Theobroma, Ruby on Cocao

Overview This chocolate-lovers design was created as a collaboration with iconic American kitchen and food brand Williams Sonoma. The goal for this collaboration with Williams Sonoma was to depict the complex web of life surrounding the crop that gives us chocolate, Theobroma cacao. No species exists in isolation and the “food of the gods” is grown best in natural agroforestry systems, where diverse trees provide shade and fallen leaves create microhabitats, enabling a great multitude of species to thrive.The design celebrates the Cocoa & Forests Initiative which is all about this approach: agroforestry, environmental stewardship and the prevention of deforestation. The many details in this design together signify the web of life in which cacao can thrive. From the pods and tiny flowers themselves to the delicately-patterned red cracker butterfly flits in a shaft of sunlight, observed by its main predator, a small but fierce bird called the rufous-tailed jacamar.The design highligh