Maya’s cookies

Client: Maya’s Cookies

Role: Freelance Creative Director

Project Overview: Branding, logo development, website design & development, packaging, storefront design & spacial planning, vehicle wrap, marketing & advertising

Maya’s Cookies was founded by Maya Madsen in 2015 and quickly became America’s #1 Black-owned gourmet vegan cookie company. During the COVID pandemic and in the midst of a wave of support for Black-owned businesses, Maya saw orders surged to a 9,990% increase above previous levels. She needed help refining and elevating her brand to the new level she had achieved.

brand guide

The first step in building a strong brand is to define and keep it consistent through all media and consumer touch points. Her logo was cleaned-up to better work in small applications. A simple and bold tagline was developed to communicate what Maya’s Cookies embodies. Brand colors and fonts were defined as well as examples of how to properly use the logo. I designed some additional graphic elements based around how Maya would personally sign some of her materials, using her actual hand-drawn heart and “M”. This would also be incorporated into a pattern with a cookie for further use in other branding materials.

WEBSITE

Maya’s Cookies are sold online with nationwide delivery. A new website using the Shopify platform was designed to leverage the ordering and customer management tools in addition to serving as another medium to communicate and grow the brand. A wireframe was first developed to plan the navigation, UX/UI and structure of the website followed by the actual build.

 packaging

With the growth and success of the company, Maya was ready to upgrade the packaging of the cookies. She had previously used generic pink bakery boxes which while pink, was not the correct hot pink brand color she loved. Custom boxes were designed and created to showcase the brand from carry-out style boxes to corporate gift boxes. These boxes also featured a FDA approved inner coating to prevent the box from breaking down due to the cookie ingredients. A custom holiday tin was also created as a premium gift for special occasions.

 storefront

Maya’s Cookies headquarters and storefront are in an industrial complex in San Diego. With limited ability to modify the exterior of the building, Maya wanted a window wrap that replicated a bakery facade with an awning to make her storefront stand out and be easily located. Using the branding that was developed, I was able to bring her vision to life with a vinyl window wrap.