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Sazón
Client
Salsas Aguirre
Year
2026
Role
Illustration, label design, art direction
Team
Paloma, with Imprenta Tello on print
Salsas Aguirre has made the same six salsas in the same Puebla kitchen for thirty years. Now they were going onto supermarket shelves, where a stranger has four seconds to pick the right jar.
The ask
Six salsas, one shelf and no budget for photography. The family wanted the jars to look like their kitchen: loud, handmade, a bit messy. The buyer wanted one flavour per label, readable from two metres away.
What I made
Each salsa got its own chile, cut out in gouache as one big shape: guajillo, chipotle, habanero, de árbol, pasilla and verde. I scanned them flat and set them on vermilion, with marigold for the heat. The names are hand-lettered inside the shapes, and everything prints on uncoated paper so the ink looks like ink.
How it landed
The relaunch reached 38 supermarkets in Puebla and Mexico City in February. The Aguirres reprinted labels after eleven days, and shop staff now sell the chipotle by pointing at its picture.
“People used to ask which one is the hot one. Now they just point at the chile.”
Rodrigo Aguirre
Co-owner, Salsas Aguirre