Mast Brothers made the paper more famous than the chocolate.

Mast Brothers is a lesson in a wrapper as identity. Founded in 2007 in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) by brothers Rick and Michael Mast, it became the face of American craft chocolate — as much for its packaging as its bars.

Its identity is the patterned printed-paper wrapper: collectible, richly patterned sheets that arguably became more famous than the chocolate inside, and helped launch the whole American bean-to-bar aesthetic. Around it sat a bearded, Brooklyn-artisan persona and an understated letterpress-style wordmark that let the paper carry the look.

(Honest notes, told plainly: the brand has since morphed — it simplified to “Mast,” then became “Mast Market,” an organic-pantry brand; the Brooklyn factory closed in 2019, and its Los Angeles and London stores closed around 2017–18, so it isn’t the standalone Brooklyn chocolate maker it once was. And in December 2015, food writer Scott Craig (on DallasFood) alleged that in its early years, around 2007–2009, Mast Brothers had re-melted industrial couverture rather than making chocolate from the bean “from the start”; the brothers acknowledged some early couverture use that ended by 2009 and denied ever mislabelling products as “bean-to-bar.” The dispute was about the origin narrative, not the later chocolate — reported here for honesty. There’s no official brand hex, so these tones are an unofficial interpretation.)

Mast Brothers lives in a slate-and-brick palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Mast Brothers’ identity is crafted, muted and paper-led — a wrapper slate, an ink, a brick, a paper grey, and a cream. The palette pairs a wrapper slate with a brick — the register of a patterned paper sheet. It signals craft and collectibility rather than gloss. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a muted slate with a brick signals a paper-led craft brand. Mast Brothers’ world is a wall of patterned wrappers. For designers, it is a reminder that a muted, paper-derived palette reads as artisanal and collectible — and that a wrapper can carry a whole brand. The takeaways: make the wrapper the hero; keep the palette muted and paper-like; keep the wordmark quiet; and — because the wrapper can outshine the product — make sure the substance matches the story. Treat any single hex as unofficial.

The register is a letterpress serif — crafted, quiet, paper-led.

Mast Brothers’ identity carries a crafted, quiet, paper-led spirit — a patterned sheet and a Brooklyn workshop. A letterpress-style serif captures the mood: it is classical and understated, the register of a craft press. Set in a slate-and-brick palette, the letterpress serif feels crafted and quiet — exactly the personality Mast Brothers projected. It is understated rather than loud, mirroring a patterned wrapper. (Mast Brothers’ real wrappers and wordmark are works we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a letterpress serif spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: crafted, quiet and paper-led.

Mast Brothers stands for the power — and risk — of packaging.

Mast Brothers is a lesson in making a wrapper the identity. A slate-and-brick palette, a letterpress serif and a patterned paper make packaging the whole brand — crafted, quiet, paper-led. The wrapper is the differentiator. The differentiator is a paper-led, aesthetic-launching identity.

For designers and brand-builders, Mast Brothers offers a two-sided takeaway: a wrapper can make a brand — and can outrun it. The lessons: a beautiful package can define a category (the American bean-to-bar look); but the substance has to match the story, or the narrative becomes the risk. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: it’s now “Mast Market,” its Brooklyn era has closed, a 2015 controversy questioned its early origin story, and the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. Mast Brothers made the wrapper the brand — proof that packaging can be the difference, for better and worse.

Keep Mast Brothers’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.