Building recognition across four seasons.

Mars Wrigley wanted its seasonal variety bags to feel recognizable at shelf, even as the occasion changed from Valentine’s Day to Easter, Halloween, and Holiday.

As part of a two-person design team dedicated to the Mars Wrigley business at Kaleidoscope, I found a particular niche in the seasonal portfolio through my background in illustration. I designed and illustrated a character-driven approach for the variety bags, creaing distinct personalities for each season within a recognizable visual language.

Consistency without sameness.

Seasonal packaging comes with its own visual shorthand, and Halloween shouldn’t look anything like Easter. The challenge was creating enough consistency to build recognition without flattening what made each occasion special.

Rather than relying on a rigid template, we built the portfolio around a shared illustrative language. Variety bags became character-drive, theater boxes opened into seasonal scenes, and more bespoke formats could flex while still feeling part of the same Mars Wrigley world. The result left plenty of room for the surprise and delight at the heart of the brand – and a little extra sparkle.

Giving every character a job.

The characters weren’t just there to make the packaging fun. At their best, they could help communicate something about the product itself.

For a Sweet & Sour Halloween variety bag, I designed a split character that turned the product proposition into the personality of the pack: one side sweet, the other sour. It was an extra layer of problem-solving within the larger system: creating somethign expressive enough to stand on its own while still belonging to the broader seasonal portfolio.

Work shown was created for Mars Wrigley during my time at Kaleidoscope. My role focused on concept development, design, and illustration; final production artwork was completed by Kaleidoscope’s in-house production team.