Dāt creates travel themed bite-sized cakes sweetened with one of the world’s oldest traveling fruits, dates.

DISCIPLINES

Brand Identity
Marketing Strategy
Packaging
Illustration

GRAPHICS TEAM

Samantha Heintz
Aviv Kesar
Halina Herc

TIMELINE

Winter 2026
10 weeks

STRUCTURAL TEAM

Tyler Innes
Marissa Johnston
Eddie Chow
Izack Padilla

THE CHALLENGE

How do you turn a fleeting moment of indulgence into a story worth carrying forward?

Luxury confectionery is often about the product inside, but we saw an opportunity to create an experience where the packaging became part of the memory.

PACKAGING A DESTINATION

Our team created Dat, a luxury confectionery brand centered around chocolate-covered date cakes, filling a gap for a naturally sweet, on-the-go treat. Inspired by travel, we designed an immersive brand experience featuring a luxury travel bag-inspired PR package, postcards, a passport, and retail packaging. Unified by the slogan "Save the Date," our brand turns this unboxing into an invitation to connect and share the journey.

Process

IDEATION
Collage of various packaging, gift boxes, shopping bags, and promotional materials, including a leather handbag, a person opening a box of cupcakes, coffee packaging, a calendar, and assorted gift and product boxes.

Gathered moodboard inspiration for structural aspects, illustrations, and other concepts that we wanted to include in both the PR package and the retail package.

Our Product

Brand Design System

LOGO SUITE

In the final logomark, lowercase letterforms bring warmth while the ligatures nod to elegant, luxury logos that inspired the design. The identity includes two logo variations: a standalone wordmark and a version paired with a wax seal emblem. This secondary logo is designed to be die-cut and layered onto a paper-based seal, creating a tactile detail that integrates with the retail package. 

STAMPS

COLOR STORY

After some tweaking of our active and energetic color palette to ensure that each flavor’s colors matched in saturation, we landed on the Dāt color palette.

Provence, France Toasted almond. Dark chocolate depth. Golden quiet.

Amalfi Coast, Italy Bright citrus. White chocolate silk. Mediterranean light.

Bali, Indonesia Soft coconut. Gentle sweetness. Island breeze.

Dubai, UAE Creamy Pistachio. Polished indulgence. Desert warmth.


Illustrations

Location stamps drawn from the bold aesthetic of passport stamps, evoking discovery and destination. Ingredient illustrations had that same stamp-like quality.

Diagram showing the process of designing an envelope, from shape exploration and refinement to final design, including steps like shape refinement, shape exploration, mechanism exploration, interior revamp, and final design.

Prototypes

PR PACKAGE
RETAIL PACKAGE

Retail Package Final Dieline

Packaging of Pistachio Chocolate Date Cakes with pistachios and pieces of dark chocolate in the foreground.
A box of lemon chocolate date cakes with sliced lemons placed to the right of the box, against a plain white background.
Package of Coconut Chocolate Date Cakes on a white surface with pieces of dark chocolate and coconut flakes in front.
Packaging of almond chocolate date cakes with some chocolate pieces and almonds in front of it.
Black and orange box of almond chocolate date cakes placed on a white surface, with a white note card beneath it that reads "Save the Date" and mentions Provence, France.
Shelf display of various cookies and baked goods in a grocery store. Top row includes boxes of graham sandwiches with chocolate and peanut butter, lady fingers vanilla cookies, and other assorted packages. Bottom row features packages of grain-free cookies, chocolate chip, Mexican vanilla, and coconut cookies.
Colorful miniature boxes designed to look like houses with fruit illustrations on the outside, each containing a few dark brown pills.

For next time…

TAKEAWAYS

This project has been one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences during my time at Cal Poly. Collaborating with Industrial Technology and Packaging majors was an eye-opening experience and allowed for some of my best cross disciplinary work. This project required adaptability and responsiveness, as dielines were continuously updated based on feedback from our biweekly professor meetings. This experience showed me how to navigate evolving design constraints while maintaining a cohesive creative solution and branding.

Our team was placed as a top three finalist in the 2026 Paperboard Packaging Alliance Design Challenge, results to be determined in October 2026 in Orlando, Florida.

BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE
SUMMIT SOCIETY
BACK TO TOP
Various brown and white cardboard boxes and containers, including a folded box, a box with a handle, a compartmented tray, and a partially assembled box.

A Journey of Flavor

The photography highlights the ingredients behind Dāt and explores how the brand comes to life both on and off the shelf.

BRAND PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY

Layers of Exploration

Extending the travel concept beyond the package, the unboxing experience features a passport-style flavor guide, collectible postcards, a destination map, and personalized luggage tags.

BRAND PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY