Features

The Scoop with Dan Christofferson

Transform chats to Dan Christofferson, creative director and partner at New York-based brand and packaging studio The Young Jerks. He discusses his appreciation of mid-century design aesthetics, the agency’s philosophy and its recent work with chocolate company Maeve.

Transform: Looking at your work for the likes of Wildfish, Wild Chocolate and Pa’Lante, The Young Jerks seems to have a unique appreciation for more traditional aesthetics. Where does that come from?

Dan: We tend to think of it as design rooted in a commercial art era, or a more traditional sensibility. For us, it really comes from the emotional core of design – that sense of nostalgia. We’re trying to capture something that feels familiar, like people have seen it before. When something feels familiar, it can be disarming. It puts you at ease. You think, “Okay, cool – this is a light beer; I know what I’m getting.” There’s no heavy cognitive lift required to understand it.

That familiarity allows people to engage more naturally: they can pick it up, enjoy it, read the copy, roll it around in their hands. One way we tap into that is by relying on traditional graphic design – the tropes and decorative approaches you’d see in mid-century commercial art. That era has a lot of warmth and charm, and a real sense of humanity. You can see the hand-drawn elements, the texture, even the imperfections that were intentionally left in. We really love that.

Everyone at Young Jerks comes from a fine art background in one way or another, so we’re drawn to texture, rendering and materiality. Ultimately, all of that serves a larger goal: connecting emotionally through packaging. We never want to confuse someone about what they’re holding – whether it’s chocolate or canned fish. The instinct should come first, tied to nostalgia. Then there’s a second moment, when you realise it’s been brought into a modern context; older, slightly strange iconography paired with contemporary colours, recontextualised type or unexpected font combinations. That contrast creates a small “aha” moment, and that’s what we’re aiming for.

Transform: How do you balance that sense of charm with the practical needs of a client? Does your raw love of design ever create difficulties?

Dan: There can definitely be some friction at times, but we try to be very clear in how we present our work. By the time most clients reach out to us, they’ve seen a lot of what we do – it’s often dense, full of type, playful copy and logos that are clearly hand-worked and a little bit wobbly.

If someone comes to us with a brief that feels completely different, we usually spend time up front on discovery and relationship-building. That helps us understand two things: first, whether we’re actually the right fit for them, and second, whether we can solve their problem in a way that plays to our strengths. There have definitely been moments where we’ve said, “We understand what you’re trying to do, but there may be other agencies better suited to that approach.” And that honesty is important.

Other times, that discovery process works in the opposite direction. We help clients articulate what they’re really trying to say, and they realise they’re hiring someone they trust – even if they don’t yet know what it should look like. That opens up a lot of possibility.

There’s also room for growth on our side. We’re interested in pushing ourselves, trying different aesthetics and exploring new styles, as long as we’re ultimately solving the client’s problem and communicating what they need to say as clearly as possible.

Transform: What’s The Young Jerks’ philosophy when approaching projects?

Dan: At the core of it, our philosophy is about finding the platonic ideal of what something should be, and then building it collaboratively, with as much joy as possible. We’re a very illustration- and type-heavy studio, and we put a lot of emphasis on custom work.

If we can use our skills and energy to create a rich, bespoke toolkit, then the goal is to give clients a brand and packaging system that feels truly alive. We want it to be useful and layered, so that once it’s handed over, it has depth. Ideally, as clients continue to use it, it feels almost like they have an in-house studio – like they’re constantly pulling out new illustrations or reconfiguring elements in ways that feel fresh and intentional.

A big part of our process is trying to look a little way into the future and imagine how the system will actually be used. We then build with that in mind, essentially preloading the work with ideas, flexibility and assets that were present from the very beginning.

Transform: One classic example of your visually striking work is Maeve. How was your philosophy applied to this project?

Dan: Maeve was such a great project. They came to us at a moment when they were ready to rebrand and rename. They’d previously been called Seattle Chocolate and, because the company had been around for decades, they’d reached a point where the regional name felt limiting in terms of growth. At the same time, the business was entering a meaningful transition: the founder and CEO was preparing to pass leadership to her daughter. A rename, a rebrand and a broader rethink of the business felt like the right move.

They came to us with the name Maeve and asked for help navigating a pretty massive undertaking. Initially, that meant around 20 everyday chocolate bars, along with bon bon boxes, gift packaging and a whole range of formats that all needed to support a heavily illustrative approach. Beyond establishing the core brand, we had to figure out how each bar could function as a piece of fine art – something that told a story, could scale across formats, and could be broken apart and reused for marketing.

We worked very closely with them to build the narrative behind each bar, give the characters names and design the system with longevity in mind. A lot of that came down to trust; the relationship we’d built and their confidence in our process. We were very open about how much we loved the illustration work and how much time and care it required, but also about why that investment mattered. The more custom and considered the work felt, the more it would help them stand apart. And, just as importantly, we were building a roadmap to make it usable over time.