Naives Designs from the Past

Today reading the blog of a friend -who is totally bent on remembering our teenage days-, a name of a chocolate from the past appeared: Chocolandia.

She made a whole article about it (even with the jingle!..., if you read Spanish, here it is) but still the name didn't ring a bell in my head what is not surprising at all considering that in the place of my brain where "memories" should be stored I have a mysterious Black Hole instead, that sucks any memory that would dare to go even near there.

Anyway, the brand did ring a bell, so I started a search and finally found the infamous packaging. Seeing it was remembering it, of course, how could I not remember such "special" design?

I am not sure how old I was when this chocolate was being sold in Argentina (10, maybe?) but seeing it made me laugh. It was clearly another time in the design world and Buenos Aires -today a gifted city in that sense- was probably a very different place.

The fonts used seemed to be done by a teenage himself even when I have to admit that the animals drawings (that you were supposed to collect) were pretty cute. I guess some things do not change though, and kids collecting animals will always be part of the marketing mix of new products.

Another detail I didn't remember was the green foil (see below). I am not sure if it was an advanced design decision made on purpose or if it was what was available (but different) at the time. My guess is it was the second option.



(sigh) It is a bit unbelievable how some products or some ads can get stuck with us. I didn't remember this product but there are a few others that I do remember in detail or that I can still sing their jingles, 20 years later!

Design can be an art and advertising shouldn't be conceived as one, but both can impress our psyche and stay with us for years or take us back to that place when we were the seed of what we are now, maybe -like this design- more naives at that time but already growing into something else.

PS: Ceci, you wanted a picture of Chocolandia, here they are!