Fortnum & Mason Orchestrating an experience of flavour and sound.

Fortnum & Mason invited us to reimagine its chocolate bar collection, with an ambition to elevate the range and celebrate the pleasure of taste. Rather than treating chocolate as a simple product, the challenge was to push the experience of packaging beyond the descriptive, creating something more immersive, emotional and memorable for Fortnum's.

The starting point was a simple question: how could chocolate be experienced in new dimensions? Research into taste led us to the study of neurogastronomy, which revealed that sound is a “forgotten flavour sense,” an often overlooked factor that shapes perception and enjoyment of food.

This insight inspired the concept: each chocolate bar should have its own soundtrack. Taste would meet melody, turning every bar into a multi-sensory experience that could be felt as well as tasted. The collection, Bars of Chocolate, plays on the double meaning of sheet music “bars”, each chocolate bar is paired with an original musical score written to express the product taste, turning tasting into a multi-sensory performance.

We partnered with music production company Mcasso, collaborating with composers Nathan Britton and Jasmine Meaden to create original piano pieces that mirror the rhythm, texture and emotional journey of tasting, from first bite to final note.

Bringing it to life posed a deceptively simple challenge. These were miniature compositions, designed to sit on a score no larger than the chocolate bar itself. Within that limited space, the music needed to feel complete and expressive, adding depth to the illustrations and flavour stories rather than simply accompanying them.

The scores were illustrated on pack and interpreted through expressive artwork by Victoria Semykina. When opened, each bar reveals its full composition, inviting customers to play, listen or simply experience the music as they taste the chocolate. Across the collection, sixteen unique compositions transform the range into a library of edible performances.

The packaging aimed to redefine how a brand can create a multi-sensory product experience. Beyond delighting customers and reinforcing Fortnum’s foodie relevance, the collection delivered a +62% increase in sales versus the previous design while the new flavours delivered +146% vs de-listed options in the range, showing that the multi-sensory approach resonated commercially as well as creatively.