Alice Pattullo x Fortum & Mason

The epicurean epicentre of London’s St James's, Fortnum + Mason have commissioned Alice Pattullo to package their mouth-watering new chocolate boxes...

"It felt like a dream job getting the commission to work on the F&M chocolate boxes… I have worked with F&M on packaging before but as a company who has notoriously beautiful and illustration forward packaging it really does feel humbling when I’m asked. I love drawing characters and animals and quirky and whimsical scenarios but don’t always get commissioned for this, so this one was a particularly fun brief (plus….chocolate!)"

"The idea for the box was to be a glorious gathering with a ‘menagerie of colourful characters’. The sleeve would be simpler with the F&M doorway die-cut to allow a peep of the bright and colourful party inside. I loved the challenge of fitting in different details from the store, characters from F&M history as well as new characters and details that reflect some of the ingredients in the chocolates….There are nods to the architecture and interior of the Piccadilly store (the spiral staircase, the arched windows the cherubs over the doors for example) and the characters reference both the history of the Fortnum’s story as well as highlighting some of the ingredients inside; if you look close enough there’s a clown juggling oranges, the bees winding their way to and from the ornate F&M hives (that are on the roof of the Piccadilly building) and a lady with a rather wonderful raspberry shaped afro! I even managed to put in a subtle self portrait on one of the designs…the chef who is ‘salting’ the chocolate fountain (riding a familiar winged F&M teacup) looks suspiciously like me…(I couldn’t resist as I’m an absolute salt fiend… and can confirm the sea salt gianduja is gooood!)"

The designers proceeded to produce the different colour schemes for the boxes once I had provided the illustrations so I really loved seeing the finished pieces; they aren’t colours I would necessarily naturally gravitate towards but I love them and think they’ve made the boxes look so vibrant and fun and give the nostalgia of the design a modern edge. The challenge was that it was an incredibly tight deadline but the concept and art direction was brilliant so I was fortunate that it went pretty smoothly as a result of that…it really does make a difference!

See more of Alice's stunning work here.

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