Estudio Cariño’s Maldita Envidia branding makes shelf rivals jealous

Envy has a reputation problem. We’re taught to suppress it, apologise for it, treat it as something shameful lurking in the darker corners of human nature. For Maldita Envidia, a Mexican dressing brand, that conventional wisdom gets flipped entirely. The name translates to ‘Damn Envy,’ and the positioning leans into the emotion rather than away from it – arguing that wanting what others have drives us to taste more, experience more, become more. Guadalajara-based Estudio Cariño developed the identity around a surprisingly philosophical observation about flavour itself. What is a seasoning, after all, if not one taste yearning to become another? Sweet reaching toward salty. Bitter longing for sweetness. The tension between flavours creates the pleasure, and the brand embraces that dynamic as its conceptual foundation. The studio, a two-person operation run by José Pablo Salazar and Iván Soto Camba, specialises in bringing what they call a more human and playful approach to brand building. Their name means ‘love’ in Spanish – or more precisely, ‘affection’ – and their working hypothesis is simple: genuine care changes everything it touches. That philosophy shaped how they approached a brief that arrived with unusual clarity. The client wanted something fun, something cool, something consumers would display proudly rather than tucking away in a cupboard. A brand that could hold court at a gathering of friends. The wordmark uses Pouler, a typeface by Alexandre Créquer, chosen for how its letterforms connect and flow into one another. Salazar describes the effect as working “like a drizzle of honey, bringing two flavours together to create one-of-a-kind dressings.” The ligatures feel organic rather than mechanical, suggesting the blending that happens when ingredients meet. Building out the typographic system required four distinct voices. Balacar from The Designers Foundry handles the brand’s personality phrases, while Quick Writers by Letterhead Studio adds handwritten warmth. GT Alpina from Grilli Type carries longer texts, its character balancing playfulness with enough classic sensibility to anchor the other typefaces.