Antidote Candles — Case Study

overview:

antidote candles is a fictitious, family owned candle brand from jalisco, mexico. since 1982, the founders, the medina's, have been working hard with other local businesses to supply organic, cruelty free candles, and celebrating local artisany and cultural heritage.

the story goes that in the late 70's, isabel and diego medina envisioned a family owned brand that present and future generations could participate in. with kids in the way, they set out to work hard in their family hacienda to create the first iteration of the brand: velas antídoto.

logo evolution:

the first iteration of antidote candles was hand-painted by isabel in the exact same style she had painted their hacienda's welcome sign. they didn't have a solid plan of action for the brand, but their passion for celebrating the organic, sustainable and the local caught on to their neighbors and the support continued to grow from there. this logo was in place from 1982 to 1991.

it was when the cumbia boom started hitting in america, and when the selena and los dinos breakthrough put latin culture in the spotlight, that they saw the need to rebrand to an anglicized version in hopes to expand their audience. their logo was gaining recognition across the country, so they kept the same style, and only changed the name of the brand. this second iteration kept running until 2008.

the last iteration of the brand until present moment came in 2008, when it was no longer a matter of attracting a wider audience, but also of modernizing the brand, of keeping it relevant after nearly thirty years. they had more knowledge of how to run a brand successfully but were still doing most of the design work themselves and the lack of direction was reflected in a logo that was good, but not recognizable or memorable. it didn't remind people of antidote candles.

our work:

returning to present times, we're now in front of the new generation of the medina family, namely camila medina - the youngest of isabel and diego - and her husband víctor are now in charge of the company, and are looking forward to restoring its old spark whilst modernizing it for the times to come.

they're also introducing a new line of products, however after much consideration and since 80% of the business is still primarily focused on candles, they decided to keep the name antidote candles, so as to not lose the family history.

(slides from brand reveal reel: watch it here)

they wanted something that felt vintage but not outdated, something that paid tribute to the original logos that allowed them to get to where they were and to incorporate local art into their branding, infusing it with color, charm and uniqueness. the result is an unforgettable brand that honors the land and the culture that made antidote candles be antidote candles.