There is a special panty that arrives fully loaded. Not that it’s demanding or complicated, but the insight is so clear, so surprising, that the work actually tells you what it requires. Snooz sounds like one of them.
The key fact is: more than 60% of ice cream is eaten after 6 p.m. That means we all sit on the couch, scooping up sugar, emulsifiers, and a small army of electronic numbers… and then wonder why we can’t sleep. Snooz’s founders identified this paradox and built around it, replacing common ingredients with chamomile, theanine, magnesium, and lemon balm. As How&How puts it, ice cream “allows you to tuck yourself in and turn out the lights.”
This is a really smart product idea. But clever product ideas and a coherent brand are two very different things, and that’s where the How&How team thrives.
The tyranny of jingle
Before you design for a category, you have to be honest about what that category actually looks like. And ice cream, with some notable exceptions, tends to lean toward daytime imagery.
This is where any creative professional gets interested in abstracts. When you have a product with a clear point of difference, you may be tempted to follow category conventions and then differentiate within them. Keep it approachable, soften the color palette, and add a moon pattern somewhere. Safe. Clear and easy to read. Unforgettable.
How&How went the other way entirely. Our decision was to create a brand that belonged to the night, not as a metaphor but as a real design concept. Every choice is made against the daytime instinct of that category.
Designed for After Dark
Wordmarks came first. The team worked to develop a logo with a texture that would make you want to press your face into it. The soft, almost cloud-like font cleverly has two eclipses built right into the font. As they describe it, “It’s a wordmark that brings sleep and space together.” Not the sun. Not a cone. Two moons.
From there, the visual world expands outward. Animations with screensaver quality: zero gravity, starry skies, the kind of stuff you’d stare at while drifting off. The cool color palette contrasts with the neon and primary colors in the freezer aisle.
Photographer Charlie McKay’s work is worth examining in its own right. Rather than the oversaturated prime-time product photography that dominates food brands, the approach is overexposed and flashy: a visual grammar of late night, shot the way you’d shoot something at a house party. This is an unusual reference point for ice cream, but in my opinion, it’s completely correct.
Copywriter Will Nicklin’s work on tone follows the same logic. “Not a cherry on top, but an NSFK (Not Suitable for Kids), playful voice that’s more comfortable snuggling on the couch than sharing at the dinner table,” How&How describes.
Personally, I would describe it as: mature, dry, and a bit plotty. There’s a reason ice cream brands rarely speak to adults as adults: Most are still chasing kids at the dinner table. Snooze, however, was talking to the man who was putting the children to bed.
Main points
The reason Snooz deserves coverage on Creative Boom isn’t because it looks pretty (although it certainly is), but because it shows how great creative work is made. Insights drive strategy, strategy drives creative areas, and execution in creative areas has enough commitment that there are no obvious hedges anywhere in the system. No one backed down and added yellow.
This consistency is rarer than it should be. It requires clients who trust the process and agencies who resist the urge to soften their ideas. How&How’s press release states: “We helped Snooz launch a brand full of bloomer glory.” It’s a fine line, but most importantly, it’s earned.
For designers looking at their own category-defining briefs, the Snooz project is a helpful reminder: If the insight is strong enough, the bravest thing you can do is follow it to the end.
