Llewellyn Mejia
Llew Mejia is that artist behind many Seattle Chocolate designs: our Mexican Hot Chocolate truffle bar, our limited-edition line of Spring flavors truffle bars, and both the Stars & Stripes and Pride chocolate truffles. Llew is a stylistic illustrator skilled in hand-drawn illustration, pattern/print, packaging, branding, and computer generated illustration. In his younger years, his family traveled back and forth between Mexico and the Southwestern United States. As a result, he is bilingual and has a unique perspective on American as well as Mexican culture. Llew currently resides in New York City, where he is working as a textile designer/illustrator.
Q & A with Llewellyn Mejia
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Tell us about creating the design for the Mexican Hot Chocolate bar.
The inspiration behind this bar is directly from my childhood. During my younger years I spent my life traveling around Mexico and as a result saw a lot of popular art or as it's called here folk art. All of these motifs would eventually influence the way I would create art directly and I just had to think back to being a kid in Mexico with my Abuelita Mati cooking over the stove and making us chocolate with boiled milk. I think the richness in this bar definitely brings me back to those moments I got to spend with my family there.
“What a talent and delightful person to work with! I fell in love with Llew’s colorful folk art and textile designs. We originally planned to license an existing piece of work but Llew insisted on creating something new and unique for us. We were so taken with his design at first concept that we also commissioned him for our Spring line, where he displayed his versatility as an illustrator from literal to fantastical. He created a soft, water-color country garden scene with tiny rows of vegetables (Carrot Cake truffle bar) and an almost neon, wild, tropical floral scene with butterflies and wafers (Wafer Cone truffle bar). Give Llew an idea and he will make it bigger, richer, and filled with details as he brings it to life.”
Kirsty Ellison - VP of Marketing