Monstr
We ate the e.
Monstr has no separate symbol.
Monstr has no separate symbol. The wordmark is the mark. The brand's character lives in the candy, so a drawn emblem beside the name would put a creature back on the outside of the bag, which is the move the brand exists to refuse. Where the full wordmark cannot fit, the M stands in. This covers the favicon, the app icon, an embroidered cap, the seal sticker and the corner of a social frame. The M is cut from the wordmark itself, in the same weight and softness, not redrawn as a new letter. It is always one flat colour on one flat field, and it is centred in its space. The six blob silhouettes are product marks, not brand marks. Each one belongs to its shape and appears on that shape's pack, on that shape's colour. A silhouette is never used to stand for Monstr as a whole, and it never gets a face, eyes or teeth. The M is approved only after it has been tested at 16 px on screen, in one colour on uncoated board, and as embroidery at the smallest size merch will need. If it fails any of these, the M is redrawn. The test result is recorded here.
The wordmark is Monstr, set in Fraunces at its heaviest weight with the soft axis at full.
The wordmark is Monstr, set in Fraunces at its heaviest weight with the soft axis at full. At that setting the corners round over and the letters look pressed rather than cut, so the name feels squeezable before the candy does. Fraunces is a free typeface. It was chosen because that soft axis turns the brand idea into a property of the letters, not because it was free. The set type is the starting point, not the final mark. A designer redraws it by hand. The spacing is tightened so the letters sit close, like soft pieces settled in a bag, and each joint is evened out so the word holds together at small sizes. The missing e is not marked with a gap, a bite or a symbol. Its absence is the joke, and the word carries it alone. The wordmark is centred by default. On a printed pack front it can run large and be cropped by the edge as one deliberate move. It never becomes a fixed band or a rule for every surface. Colour pairings: - Ink on cream - Cream on raspberry - Cream on plum - Ink on apricot - No other pairings until each one has been measured Lockups: - Wordmark alone - Wordmark above the shape name and flavour: the pack front stack - Wordmark with the facts line "Soft. No gelatin. Real fruit juice." set in Figtree beneath it, for trade and web The minimum size of the wordmark is 8 mm tall in print and 24 px tall on screen. Below that, the M is used.
Colour is assigned by shape.
Colour is assigned by shape. Each of the six shapes owns one fruit colour. On its pack that colour is the field: it fills the whole front, flat, never as a gradient or a tint. Three are set: raspberry #C8264E, apricot #F2A33A and plum #5B2A86. The other three are set once the six flavours are confirmed. Each colour is then checked against the real juice, so the bag matches what it tastes of. Cream #FFF4EC is the surface for web, trade documents and the back-of-pack information panel. Ink #2A1418 is the text colour on cream. On a pack front, everything that is not the field is set in one colour: the wordmark, the silhouette, the shape name, the flavour, the facts line and the sour tab. That colour is cream or ink, whichever passes on that field. A front never mixes the two. Measured contrast, computed from the hex values with the WCAG relative-luminance formula: - Ink on cream: 16.0:1. Passes. - Cream on raspberry: 5.0:1. Passes AA for small text, with little margin. - Ink on raspberry: 3.2:1. Large type only. Not used. - Cream on apricot: 1.9:1. Fails. Never used. - Ink on apricot: 8.3:1. Passes. - Cream on plum: 9.2:1. Passes. - Ink on plum: 1.75:1. Fails. Never used. Raspberry and plum packs carry cream. Apricot packs carry ink. Each new shape colour is measured against both cream and ink before it is used. A colour that passes with neither is changed. No pairing outside this list is used until it has been measured. These ratios are computed from screen values. Uncoated board dulls and darkens colour, so every pairing is proofed on the real stock before print, starting with cream on raspberry.
Fraunces
Figtree · The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789
Two typefaces.
Two typefaces. Fraunces sets the wordmark and the shape names, at its heaviest weight with the soft axis at full. Shape names are set large enough to fill about half the pack front. Figtree sets everything that has to be read rather than seen: the flavour, the facts line ('Soft. No gelatin. Real fruit juice.'), weights, ingredients and allergens. Set Figtree's weight explicitly in every file. Its variable default renders Light, which breaks up on uncoated board. The exact weight is fixed after a print proof on the real stock. The facts line and the sour tab are sized for their longest language version, not for the English one. The same pack layout has to hold every language the pack carries without the type getting smaller.
One piece of candy per frame, in a hand or under a thumb, close enough to see the surface…
One piece of candy per frame, in a hand or under a thumb, close enough to see the surface give. Backgrounds are paper or board in the pack's own colour, never a styled kitchen or a party. No faces, no props that suggest kids.
Things land with a small overshoot and settle, the way a gummy wobbles after you drop it.
Things land with a small overshoot and settle, the way a gummy wobbles after you drop it. Type can squash briefly on entry, then hold still. Keep it to one bounce, because a second one starts to look like a kids' cartoon.
- We ate the e.
- Squeeze first. Then eat.
- No gelatin. The bag goes round.
- Not for your little brother. Not for your diet.
The whole text
Squeeze it first. It's raspberry, and it pushes back. Dry and short, with one joke at most per surface. The shape name is the headline, and the fruit is stated plainly underneath. On allergens and ingredients, no jokes at all.
Every layout is built from one unit: the height of the lowercase o in the wordmark at the…
Every layout is built from one unit: the height of the lowercase o in the wordmark at the size it is used. Clear space around the wordmark is one unit on every side. Pack margins, the gaps between elements and the spacing in social frames are whole multiples of that unit, so the brand scales from the 120 g pouch to the 400 g share box without new rules. The pack front is a single centred column. Elements are stacked in a fixed order from top to bottom: - Monstr wordmark - The shape's faceless silhouette, in a flat colour against the shape's field - The shape name, set large enough to fill about half the front - The flavour, stated plainly - The facts line, at the foot Nothing else goes on the front except the sour marker on sour shapes, always in the same position. The silhouette is traced from a real, photographed piece of that shape, not drawn freehand from a description. The candy's own outline is the trace of the hand in the system. Headlines and shape names break into even lines. A single word never sits alone on the last line. If a name or headline will not break evenly, the copy changes, not the spacing. The share box uses the same column on its main face, scaled to the larger panel. Social frames use the same stack: the candy or the silhouette in the centre, the shape name large and the facts small. The grid's job is to make the bag look simple, with few elements and wide space. Simple does not mean muted. The colour field always fills the surface.
Monstr uses words before icons.
The whole text
Monstr uses words before icons. "No gelatin" is written out and is never shown as a crossed-out symbol. A circle with a diagonal reads as a prohibition sign and makes the candy look like a warning. Where an icon is needed, such as the sour marker, web navigation or a pack detail, it follows these rules: - Filled shapes, not outlines, so icons share the solid, soft body of the blobs and the heavy type - Corners rounded to match the softness of the wordmark, with no sharp points - One flat colour, the same ink or cream as the text beside it - Built on a square grid and tested at 16 px - No faces, eyes, teeth, hands with expressions or characters The sour marker is the word Sour, set in Figtree in capitals, inside a soft-cornered tab in the pack's text colour. It sits in the same place on every sour pack. It is never part of the shape name. Certification marks, such as a vegan label, are used only once the certification is granted. They are used exactly as the certifying body supplies them and are never redrawn into the Monstr style.
Monstr names what it is made of and claims nothing it has not measured.
The whole text
Monstr names what it is made of and claims nothing it has not measured. The candy is the loud part of the brand, so the facts around it stay plain and checkable. What we say: - No gelatin. In every product, without exception. - Made with real fruit juice. The percentage is printed per product, with the fruit named, once it is measured. - The gelling agent is named on the back of every pack in plain words, never hidden behind a general term. - Made in Sweden, with a Swedish co-packer. - Soft and chewy. Every piece squishes, and that is the one claim the candy proves in your hand. What we do not say until it is confirmed: - Vegan, until the certification is granted. - Any statement about recyclability or compostability, until the pack material is confirmed and tested. - Resealable, until the pouch is confirmed to reseal. What we never say: - Healthy, guilt-free, clean, better-for-you, or anything that suggests the candy is good for you - Anyone can have one, safe for everyone, or any claim that the bag suits every diet or allergy. No gelatin means the friend who skips gelatin can share the bag. It does not mean more than that. The pack is meant to feel made. The intent is uncoated board with a dry, matte surface that takes the flat colour deeply, so the pack invites a thumb the way the candy does. The final substrate, the barrier inside the pouch and any print finish, such as a debossed wordmark on the share box, are settled in production with the co-packer. They are described here only once they are real. Allergen and ingredient information carries no jokes. It is complete, set legibly and placed in the same position on every pack.
Campaign
Every frame shot for Monstr, in the art direction the book describes.
In use
The mark on real things: packaging, signage, merchandise and the places the brand has to survive.
Brand book
Not a PDF of this page: the book renders from the same fields, and changes the moment any of them do.
Open the brand book →