Responses by Robot Food
Background: Stemming from a self-proclaimed obsession with hot sauce, our client, Fuego Spice Co., share its love of heat through the subscription service Fuego Box, dedicated to discovering the hot pepper sauces of the world. After providing spice lovers with their monthly fix, Fuego Spice Co. decided to create its own range of flavor-filled firecrackers. A massive category in America, hot sauce shelves are packed with producers jostling for the attention of hotheads. Fuego Spice Co. asked us to grasp the opportunity within the category and provide an aesthetic that elevates the brand to rise above the noise.
Reasoning: The sauces are well considered, perfectly balancing flavor and heat, so we needed a design that communicates the quality of the product. After researching the category and exploring different design outcomes, we provided the client with some concepts that tackle premium and flavorful from a few different angles. The client was drawn to this design because it elevates the product above the competition and has a disruptive and impactful style.
Challenges: The brief was really open. One challenge was creating clear creative and strategic parameters, so we weren’t just designing to personal tastes, but to defined goals, which meant we could assess the designs objectively.
Favorite details: We spent a lot of time ensuring the print finish, stock and foil was the best it could be. A high level of quality and tactility in the format and label elevates a product massively above a standard glossy label. Fuego sauces are premium products, so it was important that the literal touch point reflected that.
Visual influences: The range focuses on flavor over fire, so the design needed to move away from the cartoonish and masculine style of the category. We decided to look outside of hot sauce at more premium products. We looked at beauty and lifestyle products to pull some unexpected sophistication in a category where novelty normally rules.
Anything new: Every project is a new journey. Fuego is the first hot sauce brand we’ve worked on and, with it, brought a whole new category for us to explore and understand. We like to go into each project without any design outcome in mind and use research to identify a creative route that will truly make waves in the category.
Browse Projects
