Simply Chocolate

Thirteen Chocolate Bars, No Rules

“We are looking for a different type of e-commerce experience that captures the personality of the brand and the bars themselves.”
This was basically the brief.

We wanted to give the user a memorable experience and maybe even a smile on their face after the visit. The site should still have a functioning shop, selling Simply Chocolate's 13 'hero' products. We’d be breaking new ground and playing with users’ expectations in e-commerce territory where the philosophy of ‘tried-and-tested’ normally rules.

🏆 Won e-commerce site of the year at Awwwards 2017

Meet the Bars

We took the chocolate bars and placed them center stage. You can unwrap each bar, take a bite of it, even (almost) have a conversation with it. You can add them to your shopping box at any time and adjust the amount directly in the buy button. The minimum order is 20 bars which may seem like a lot, but trust us - they tend to disappear fast!

Computerised bars

The wrapping on the bars is made from layers of coded goodies. At the base we have a greyscale photo which is cropped by an SVG mask. Through the CMS you can add a color range to to give a very life-like coloured look. You then upload the graphics which is applied on top to form the complete bar and a shadow is then applied at the end.

Tasty Patterns

Each bar has a personality and that is made from the ingredients that went into it. We let each bar brand the entire site with colours as well as a pattern made from images of the ingredients. The patterns are generated automatically and we can choose the ingredients directly in the backend for each bar. This makes adding future bars a breeze.

The end result

Simply Chocolate has been one of the most award winning projects we have made and it has helped defining Spring/Summer and our purpose. We are very proud of having made a site like this that has inspired others and still looks fresh to this day.

Behind the Scenes

We had two major shoots for this to happen. First shoot was to capture the wrapping and the bars from the outside and broken off. We ended up using the shadows and highlights from the wrapping, and from that build a coded version of the colours as well as the print of the wrapping. The ingredients were shot in our own office in a more simple setup but we put a lot of work into the treatment of these images. The combination of how we made the wrapping and the ingredients makes it quite easy to add new bars to the site down the road.

What did Spring/Summer create for Simply Chocolate?

Spring/Summer designed and developed Simply Chocolate's online concept store, launched in 2017 on WordPress. We led strategy, design, and development for the Danish premium chocolate brand, building one of our most decorated projects and a formative reference for the studio

What technology powers the Simply Chocolate site?

The Simply Chocolate site runs on WordPress. We chose WordPress because it gave us the editorial control to plug a highly interactive front-end into a familiar publishing back-end. Each new bar can be added to the CMS with its ingredients, and the palette and pattern generate automatically, so new products drop into the same living world without design work per launch.

What was the brief Spring/Summer was given?

The brief, in the client's own words, was: "We are looking for a different type of e-commerce experience that captures the personality of the brand and the bars themselves." That was the whole starting point. Our approach was rooted in making the shopping experience feel as intentional and characterful as the chocolate itself.

What design and strategic decisions shaped the project?

We put 13 hero chocolate bars centre-stage, letting users unwrap them, take a bite, and interact with each one. The minimum order is 20 bars, which shaped the entire discovery flow. Each bar's ingredients generate a colour palette and pattern automatically via the CMS. The wrapping is built from a greyscale photo, an SVG mask, a coded colour layer, and a shadow overlay. Two photo shoots captured the wrapping textures and ingredients used across the site.

What was the outcome of the Simply Chocolate launch?

Simply Chocolate went on to become one of Spring/Summer's most decorated projects and a formative one for the studio. It won Awwwards Site of the Year in E-Commerce 2017, Awwwards Site of the Day, CSS Design Awards Food Site of the Year, CSS Design Awards Site of the Day, three Creative Circle Gold awards, and FWA Site of the Day. More importantly, it gave Simply Chocolate a digital experience that carries the personality of the brand and the bars themselves.

Who is this case relevant for?

This case is for food, D2C craft brands, and consumer products where the shopping experience has to carry the character of the product. We work with brands where the packaging, the ingredients, and the story matter as much as the transaction. If you are building a signature D2C site and want a shopping experience with real personality, this is the work we love.

How can a brand start a similar project with Spring/Summer?

Tell us about your project at contact@springsummer.dk or call +45 32 16 22 22. We're a Copenhagen-based digital design and brand agency, and we like hearing about briefs early, even if you're still figuring out what you need. Let's collaborate and make great stuff.