“Indígena” is the Spanish word for “Indigenous.” Pronunciation: “in-DEE-hen-ah.” This chocolate box packaging design takes its theme from the indigenous origin of chocolate.

Chocolate - made from the cacao bean - was first developed by ancient Mesoamerican peoples. Ancient Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya, and the Aztecs mixed ground cacao beans with water, ground corn, and spices. Then, they cleverly created a “frothy” drink by holding a bowl with this mixture at shoulder height and pouring the chocolate mixture into a bowl on the ground below. Repeating this back and forth agitation added air to produce froth! Frothiness enhanced the taste and aroma of their chocolate drink. The bowl pouring method is a technique still used today in Southern and Central America.

The woman’s image featured on this red box is styled from a hieroglyph found in an ancient Mexican Codex (book) and demonstrates how ancient peoples created frothy chocolate.

The concept for this chocolate box’s package design seizes upon chocolate’s unique mesoamerican origin by featuring design elements that utilize colors, fonts, graphic patterns, and visual vocabularies inspired by ancient Central and South American indigenous peoples.