Espanita
Handcrafted from 100% Blue Agaves grown at high elevations in the highlands of Jalisco, Espanita Tequila is a sophisticated and velvety smooth spirit that accentuates characteristics unique to tequila — the distinctive aromas and delectable flavors of traditionally slow-baked Blue Agave.
Espanita is aged in lightly charred American white oak barrels previously used for Bourbon, ensuring a mellow and complex bourbon-finished flavor.
The client came to us with an established core tequila line. The new fruit infused flavored products were to complement the original line but to stand visually unique. The brief was to pull in two directions at once — a heritage, vintage feel on one side, and a fresh, fruity one on the other.
The starting point was a simple stock bottle. A bottle like that needs a fairly large label just to cover the plain boring glass, but a label that size runs the risk of looking oversized and heavy on the shelf. To get around that, we broke the label optically into several smaller parts, so it reads as a collection of pieces rather than a single block.
Getting the vintage look meant working in a lot of fine detail which, when left unchecked, quickly turns into clutter. To keep things clean and fresh we grouped the details into clusters that pop forward. These are set against a background that's light and low in contrast, yet still busy at a closer look. That contrast between what pops and what recedes is what let us keep the label very intricate without losing the fresh feel the client wanted.
A lot of work also went into building a clear hierarchy of information, deciding what needs to be seen first, and how to guide the eye through all that detail without it turning into noise.
To bring the two halves of the brief together, heritage and fruit, we developed a character — an undead, gothic-looking jimador (the farmer who harvests the agave plant). Set against a fruit-coloured label, the combination creates a kind of oxymoron, happy and gothic at once, which turned out to be just the tension to fit the brand.
