As hot as it gets: Fuman’s identity for Snakefire rejects the visual clichés of the hot sauces

Sombreros, chihuahuas, and ponchos. The hot sauce market is filled with contemporary cultural clichés that rely on broad stereotypes of Mexican and South American cultures to appeal to consumers. To approach the identity for Snakefire hot sauce with a degree of authenticity, New Zealand-based multidisciplinary design studio Fuman created a captivating and timeless look. Their overarching goal was to redefine the role of hot sauce in a meal, emphasising that it is not just an afterthought to add flavour to a bland dish. Instead, the brand and the studio wanted to position hot sauce as a central part of nourishment, and a way to “celebrate life while rejecting death.” Drawing inspiration from the ritual and ceremony of Aztec culture, the team incorporated the pictographic style of Aztec carvings along with warm and earthy colours and textures. According to the studio, James Coffmans’ Costa was the perfect choice for this project as it is hand-drawn and based on the painted signs found in coastal Mexican villages. Similarly, the art direction of the photography evokes a sense of physical and spiritual nourishment, timeless rituals, and the mysticism of ancient secrets. The brand’s copy takes a slightly lighter and more playful approach, using puns and catchy slogans. The studio explains, “We didn’t want the copy to take itself too seriously, so we balanced references to the ancient healing origins of hot sauce with some direct honesty about how hot Snakefire is and the effect it will have on your body.”