True Nut Company

The True Nut Company was a company started by an entrepreneur and his daughter, to teach her how to start a business. They began with a small pop-up presences at a farmers market selling maple roasted almonds in 6 flavors on summer Saturdays. The feedback was so overwhelmingly positive that they decided to take it to the next level and go into retail.

The Challenge

At meetings with retailers, the feedback was the same: the product was amazing and they would love to stock it, but the packaging was not suitable for store shelves. As soon as the packaging was upgraded, they would be in. True Nut wanted to keep their existing logo, but create an entirely new brand that would scream “a small-town product from New Hampshire.”

The Solution

The director of marketing came up with the idea of a mascot: Trueman Nutsworth, a friendly squirrel from the woods of New Hampshire that wears a buffalo plaid hat. I was tasked with illustrating the character and designing the packaging for 6 flavors of maple roasted almonds.

The Result

Grocery, specialty food, and other stores that sell specialty snacks immediately began testing the product on store shelves, and they couldn’t keep it in stock. True Nut Company sold more product in the first three months of the new packaging launch than they did in the previous two years combined. The company quickly grew to a nationwide shelf presence in the US and Canada.