Packaging Design / February 2026
There's a reason 76% of UK consumers are drawn to treats that evoke childhood memories. Nostalgia isn't just a feeling, it's a commercial strategy. And when two heritage British brands decide to collaborate, the stakes are high. Get it right, and you tap into decades of emotional equity. Get it wrong, and you dilute both identities.
When English Cheesecake Company approached us to design packaging for their collaboration with Swizzels' Squashies, the brief was clear: create something that honoured both brands while feeling genuinely exciting on shelf. Not a cash-grab. Not a gimmick. A limited-edition product that made sense.
The Challenge: When Heritage Meets Heritage
Co-branding is a minefield. You're not just designing for one brand's equity, you're balancing two. The English Cheesecake Company had built their reputation on premium indulgence. Swizzels, on the other hand, owns a piece of British childhood through Squashies, Drumsticks, and Love Hearts.
The question wasn't can these brands work together. It was how do we make this feel inevitable?
The product itself, a Raspberry & Milk Drumstick-flavoured cheesecake slice, was already a smart move. That flavour is instantly recognisable. It carries emotional weight. As Nic Cooke, sales and marketing director at English Cheesecake Company, put it: Squashies possess an "undoubtably nostalgic flavour that make them equally popular with adults."
Our job? Make the packaging carry that same weight.
The Solution: Visual Nostalgia Without Pastiche
We started by stripping back what makes both brands work independently. English Cheesecake Company's packaging typically leans elegant, premium materials, sophisticated colour palettes, clear product photography. Squashies, meanwhile, lives in the world of bold primaries, playful typography, and unapologetic fun.
The solution wasn't to split the difference. It was to layer them.
We leaned into the Drumstick brand identity as the hero, vibrant reds, yellows, and those unmistakable Squashies colours and logomark. But we grounded it with the structural clarity and product-forward photography that English Cheesecake Company is known for. The result feels celebratory without being chaotic. Nostalgic without being retro for retro's sake.
The typography does heavy lifting here. We used clear, readable sans-serifs to communicate flavour and product information, but let the Squashies branding dominate the visual hierarchy. The product photography, layers of creamy cheesecake topped with white chocolate drizzle and pink sprinkles, directly references the candy. It's not subtle. It doesn't need to be.
This is packaging designed to trigger recognition before comprehension. You see the colours, the logomark, the playful energy, and your brain fills in the rest.
The Broader Trend: Why Co-Branding Works in 2026
This collaboration sits inside a much larger industry shift. Heritage confectionery brands are increasingly branching into new formats to reach new markets. According to Design Week, cross-category innovation is accelerating as brands look to extend equity beyond their original product lines.
The English Cheesecake Company had already seen success with this strategy. Their Biscoff Cheesecake started as a limited edition and became the number-one selling brand cheesecake in the UK. The Squashies collaboration follows the same playbook: test appetite with a limited run, create urgency through exclusivity, and let the product speak for itself.
But here's the strategic piece that often gets overlooked: these collaborations aren't just about novelty. They're about reaching audiences who wouldn't normally buy either product. Squashies fans get introduced to premium cheesecake. English Cheesecake Company customers get permission to indulge in something more playful. It's expansion disguised as nostalgia.
For us, designing this kind of packaging work requires understanding not just the brands, but the tension they create when paired. The design has to hold that tension without resolving it too neatly. It has to feel like a collaboration, not a compromise.
The Outcome: Shelf Impact and Emotional Resonance
Limited-edition products live or die on shelf. You have seconds to communicate what the product is, why it matters, and why someone should buy it now. The Squashies Cheesecake packaging does that through bold colour blocking, clear product photography, and instant brand recognition.
But beyond the functional, beyond the "does it work on shelf?" question, there's the emotional piece. This packaging taps into what the industry calls "new-nostalgia": the idea that nostalgia isn't about recreating the past, it's about recontextualising it. It's comfort wrapped in novelty.
The white chocolate drizzle and pink sprinkles aren't just decorative. They're visual callbacks. The "Original Raspberry & Milk Flavour" callout isn't just a descriptor, it's an anchor point for memory. Every design decision reinforces the emotional promise: this is the thing you loved, elevated.
That's what makes co-branding powerful when it's done right. It's not about slapping two logos together. It's about creating a third thing: something that couldn't exist without both brands, but also feels like it should have existed all along.
What This Means for Food Brands Thinking About Collaboration
If you're a food brand considering a co-branding play, there are a few lessons here worth unpacking:
Nostalgia only works when it's specific. Generic "retro vibes" fall flat. The Drumstick flavour wasn't chosen because it's nostalgic: it was chosen because it's recognisably nostalgic. There's a difference.
Packaging has to do more than contain product. It has to tell a story, trigger recognition, and justify the collaboration visually. That means understanding both brand identities deeply enough to know where they can stretch.
Limited editions create urgency, but also permission. They let brands take risks without diluting core equity. If it doesn't work, it was always meant to be temporary. If it does work, you've got a proven concept to build on.
We've worked across food branding and packaging enough to know that the strongest projects come from brands who understand their own identity well enough to know when: and how: to bend it.
Looking to explore a collaboration or packaging refresh for your food brand? We specialize in creating packaging systems that balance heritage with innovation: whether that's co-branding, limited editions, or full product range redesigns. Let's talk.
