01
The label
A Renaissance banquet in a gold frame: hands reaching across a table, the meal as the argument. The black band underneath carries the name in plain grotesque type, so the jar reads from six feet away and rewards reading from six inches.
Original design · Consumer brand
A sauce jar dressed for a gallery, priced for a pantry.
Maison XO is a plant-based XO sauce I founded and ran. The brand system - label, mark, palette, packaging, storefront - is original design, built with the brand's creative director, and it is the same system this site is drawn from.
The idea
An unknown brand gets one glance to be believed. The label is that glance.
The work
Five pieces of one system.
02
The mark
Maison is French for house; 家 is Chinese for home and family. The mark stacks both into one seal, the whole positioning in a single glyph: a house of taste, two culinary traditions at one table.
03
The palette
Buttercream as the ground, International Orange as the accent, Alpine Green as the depth. This portfolio is set in the same three colors - the brand guide became my personal one.
ButtercreamThe ground
International OrangeThe accent
Alpine GreenThe depth
04
The set
One jar is a label; a case is a wall. The grid is the merchandising view, and the reason the label had to hold up under repetition.
05
The gift
The sauce was priced as a gift, so the brand was built to be given. That wedge became a product of its own: TelePort, gifting as easy as sending a text, started as Maison XO's gift app.
Why it matters
Design was the trust signal. Before anyone tasted the sauce, the jar told them it was worth $50.
Original photography, label art, and storefront. Vegan, gluten-free, made in Hudson Valley, NY.
See the gift app it spawned →