Machiyenga is a bean-to-bar chocolate from Cuzco, Peru. The identity was designed by Peruvian graphic designer Alejandro Gavancho, using Le Nord, paired with custom-drawn numbers. The small texts use Intensa Poster.
The name stems from Machiguenga, an indigenous community whose ancestors inhabited the western part of Cusco, known as Antisuyo during the Incan empire. The Machiguenga used Chuncho cacao as a fruit and as a commercial product, a practise that continues to this day. This very same Chuncho cacao is what Machiyenga chocolate uses to create its bars
The goal was to create a brand that is premium yet native. As the chocolate was going to be sold mainly in Cuzco and its target audience, tourists, it was important that the brand identity and packaging felt Peruvian, but without falling into the cliché of traditional Peurvian imagery, but rather a more polished and modern aesthetic, representing today’s Peru but in keeping with the mysticism of our ancestors.