Sriracha, Organic sales, and Hands
What do all these things listed in the title have in common?
On the Topic
It might come as a surprise to you that Sriracha is produced in USA, specifically Los Angeles. Or not, maybe you are a hardcore Sriracha lover, to the extent that you even know the founder was David Tran. David Tran founded his company on the simple problem that he could not find quality hot sauce. As a result, he decided to make it. My family also experienced this in the past when supermarkets did not have condiments that satisfied oriental palates. My mom would often pickle her own peppers to cook dishes with. Having the right spice to food makes a whole world’s difference. It’s no wonder that Sriracha exploded in sales when it first started, it’s actually a miracle if you think about it, especially since David Tran claims that he never advertises nor does he have a salesforce. His sales is practically organic. It also helps that his product embodies two impossible coexistences that all asian immigrants want: low in price, high in quality.
On the Poster
Hands are really hard to draw, maybe because they are such dynamic parts of our bodies. I started out by taking photos of my hand holding a bottle and sketched that a few times with pencil on paper. I uploaded the photos into Illustrator and drew a vector over it.
My laptop has a touch screen so I traced the vectors by hand. The main reason being that I wanted to create an organic outcome. I find that vector illustrations that are made using geometric shapes often lack soul — this is also something I realized after reflecting on an earlier piece I made about the Uber’s, AirBnB, and Etsy’s first 1000 customers. It was very important to me that the result looked like it was drawn by hand.
I read many articles and watched several videos about David Tran’s journey. The most interesting thing I learned was when he said:
“I made sauce good enough for the rich man that the poor man can still afford”
I really love that he said this because his product becomes accessible to everyone, regardless of their economic situation. Sriracha sauce exists either on shelves in supermarkets or at the table of homes and restaurants. To make it relatable, I decided to draw it as if it was sitting on a table and make it look like that people were grabbing it to add to their meals. The most challenging aspect was to portray social status. This was a struggle because I did not like conforming to stereotypes about social status. Not everyone who is rich wears jewelry and vice versa. But to make the illustration parallel to the quote, it was easiest to stick to stereotypes. If you have any feedback or thoughts, please do share.
I make stuff every week, exploring things I read or think about everyday. I talk about the topic and the process of creating something to visualize my thoughts or responses.
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