Super Freak x Chobani

US Greek yogurt brand Chobani has gone all out for Halloween commissioning Super Freak, aka Dan Whitehouse, to create a lively crew of spooky characters to adorn their Flip multi-packs for a limited edition run in October.

Super Freak played on the ingredients of each yogurt to assemble a cast of Halloween themed characters specific to each of the 8 flavours and decorate the packs with family friendly spook-tacular illustrations. Developed with the amazing in house creative team at Chobani in record time Dan unlocked new levels of creativity to build a huge range of characters that were spooky but super fun. We hear from Dan about developing these characters and more in our interview further down.

With the incredible packaging illustrations locked the Chobani team were keen to build on Super Freak’s spooky world to create a 360 campaign. Working with creative production studio Lobo, Super Freak developed the characters further for their motion team to animate the cheeky crew for a Halloween party themed CTV ad.The super talented Lobo team animated Super Freak’s characters with the perfect energy and personality in an impeccable evolution of the illustrations, creating a captivating and dynamic CTV spot.

To draw customers further in to Super Freak’s world the Flip cartons themselves came with QR codes that allowed access to an augmented reality Trick or Treat game. Chobani brought in a crack team from Tool of North America to build this AR world, taking Dan’s characters in to new dimensions.

Dan directed the 3D character design and each of their ‘trick’ movements, as well as creating set designs and backdrops for the game. It was truly amazing to see this all come together in an AR world and the care which the Tool team took with taking these 2D illustrations in to the 3D realm.

Chobani Flip fans can win both digital and physical prizes through the game, including limited edition posters illustrated by Super Freak. On top of these posters Dan also illustrated icons for digital prizes and an array of physical goodies, plus a series of bespoke illustrations for the website to flesh out the full Halloween experience and link things back to the CTV spot.

The scope of the project was enormous and Dan’s approach was exemplary, bringing astonishing levels of creativity and enthusiasm to every element. None of it would have been possible without the the wonderful direction and support from the amazing Chobani creative team.

Dan’s indelible craft brought magic to every corner of the Chobani Flip Halloween campaign. From packaging, to swag, to AR animations and film. His boundless enthusiasm and limitless imagination made this campaign truly one of a kind. It’s Super Freak’s world and we’re just living in it. 

– Lauren Hodges, Creative Director, Chobani

Dan created an entire imaginary world for us, and the results were nothing short of extraordinary. His talent as an illustrator is unparalleled, and his ability to bring imagination to life is truly remarkable. Beyond his artistic skills, Dan was an absolute pleasure to work with—collaborative, open to feedback, and consistently delivering high-quality work on time. If you’re looking for a creative professional who can bring something truly unique to your project, Dan is the one!

– Wilma Faget, Senior Program Manager, Chobani

Dan went above and beyond with every request and had such a cheerful attitude throughout the process. He has been one of the most collaborative and creative partners I’ve had a pleasure to work with.

– Evangelina Rios, Designer, Chobani

We caught up with Dan to find out a bit more about the project:

Wow, this was a huge project, starting with the packaging illustrations and expanding into character design for an AR game and an animated CTV ad! What was the highlight for you?

Oh boy it was a bloody good ‘un… To be honest it’s hard to pinpoint one highlight. Every step was a new challenge that pushed me past my limits and the outcomes always surprised me! Those are always the best kinda projects. I think the real treat for me was bringing the characters to ‘real life’ with the AR game.

Can you tell us a little bit about the process of creating the original packaging illustrations?

It all began with sketching the little characters and typography directly onto the net. Since the illustrations wrap around the whole packaging, the most important challenge was making every element sit perfectly within the composition; making sure everything reads at smaller scales and giving the packs as much energy as humanly (or yogurt-ly) possible! Once the Chobani gang were happy with the layout, we took the packs to final outlining and colour. Here we did so much fine tuning. It was almost like being in a surgery room haha. Usually it’d send me mad but the Chobani team had so much good energy. It was like being a kid again; like working with your mates plotting the blueprints to a new secret den!

It was incredible to see the range of characters you came up with all focussed on a halloween theme, how do you keep thinking up ideas for all these little guys?

I think over the years it’s become a bit of a reflex. Through the fear and avoidance of illustrating human figures I’ve always loved turning inanimate objects and the unexpected into characters. Slap a pair of eyes and a mouth onto a cookie and voila!

I guess it took a little more thought with the Chobani yoghurts though. Since there were so many different elements and flavours to squeeze in, it was a fun challenge to give every single nook and cranny its own personality and character. Once these living ingredients started interacting with each other, this opened up a whole new playing field for me too. The way a cheeky chunk of chocolate would yank on the leg of a wedge of lime for example, completely redefines the expressions and personality of these two characters!

Do you have a favourite character you created?

Hands down the Cookie Dough monster. There’s something special about that critter that’s always stood out to me. I think it reminds me of myself. Unapologetically goofy and a bit scruffy. Just lovely.

Your work, especially your character illustration, really developed over the course of creating all these amazing assets. What did you learn and how do you feel your work has evolved through this project?

This project really pushed my understanding for the way figures should move and interact. It’s not just all about the faces. Every interaction on the packaging was so carefully designed with guidance from Chobani’s creative team. I’ve never been this meticulous and it was a hella fun learning process. It was like going back to art school hehe. The project just completely opened up a whole new dimension to my work and imagination. Bring on the next one!

Don’t forget to check out the Super Freak portfolio in full here.