Irish chili may sound like an oxymoron, but Mic’s Chilli, made in Kilcoole, County Wicklow in Ireland, has the authentic look of a product that comes from “South of the Border” – and we don’t mean Tipperary.
Dublin-based illustrator Steve Simpson has done all of the branding and packaging work for Mic’s Chilli since it launched its first products at the end of 2010. Using Latin American patterns and iconography, the Inferno packaging features Day of the Dead skeleton figures, with “talk bubbles” showing chillis to indicate degrees of hotness — one chilli for mild; four chillis for on fire.
The BBQ Sauce adopts an Aztec theme, and the Sweet Chilli Sauce, which is described as South American-Asian, features a fire-breathing Chinese dragon and yin-yang symbol on the cap tab. Simpson even carried the theme into the UPC bar codes. This is a thoughtfully conceived packaging program.
I really enjoy the shapes of the bottles, and the way the labels complement those shapes. The cap tab really highlights the pretty form of the bottle and leads your eye down to the [even prettier] labels!