In Carter Pecan’s case, this is how they wanted their new snack brand to be perceived:

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4. Direction (The Brand Strategy)

This is the branding framework we use to build all brands - whether you’re a startup, or an already established brand.

The goal of the brand strategy, is get alignment on all 4 of these areas:

• Your Products

• Your Audience

• Your Story

• Your Brand Personality

Your Products

Cater Pecan wanted to launch a bold, modern nut brand built to reimagine snacking as an experience. Rooted in Carter Pecan’s sourcing and quality, but expressed with personality, flavor, and shelf impact.

Your Positioning

A premium line of roasted and sprouted nuts designed for people who care about flavor as much as ingredients. Globally sourced, thoughtfully crafted, and packaged to feel gift-worthy, not generic. Built for modern snackers who want better taste and better stories.

Your Personality

This brand leads with mastery, but never takes itself too seriously. It educates through flavor, delights through design, and invites curiosity at every touchpoint. Think confidence with charm - knowledgeable, playful, and unmistakably premium.

Your Audience

Buyer Persona 1: Mindful Mila

A wellness-driven consumer who values clean ingredients, thoughtful sourcing, and beautiful rituals. She snacks with intention and sees food as part of self-care, not just fuel. Drawn to brands that feel warm, human, and quietly premium.

Buyer Persona 2: Flavor Chasing Felix

A social-media driven snack explorer who chases bold taste and standout design. He loves discovering brands before they go mainstream and sharing them online. For him, snacks are conversation starters - flavor-forward, fun, and made to be seen.

Your Story

Bold flavor over filler. Craft over convenience. Joy over junk. This brand treats snacking as storytelling - each bite intentional, curious, and craveable. Healthy doesn’t have to be boring, and premium doesn’t have to be precious.

The Big Idea: Next Level Nuts.

Better flavor. Better design. Better experience .Nuts that feel elevated, craveable, and anything but basic.

Our Branding Framework Is Complete:

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3 Moodboards for the look & feel (along with brand name options)

Moodboard 1: The Showstopper - Bold | Playful | Attention-Grabbing

High-contrast colors, oversized typography, and graphic compositions designed to stop the scroll. This direction feels loud, confident, and fun - built to stand out instantly on shelf and on social. Nothing subtle. Everything intentional.

Brand Name options we came up with:

1. Nutfetti - Chosen for its fun, celebratory vibe - it sounds like a snack party in every bite. nutfetti.com available.

2. Chompa - Bold, rhythmic, and full of personality - it practically sounds like you’re chomping / munching on something for full of flavor. chompa.com available

3. Snacklet - Suggests small, shareable bursts of flavor - playful, punchy, and made for snacking. snacklet.com available

Moodboard 2: The Artisan - Refined | Natural | Timeless

Muted, earthy color palettes paired with elegant typography and restrained layouts. This direction feels crafted, premium, and considered - focusing on quality, ingredients, and heritage. Less noise, more confidence.

Brand Name options we came up with:

1. Nutistry - Evokes craftsmanship and expertise - where snacking meets artistry. nutistry.com available

2. Birch & Fig - Elegant and earthy, with natural ingredients embedded in the name - perfect for premium gifting. birchandfig.com available

3. WholeNosh - Nosh is British for Food. Wholesome and inviting, blending clean ingredients with everyday indulgence - ideal for conscious snackers. wholenosh.com available

Moodboard 3: The Companion - Warm | Wholesome | Approachable

Soft colors, friendly typography, and human-centered photography. This direction feels comforting and inviting - a brand you want to keep around and come back to. Familiar, charming, and easy to love.

Brand Name options we came up with:

1. Nutling - Small, sweet, and endearing - it feels like a lovingly handcrafted

   treat. nutling.com available

2. Snuzzle - Invented and cozy, it evokes warmth, joy, and comfort in every

   handful. snuzzle.com available

3. Ellieo - Soft, lyrical, and human - it feels like a name you trust, and a snack you’ll love. ellieo.com available
   

The client was immediately drawn to Moodboard 1 – The Showstopper. It felt bold, modern, and impossible to ignore - exactly what the nut category was missing. They also loved the name Chompa which reinforced this direction perfectly. Playful, confident, and action-driven, it sounded like the snack itself.

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5. Design (First Draft)

Option 1 - The Bold Chomp

Thick rounded slab-serif letters, warm colors, and cute nut mascots - friendly and nostalgic.

Option 2 - The Friendly Chomp

Bold, blocky, whimsical typography that had modern and energetic vibe

Option 3 - The Street Chomp

We used tall, stretched lettering - was bold, edgy, impossible to ignore.

Summary:

The client loved the colors + mascots from Option 1 and the wordmarks from Options 2 and 3.

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6. Design (Second Draft)

Option 1

This direction refined the original concept by pushing contrast, scale, and color even further. The logo remains bold and oversized, but with tighter typography and clearer hierarchy for better shelf impact. Playful mascot nut characters and high-energy color blocking work together to make Chompa feel loud, modern, and instantly recognizable.

Option 2

This option explored a more graphic, system-led expression of the Chompa logo. The wordmark becomes a bold frame for the product, with structured layouts and strong color pairing driving consistency across the range. It feels confident and modern, but more controlled - prioritizing clarity and scalability over playfulness.

The client decided to go with Option 2 Chompa wordmark, but to push the color palette even further.

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7. Design (Final)

The final design of Chompa is bold, playful, and unapologetically confident. The design pairs loud color with oversized typography to make flavor impossible to ignore. Product is the hero, framed with attitude-driven photography and punchy, culture-forward copy. Everything feels expressive, modern, and slightly irreverent.

Final Thoughts

Strategic foundation + complete logo & visual identity system + premium positioning

Chompa is proof that premium doesn’t have to whisper. When you start with a clear point of view, bold decisions stop feeling risky and start feeling inevitable. The name, the colors, the typography, the attitude - every choice works because it’s aligned to one simple idea: make flavor feel like a flex.

Rather than designing a logo or packaging in isolation, it was about about building a world people want to step into, photograph, share, and identify with. When a brand knows exactly who it’s for, it doesn’t chase attention - it commands it. If you want us to help you build a CPG brand - either from scratch, or refresh an existing one .. here are our prices. If that aligns with what you're looking for, then schedule a zoom call, so we can discuss your project in more detail.