Almost a year ago to the day, I got an email from Gabi Lewis, co-founder of Exo. He wasted no time diving into the product he was working on: “Protein bars from crickets (yes, seriously)”.

I quickly re-read, trying to assess if it was a prank — the “yes, seriously” addition didn’t quite sell me. Thankfully he went on, explaining that cricket protein has more iron than beef and that crickets are a far more sustainable source of protein. In fact, crickets are twenty times more efficient than cattle, using significantly less feed, water and land. The geeky factoids piqued my interested and we set up a meeting to talk about their goals.

Shortly thereafter, our team began building the Exo brand. We moved quickly, finalizing a name, creating an initial strategy and of course, starting to figure out how to address (what we dubbed) “the 500 pound cricket in the room”.

We created all the visual brand elements in conjunction with a temporary package for a Kickstarter campaign — knowing that if successful, we’d move to a more permanent solution. We also shot photos, prepared renderings and created a simple, stripped down website that served as a home base for people looking to learn more about cricket consumption and Exo. Within 72 hours after launching, the campaign it was fully funded.

The Kickstarter was so successful it ended up raising $54.9k,
more than doubling their goal.

After this incredible response, we kicked-off the packaging. For a packaging project, this is when things start to get ‘real’, especially with food. Of course the design of the package is important, but there are tons of logistical details that need to be considered, from the size of the bar to the space it takes up on a stores shelves. If mistakes are made, they can be time consuming and expensive (the stuff of a start-up’s worst nightmare).

Exo had some added issues. If you are allergic to crustaceans, chances are you’ll be allergic to crickets. Who knew? This made co-packers hesitant. There was also a big question around supply; with approximately 40 crickets in each bar, where were these crickets going to come from?

Luckily for us, we only had to tackle the problems that came with getting the bars into their wrappers (and then subsequently their boxes).

We developed copy alongside the design, evolving each piece simultaneously. From tagline to iconography to flavor names, we made sure everything was cohesive, yet added unique value to Exo’s story. The design moved forward in stages until we had a finalized rendering. From there we built out a mechanical (the file that is used by the printer when they go on press). This file has to includes color specifications, any folds or seal areas, as well as the design and product necessities like the barcode and nutrition facts.

Then of course, there’s the printing. We had three flavor SKUs, each with a wrapper and a wholesale box. Since we were printing on film and cardboard, with both CMYK and Pantone, we wanted the colors to be as consistent as possible. We flew out to a secret location for a press check, where we scrutinized every color, questioned every dot screen and clearly annoyed the pressman (who was nothing short of amazing for solving each problem we presented).