Tabasco Label
The Tabasco logo, in addition to being one of the most recognizable bits of branding in the food industry, also ostensibly exists as an outlier within the history of graphic design; for the lasting popularity of the company in such a niche market (1), the label has, in the last one-hundred and fifty years, changed very little. As is illustrated in an interview with 60 Minutes (2), Tony Simmons, CEO of the McIlhenny Company, and descendant of the creator of the Tabasco brand, shows off a bottle believed to be from the early 1870s. Besides some minor changes in typography and typographical content, the logo has only been rotated no more than forty-five degrees on the iconic white diamond label from its early off-axis look. The color used on the Tabasco logo eventually varied between flavors once the company began making more than just the signature original flavor Tabasco sauce (3).
The Tabasco logo was created by the brand’s founder, Edmund McIlhenny, who also exists as the namesake of the company that still owns the Tabasco Brand today, McIlhenny Company. The famous white diamond label existed prior to the logo’s creation on the bottles McIlhenny wanted Tabasco sauce to be packaged in because “These bottles had a diamond logo on the label", McIlhenny utilized these bottles "to ensure his hot sauce stood out” (4). In addition, sans-serif type was still relatively new in 1868 (5), and while McIlhenny was not a graphic designer himself, it would seem that he saw the strength in clarity a sans-serif typeface can have on small labels.
Overall, Edmund McIlhenny landed so close to the logo's long-lasting form factor in the early stages of the brand that the Tabasco logo is an excellent example of graphic design, and should be studied for its simplicity, staying power, and lack of significant change.
1. Fortune Business Insights. “U.S. Hot Sauce Market Size…Analysis….” Market Analysis, October 14, 2024. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/u-s-hot-sauce-market-107592.
2. One of Tabasco’s Most Prized Artifacts. Video. 60 Minutes, 2014. https://youtu.be/2ybSF1Mb6ws?si=t6EH5wNFxkHG-YlM.
3. Tabasco. Brand Page, n.d. https://www.tabasco.com/hot-sauces/.
4. Logos-World. “Tabasco Logo, .” Research Archive, August 6, 2024. https://logos-world.net/tabasco-logo/.
5. Biľak, Peter. “A Brief History of Sans-Serif Typefaces.” Typography Archive. Typotheque. Typotheque, March 11, 2019. https://www.typotheque.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-sans-serif-typefaces.
