Business x Design: Jean Thompson of Maeve Chocolate

Date and Time

• Wednesday, Oct 1, 2025  1pm - 2pm

Location

Visit Website

Details

How do you design a business from the ground up—its purpose, its identity, its impact on the world? Join MODA for a virtual conversation with Jean Thompson, owner and CEO of Maeve Chocolate (formerly Seattle Chocolate), to explore how design has shaped every aspect of her company.

For more than two decades, Jean has built a women-owned chocolate business rooted in ethical sourcing, joyful creativity, and community giving. In 2025, she and her daughter Ellie partnered with Brooklyn-based studio The Young Jerks to reimagine the brand. Together, they transformed Seattle Chocolate into Maeve, a bold identity inspired by the legendary Irish warrior queen. The rebrand highlights the company’s commitments—to empower women, support cacao farmers in Ghana, Peru, Tanzania, and the Dominican Republic, and make chocolate that sparks delight.

By aligning her company with a brand universe that includes the fearless warrior queen Maeve and a cast of quirky companions like Greg Glitter, Cheryl the Forest Nymph, and Pinkbeard the Pirate, Jean has shown how a chocolate business can embrace storytelling as part of its design. Paired with packaging that leaps off the shelf and a commitment to reinvesting 10% of profits into farming communities and social causes, Maeve demonstrates that a company itself can be designed — from its values to its voice.

This conversation will dive into:

The story of how Jean entered the chocolate business and grew it into a national brand

How design drove the transformation from Seattle Chocolate to Maeve

The role of collaboration—with her daughter Ellie and with The Young Jerks—in shaping a brand that balances fun with purpose

How Maeve uses design to align ethics, storytelling, and delicious chocolate

Come discover how one fearless leader is designing a chocolate company that’s as bold, joyful, and impactful as the confections it creates.