The Curious Matter of Chocolate
Embedded Files
As part of the ASU London Launch, the exhibition brings together students from Industrial Design and Graphic Design to reimagine the relationship between chocolate, people, products, packaging, communication, and experience.
Originally developed as an industry-engaged academic design studio, the project guided students from sophomore to senior years through a complete design process — from research and observation through concept generation, prototyping, graphic communication, and the preparation of a professional presentation.
The collaboration was conceived as a research-driven initiative that brings together product thinking, packaging, storytelling, and life-centered design while creating opportunities for student engagement, industry collaboration, and international exchange.
Rather than presenting only the final outcomes, the exhibition reveals the complete design journey behind each project, including the research carried out, the sketches, the storyboards, the prototypes, the packaging explorations, the communication systems, and the speculative design experiences, all of which illustrate how ideas evolve from observation to design.
Faculty Direction
Faculty Direction
Students were challenged to investigate the developing behaviors of Gen Z and to consider chocolate not only as a sweet treat but as an item capable of producing new experiences, with Luis Angarita, Associate Professor of Industrial Design, Assistant Director of Design Ventures & Innovation, and Amy Robinson, Associate Program Head and Clinical Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, providing guidance.
The design proposals explore how chocolate can create opportunities for ritual, play, sharing, personalization, collectibility, sensory engagement, sustainability, storytelling, and social interaction.
At its core, the exhibition asks one simple question:
What else can chocolate become when we design not only the product but the experience around it?
Designing beyond the expected
Designing beyond the expected
Chocolate is more than a product. It is material, ritual, memory, culture, communication and experience.
By examining something familiar through multiple design disciplines, students uncover
new questions about how people relate to the products and experiences around them.
Designed by a generation, for
a generation
Designed by a generation, for
a generation
Our students' point of view is at the heart of The Curious Matter of Chocolate. As emerging Gen Z designers, they bring their own behaviors, cultural backgrounds and expectations to the creative process. ASU's diverse student population offers perspectives from within the generation the project seeks to understand, not simply interpretations from the outside. The result is not a single answer to the future of chocolate, but a collection of propositions that demonstrate how design can question, reimagine and transform familiar experiences.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors discover not only the final concepts but also the complete creative process which, over a few weeks, led the students to put forward new visions of the future, including the research they carried out, the observations they made, the storyboards they prepared, the sketches they drew, the prototypes they developed, the packaging they explored, and the iterative development they carried out in a short time period, together with the way each idea moved from an initial question to a specific design solution.
Meldy Aanya Manickman
Environments
Mekai Begay
Cadbury Botanicals Caroline Alperin
Flower Petal Ritual Kenneth Mellon
Go Notz Gaargi Pandit
Pods
Atharv Kulkarni
Cadbury Interlude
Sydney M & Margaux Q
Munchie Tea Savannah P & Karla C
Truth or Dare Breaks Luke Bradshaw
Royal Treat
Claire Ballard
Powder Perfect Evan McKernan
Chocolate Candle Ritual
Brynn Gudmundsen
Design Dive I
Design Dive I
Designing Experiences That Bring People Together
The first Design Dive examines the way in which design can turn brief
pauses into specific experiences of concentration, creativity, and personal renew.
Design Dive II
Design Dive II
Transforming the Moments We Repeat
We often fail to notice the everyday rituals, even though they do influence the
pace of their lives. The second Design Dive examines how familiar routines can
be transformed into richer, more memorable experiences with careful design.
Design Dive III
Design Dive III
Designing Moments of Pause and Renewal
Chocolate has been long associated with sharing, celebration, and companionship;
The final Design Dive examines how design can enhance such occasions by creating experiences that encourage interaction, conversation and an emotional connection.
Visit the Exhibition
Northampton Square Pavilion, City St George's, University of London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
Admission is free. Pre-registration is required to access the City St George's campus and exhibition venue.
Tuesday, Sept. 15 – Friday, Sept. 18, 2026,
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Learn more about the London Design Festivial
Learn more about the London Design Festivial
The Design School will be showcasing the students work at the London Design Festival. The Festival celebrates and promotes its city as the design capital of the world. The 24th edition will take place from 12–20 September 2026. Take part and share your stories with global audiences.
2026 — Concept design. Created by students of The Design School at Arizona State University in collaboration with Mondelēz International.
This is a speculative academic project for educational and exhibition purposes only, and is not a commercial product or an official Cadbury offering.
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