Undercover Snacks

Fast growth with a flexible system that is both expressive and consistent

The brand was built around a simple, brilliant idea: healthy ingredients going undercover — chocolate cover.

My client invented this product herself, wanting a gluten free chocolate treat, for her daughters, who have celiac disease. We live in the same town, and she came to my house with the product in baggies, for me to try it and understand what it is.

She had an idea for a logo but nothing more. I refined the logo and created several iterations of the packaging for her, finally landing on the stripes, which relate to the flavors or the holiday themes. The company has grown very quickly and is now quite well-known, in over 25,000 retail locations.

The logo character, “the Spy,” wears a humorously conspicuous disguise — a bright fedora, glasses and a mustache. What makes the system expandable is that the hat changes with every flavor, and the whole costume transforms for holidays: vampire teeth or a witch hat for Halloween, a Santa hat for Christmas, pink rabbit ears for Easter. New flavors and seasonal editions can be added indefinitely without touching the core brand identity — just change the hat.

The line comes in multiple sizes: 3 oz bags, large club bags carried at Costco, film wrapped crisps (you may have seen on United Airlines flights), and multipack boxes.