Mi Mate - Paraguayan Yerba Mate drink
(Mi Mate Inc. - San Diego CA)
-
Role: Art direction, typographic design and illustration
Illustrations: César Evangelista Bautista @ Mr. Kone Studios
Additional creative direction: Alan Luna
(Mi Mate Inc. - San Diego CA)
-
Role: Art direction, typographic design and illustration
Illustrations: César Evangelista Bautista @ Mr. Kone Studios
Additional creative direction: Alan Luna
I worked on design and art direction for this cold brewed mate based soft drink after the San Diego based clients came to me after an initial design round proved unsatisfactory.
A European based package designer submitted design directions they felt were not only based on inaccurate Western ideas of Latin American culture, but also too reliant on tribal imagery and quasi ethnic tropes. Having spent considerable time in Paraguay researching their project, they decided they wanted the design to have a South American feel without resorting to exotic clichés, while emphasizing the tradition mate plays in social life.
With this in mind, and the fact that we all agreed that products with Latin American origins are usually over exoticized for American and European markets, I pitched the idea of approaching the design not as a new product, but instead as an update of a beloved Paraguayan heritage product, being introduced to the North American market. We'd have some cultural signifiers in the shape of a set of icons, but only ones the clients actually encountered or experienced during their time spent doing product research in Asunción and rural Paraguay.
The clients and I arrived at a short list of recurring motifs found in folk art and legends, which was passed on, along with some photo references, to an illustrator friend of mine, César Evangelista Bautista aka Mr Kone to create icons which could easily mixed and matched in the manner of a textile design. After an initial round of illustrations done in a rustic woodcut style, one of the clients, Alan Luna — a fine arts undergrad at UCSD,
With this in mind, and the fact that we all agreed that products with Latin American origins are usually over exoticized for American and European markets, I pitched the idea of approaching the design not as a new product, but instead as an update of a beloved Paraguayan heritage product, being introduced to the North American market. We'd have some cultural signifiers in the shape of a set of icons, but only ones the clients actually encountered or experienced during their time spent doing product research in Asunción and rural Paraguay.
The clients and I arrived at a short list of recurring motifs found in folk art and legends, which was passed on, along with some photo references, to an illustrator friend of mine, César Evangelista Bautista aka Mr Kone to create icons which could easily mixed and matched in the manner of a textile design. After an initial round of illustrations done in a rustic woodcut style, one of the clients, Alan Luna — a fine arts undergrad at UCSD,
suggested César look at the work of Uruguayan painter Joaquin Garcia-Torres, who created intricate monochromatic designs based on indigenous art iconography.
César created a panel incorporating all of the icons, which I then made into a step
and repeat pattern. I then applied various color combinations to be used for the
different flavors.
For the typographic design, I consulted vintage liquor and soft drink labels, especially from Mexico, Spain and Latin America, and arrived at a set of fonts and decorative elements that combined Victorian, Deco and Streamline to create the impression of Mi Mate being a product known for generations, which had received subtle design revisions over the years before being exported to the United States.
César created a panel incorporating all of the icons, which I then made into a step
and repeat pattern. I then applied various color combinations to be used for the
different flavors.
For the typographic design, I consulted vintage liquor and soft drink labels, especially from Mexico, Spain and Latin America, and arrived at a set of fonts and decorative elements that combined Victorian, Deco and Streamline to create the impression of Mi Mate being a product known for generations, which had received subtle design revisions over the years before being exported to the United States.
Color palette for Clásico flavor
Color palette for Manzanilla Citrica and Pomelo Cedron flavors
Logotype and label design explorations
Color palette studies for icon pattern
Texture study: Photocopied pattern grid
