The Meaning of the Cocoa Wonderland pattern.. And possibly life!

I wanted to write a post about the origins of our beautiful Cocoa Wonderland pattern. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it, it is featured on our bird boxes and on various flyers bits and bobs around our shop.

The pattern was specially design for us by the mega talented super modest lady Camilla Westergaard. A good friend of ours and one of our favourite customers! Her family pops by Cocoa every Friday for after school treats in celebration of the end of the week. Over the years we have seen them, their little friends (some not so little now!) and their wonderful personalities develop and grow in wonderful beings... This is one of my favourite things about owning a sweet shop! It makes me feel all warm inside thinking of all the lovely memories the kids might have of Cocoa when they are grown ups!

Camilla has a real eye for beautiful things and making things beautiful. We were having an identity crisis a few years ago and felt we lacked brand identity, we had lots of eclectic designs and a huge variety of products (not just chocolate) and felt that everything was all a bit jumbled & made no sense to us! We felt we had grown into something we could no longer call just a chocolate shop... We thought a pattern would help unite all our ideas and help make sense of our brand.

We were over the moon when Camilla offered to help us with our project. Camilla assured us that what we'd created was a strong brand and was confident we could build something amazing to complement it... Exciting! So we set to work creating mood boards and making lists of all our favourite things.

We named Cocoa a 'wonderland' because it's not just a chocolate shop. It's a magical friendly place where people can go to escape from the stresses of life, enjoy sweet treat and feel like a kid again! We believe Cocoa wonderland is this fantasy world that you enter when eating our magical chocolate. Camilla superbly captured the essence of our enchanted make believe land with her beautiful fairytale like illustrations. As soon as I saw her creation I was in awe. The fog cleared and I was back in wonderland again! Happy and content with our business.

Camilla asked us to find photographs of when we were little girls which she used to inspire her drawings of our younger selves. Can you spot us? Anne is merrily swinging in the branches of Cocoa wonderland and I'm sitting in a secluded corner, each tucking into huge lollipops. Content, carefree and enjoying the simple things in life. Pots of your favourite tea, ginormous sweet jars stuffed with sublime sweets and all the lollipops you could ever imagine sprouting out around you from chandeliers and flower pots. The birds are singing your favourite song, the sun is shining and there is more than enough to go round. This is cocoa wonderland!

Would you like to come too? You're welcome to join us... It starts with a bite of our chocolate...

Thanks Camilla! Love Cocoakate xxx