CASA BOSQUES CHOCOLATES ‘THE MAKERS SERIES’ AN ODE TO BLACK CREATORS

Designers and creative directors Rafael de Cárdenas and Rafael Prieto present The Makers Series, a limited-edition chocolate imprint by Casa Bosques Chocolates in honor of Black creators. The first edition features a collaboration with DeVonn Francis, founder of the creative studio and hospitality company Yardy World. Each edition will support a select charity which receives 100% of the profits. This first edition benefits The Okra Project, the nonprofit dedicated to bringing healthy, home-cooked meals to Black Trans individuals worldwide. 

The packaging design features three artworks by artists whose works explore the Black experience throughout the American South. Mary L. Bennett’s “Housetop Four-Flock Variation” 1965 is a representation of the vibrant quilting histories and the stories they tell through the medium elaborated communally over a century. Her bold abstract compositions combine with materials from everyday life, such as recycled work clothes and sundry textile scraps. Joe Light’s “Birdman Trainer” 1987 is a glimpse at the artist’s vivid reality and imagination. The painter and sculptor spent most of his 20’s and 30’s in prison where he claimed to hear the voice of God, a foundation for his artistic practice marked by a mix of pop art gestures, abstract forms and spiritual iconography. Ronald Lockett’s “England’s Rose” 1997 was a painter who gradually broke the limits of the medium by using unconventional materials like scrap metal, wire and other scanvanged collage materials. Death was a constant anxiety and rumination in his work. England’s Rose was a piece produced during a time when his health deteriorated due to AIDS-related symptoms that would eventually end his life.

Prieto and Francis created the recipe for the chocolate itself: ginger, bay leaf, and chamomile flower, with single-origin cacao beans sourced from Chiapas, México. The ingredients reflect a dialogue between Francis’ Jamaican heritage and the work of the three featured artists. “It’s a very beautiful, delicious, and culturally charged chocolate. The Makers Series really highlights the importance of collaboration, experimentation, and kindness. There is a lot of emotion in the project, for us to be able to do what we love.” —Rafael Prieto.

This creative project is an example of how design solutions and cross-disciplinary collaboration can bring about awareness and resources to discerning stories and organizations. “Rafael de Cárdenas brought us all together, and Rafael Prieto and I selected the flavor profile through a series of tastings. I’m particularly grateful to be raising funds and awareness for The Okra Project. All businesses should be constantly finding ways to incorporate mutual aid and wealth redistribution to small organizations advocating for under-resourced communities.” —DeVonn Francis.