Case study

Chicka: eighteen packs, one set of rules

Chicka's baked corn snacks come in different shapes, but every pack looked the same, and the trade took the whole range for one product. We wrote the rules that tell the lines apart, then designed the range to them.

Client: Americana Snacks
Scope: Packaging architecture
Pack design
Brand character
Range: 7 lines, 18 packs
Timeline: Brief, November 2025
Direction approved, February 2026
Status: On shelf

In short

The problem
Different snacks, one pack. Every line shared a layout, a character and much the same colours, so shoppers and traders read the range as a single product.
The idea
A snack is chosen in three steps: the family, the format, the flavour. Each step gets its own place on the pack and its own rule.
The work
An architecture with one core line and six formats, one cheetah in place of four, and eighteen packs on two layouts.

01Starting point

Five snacks in one pack

Chicka is Americana's range of baked corn snacks. Crunchy, a baked stick, is the established line. Puffs, Puffcorn, Rings and Boom are newer, and each is a different shape with a different bite.

The packs did not show it. Every line wore the same layout, the same cheetah and nearly the same colours, with its own name set small under a large Chicka logo.

Shoppers could not tell one product from the next. Neither could traders, who took the lines for one product in several colours. That held back the range's distribution.

Old Chicka pack: Rings — Fig. 01The range as we found it: twelve bags from four of the five lines. Boom comes in a stick pack and is not shown.

Before: Crunchy, Hot Ketchup — Fig. 02Three of the packs, before and after: same line, same flavour.

After: Crunchy, Hot Ketchup — Fig. 02Three of the packs, before and after: same line, same flavour.

02The brief

“One loud block, not a well-defined portfolio”

That is how Americana's brief described its own range in November 2025. It asked for three things: a segmentation that gives every line a clear identity inside one family; a visual hierarchy for each segment, covering logo, product shape, flavour and character; and rules that new products and limited editions can follow.

It also set the measure of success. A shopper should understand how the products differ from the pack alone.

03The audit

Twelve bags, one metre, three seconds

We looked at the range the way a shopper does, from a metre away and for three seconds, and then counted what we saw.

12 of 12
Hierarchy
On every bag the Chicka logo was the largest thing on the face. The line and the flavour came after it.
5 of 12
Colour
Five of the twelve bags were red and three were gold.
4
Character
One cheetah, drawn in four unrelated styles.
10–40%
Flavour
The space given to the flavour ran from a tenth of the pack face to four tenths, by our estimate.

The pack answered the wrong question first

A pack has about three seconds to answer three questions: whose is it, what shape is it, what flavour is it. The old packs spent their largest element on the first and left the other two small.

The Chicka logo
The largest thing on the pack. It says who makes this before what it is.
The line name
Small, under the logo, in a weaker colour.
The flavour
A different size and a different place on each line.
The character
A different drawing on each line.

Fig. 03An old Puffs pack. It reads logo, then line, then flavour.

Colour had no job

Nobody had decided what colour was for, so each pack chose its own. Eight of the twelve bags ended up in two colours.

12 bags

5 bags: Red
3 bags: Gold
1 bags: Blue
1 bags: Teal
1 bags: Green
1 bags: Purple

Fig. 04The twelve bags of the old range, by colour.

A mascot with four faces

On the Puffs pack the cheetah was a flat drawing. On Crunchy he was a cropped head. In campaigns he was two different 3D figures. There was no reference model, so every new use redrew him.

Old Chicka cheetah: 3D cartoon — Fig. 05The same character in four treatments, all in use at once.

Old Chicka cheetah: Semi-realistic 3D — Fig. 05The same character in four treatments, all in use at once.

The flavour moved from pack to pack

The client's research put flavour first among the reasons people choose a snack like this. On the old packs it had no set format, size or position.

40%
Crunchy
The flavour area overpowers the product.
30%
Puffcorn
Sometimes a badge, sometimes text.
25%
Puffs
Mid-sized, placed differently each time.
10%
Rings
Close to invisible.

Fig. 06Share of the pack face given to the flavour on the old packs, by line, as estimated in our audit.

What we kept

Not everything needed fixing. Five things were working and stayed. Five were rebuilt.

Kept

The cheetah
The most recognised thing Chicka owns.
The wordmark
Already consistent everywhere.
The energy
The character of the brand suits the people who eat it.
The shapes
Different enough to tell apart, once the pack lets you see them.
The short names
Puffs, Rings, Boom, Crunchy. Easy to say and to remember.

Rebuilt

Colour
So that it signals the flavour.
Hierarchy
The format name becomes the loudest thing on a format pack.
Character
One reference model, set expressions, set sizes.
Layout
One fixed layout per tier.
Flavour
One lockup, one position.

Chicka did not have a design problem. It had a systems problem.

Every pack had made its own rules. The range competed with itself more than with the shelf around it.

04The rule

Three decisions in three seconds

The architecture rests on one observation about how a snack is bought. A shopper recognises the family, picks a format and chooses a flavour, in that order, in about three seconds. So each of the three decisions gets its own part of the pack, and nothing else may compete with it.

0–1 sec
Recognise the family
“This is Chicka.”
Answered by
- Wordmark
- Pattern
- Energy
1–2 sec
Select the format
“I want puffs.”
Answered by
- Format name
- Product shape
2–3 sec
Choose the flavour
“Give me cheese.”
Answered by
- Pack colour
- Flavour name
- Flavour picture

Fig. 07The three-second shelf rule, and the parts of the pack that answer each step.

05The model

Three ways to organise the range

We set three models against that rule. Keeping Chicka dominant, with the lines as descriptors, is what the range already had. Letting each line stand alone would give up the one name people know. The third keeps the family and lets the formats speak.

01
Monolithic
Chicka dominates. The lines are descriptors.
Rejected
No difference between formats, and a shopper chooses the format before the flavour.
02
House of brands
Each line stands alone. Chicka disappears.
Rejected
It gives up the Chicka name and leaves five brands to support instead of one.
03
Hybrid
One family, two tiers.
Selected
The core carries the name. The formats lead with their own.

Fig. 08The three models considered.

One family, two tiers

Crunchy is the core. It leads with the Chicka name and carries the cheetah. The six formats lead with their own names, under the Chicka wordmark. Shells and Pops were not part of the range we were briefed on. They were built on the same layout as the other formats.

06The pack

Two layouts, nothing decided pack by pack

Each tier has one fixed layout. On a format pack the format name is the largest thing on the face. The Chicka wordmark sits above it, the snack below it and the flavour at the foot. A designer adding a flavour changes the colour, the picture and one name. Everything else stays where it is.

Chicka wordmark
The family name, on every pack, above the format.
Format name
The largest thing on the pack. It answers what is this first.
Product picture
The shape of the snack, with the ingredients of the flavour.
Flavour name
Always at the foot, always in the same lockup.
Claim
Two small marks at the edges. They never compete with the name.
Pattern
The cheetah's spots, in the colour of the flavour.

Fig. 10The format layout, on the flat artwork for Puffs Chipotle Sauce.

The core against the formats

The two tiers differ in five ways, and each difference is a rule.

The formats — Fig. 11The two layouts, without colour or flavour.

	The coreCrunchy	The formatsPuffs, Puffcorn, Rings, Shells, Pops, Boom
Loudest element	The Chicka wordmark	The format name
Character	The cheetah, on pack	His spots only
Background	Stripes	Cheetah skin
Product picture	At the left, beside the cheetah	Across the centre
Flavour name	Foot of the pack, left	Foot of the pack, centre

07Colour

Colour marks the flavour, not the line

On the old packs colour was decoration. Now it carries information. No line owns a colour: Puffcorn alone comes in four. A flavour does: Four Cheese is the same gold on Puffs and on Rings. It works the other way round too. Every gold pack is a cheese, and every red one is tomato or chilli.

Some colours carried over from the old packs. Puffcorn Cream Cheese is still blue, and Rings Sweet Chili is still purple.

Crunchy
- Cheddar Cheese
- Hot Lemon
- Hot Ketchup
Puffs
- Four Cheese
- Harissa Ketchup
- Chipotle Sauce
Puffcorn
- Sweet Corn
- Twisted Lemon
- Cream Cheese
- Red Hot Pepper
Rings
- Four Cheese
- Thai Sweet Chili
Shells
- Truffle Cheese
- Ghost Pepper Lime
Pops
- Spiced Cheese
- Tomato Jalapeño
Boom
- Cheese Madness
- Tomato Ketchup

Fig. 12Eighteen packs by line and colour.

08The character

One cheetah where there were four

The cheetah is the most recognised thing Chicka owns. We did not redesign him. We developed one reference model from what people already knew: the orange and gold coat, the black spots, the red shirt with the C. Every use now starts from that model.

The Chicka cheetah: Full body — Fig. 13Four ways to use him, each with its own job.

The Chicka cheetah: Peeking — Fig. 13Four ways to use him, each with its own job.

On pack he appears only on the core. The formats carry his spots, so the family holds together without drawing him on every bag.

One style, always
No alternate drawings, for any season or channel.
Expressions from the library
A new expression is signed off before it is used.
Scale minimums
Never smaller than the set minimum. Small formats use the head or the mark.
Clear space
Nothing crowds him.
Tier respect
The cheetah on the core. His spots on the formats.
Skin is not mascot
The pattern and the character are separate elements.
One toolkit
Partners get the official files, and use them.

Fig. 14The rules that protect the character.

09The packs

Seven lines, eighteen packs

Design development took the approved direction through the whole range, one line at a time. Each flavour has one picture of the snack with its ingredients, used the same way on every pack of its tier.

Chicka pack (1 of 18) — Fig. 15All eighteen packs, as mockups.

Chicka pack (2 of 18) — Fig. 15All eighteen packs, as mockups.

Crunchy

Baked sticks

The core

Cheddar Cheese
Hot Lemon
Hot Ketchup

Puffed curls

Format

Four Cheese
Harissa Ketchup
Chipotle Sauce

Popped-kernel puffs

Format

Sweet Corn
Twisted Lemon
Cream Cheese
Red Hot Pepper

Hoops

Format

Four Cheese
Thai Sweet Chili

Ridged cups

Format

Truffle Cheese
Ghost Pepper Lime

Round balls

Format

Spiced Cheese
Tomato Jalapeño

Boom

Bite-size pieces, in a stick pack

Format

Cheese Madness
Tomato Ketchup

The rules, checked against the packs

A system is only a system if every pack obeys it. These can be counted on the eighteen packs above.

18 of 18
Character
The cheetah on the core, his spots on the formats.
15 of 15
Format name
The largest thing on every format pack.
3 of 3
Wordmark
The largest thing on every core pack.
18 of 18
Background
Stripes on the core, cheetah skin on the formats.
18 of 18
Flavour
At the foot of the pack, in one position per tier.

10On shelf

Where it stands

Americana approved the direction on 18 February 2026, and the range is now on shelf. This page reports no sales figures. What it shows is the system that was delivered, in use.