Please note, I say what I see, knee-jerk. I don't filter for hurt feelings because I'm offering an honest opinion on your labels. So don't get all butt hurt defensive if I say something you don't like. You and I can disagree and still be friends - it's just a disagreement.
So that disclaimer out of the way, these labels don't entirely appeal to me, but I think they're fixable. I am trying to put my finger on what it is. Several major issues stand out to me - all correctable. There are a lot of sound ideas here, but IMO it needs a designer's touch to be massaged into something more coherent and directed.
For one, you don't frame in the poem (romance panel) - or the logo/name for that matter. It's all kinda 1-layer that blends together to my eye. For another, there is no romance panel - just a poem or words. Please - give a description, You say "
Hot sauce people are smart. they know what it goes on...lol" - that's great and all, but why limit yourself to that? You only want chileheads to buy your sauce? The world's a big place full of dumb people who need to be told what to do with your sauce. It's a cornerstone of marketing - provide suggested uses. If you want to sell your sauce, tell people what to pair them with. For the ketchup, tell people to use it on french fries, even if that seems like the most intuitive thing ever. Trust me on this - while sad to lack fath in humanity to know their ass from a hole in the ground, the best marketing advice is to assume they do not, and provide a photo diagram of ass and ground hole with detailed instructions. lol
Next - at a glance I don't know it's hot sauce. The only product that says what it is would be your ketchup. I know it's spicy ketchup - it says it right there in big friendly letters. But your others? If I'm not familiar with varietal peppers (and the vast majority of people are not) then I have no idea what your sauce is. You have big font saying "...A Gemeni------production" - you have
zero font saying "Hot Sauce". Must have. Again - I'm a chilehead. I know what a Fatali or Ghost Pepper is. Most people don't. So you have to tell people what it is.
Edited to add - I just saw the "Hot Sauce" - wow - it's kinda buried up there, which is why I missed it. That's a challenge with a bold colorful label and a flat background. I would strongly consider relocating the "Hot Sauce" to under the product names.
Another note on font size - some of your fonts are painfully small for my old eyes. That will be an issue with things like Nutrition Panel and unit of measure (e.g. 5 FL OZ) because they're regulated by the local inspector of your PA. I had to change one of mine to white, make them all bold, and increase the font sizes across the board. So I'll save you that headache by bringing attention to it now. If any of your fonts start to get "squinty small", you should probably think about increasing the size.
Finally heat indicator. I have no idea how hot any of these sauces are because you haven't told me. When I first made labels I thought "I'll just put a little thermometer on the side" - that bit me. I ended up revising my labels so on the front it says "hot, med, mild, extra hot" etc. I also have the thermometer on the side, and in the Romance Panel description I tell people how hot they each are in anecdotal form "this dog has bite!" or "respectable heat" or other colorful ways of conveying it. So I've told people 3 times on the bottle how hot they are. This is critical - people tend to fear hot sauce right now because of the vast amounts of "shock value" marketing in the sauce world. You need to tell people "this is a food product that you should use on food. You won't win a bet or get 1,000,000 hits on YouTube for eating a tsp." I mean - not in those words, but the label is your vehicle to communicate with your audience - you need to package your messages and tell them what they are holding in their hand. I think you're missing almost all of that. It's a nifty cool poem and a cool watermark crow - I like that stuff. And it kinda has that Gothic feel to it, but all you're telling me is that. The kethup is the only sauce that I know what it is at a glance.
Again - I offer all of this as constructive - I tend to be acerbic but it's all based from a good place. You're right about Ann - she rocks and was instrumental in helping me to get off the ground, which is a big reason why I do what I can to help others. If I come off like a jerk with any of this, that's not my intention - just calling it like I see it. I think there are excellent pieces to these labels. You have a consistent broad theme that's easily expandable and uniform across all products. That's hard to do, so well done there.
Now you need to add some design cues so it draws the viewer in and focuses the eye on the crow & the product name, and add "hot sauce" somewhere I'll see it, like above the FL OZ and below the names (except the ketchup, since you broke theme there and just named it Spicy Ketchup) - and you need to tell me heat levels for the products.
And I do love the watermark raven / Gothic font thing, even though I think it's a bit overdone these days. People like it though so while it's not my style, I do think it works with the paper/watermark.
I also agree with THP about the burnt/aged paper look - that might be interesting to see.
Good luck!
edited - I missed "hot sauce" - which tells me it's poorly located. To my eye they get totally lost behind the bold color. All the background blurs together.
Other notes (both minor nits)
1. Agree with SL about "Devil His Due" - when you explain it, I get it. When I first read it I thought it read poorly and I wondered about the grimmer. The meaning was also not intuitive. If I'm looking at it on a shelf at a store I wouldn't get it.
2. On that same label, the shading is inconsistent with your other labels. On the other 3, there's a "3D" kind of shading to the product names - the Devil His Due looks flat comparatively.
Oop - another thing...
Labels 1 & 3 say "all natural"
Label #2 does not.
Label 4 is the spicy ketchup which you said contains high fructose corn syrup (and I agree with the boss on that one too - list it, don't say another word about it) so not all natural.
But reading ingredients of #s 1 & 3 I don't see where they're not all natural?
Also speaking of ingredients, you'll need to list them by order of content. It appears they're not that way.
I also need to rephrase something I said earlier - even as a chilehead I want to know what the flavor profile & pairings are with a given hot sauce. If it says "great on eggs, pizza, oysters!" that's gonna go a long way towards my purchase. I will get to thinking of ways to use them. But the other aspect of a romance pannel is you can give me an idea about the flavor profiles.
Here are things that help the consumer make a purchase decision:
Is the vinegar muted or is it a vinegary sauce (note: both are ok, but if I like one and it's the other I'll be disappointed in my purchase)
Is the sauce savory? Sweet? Other?
Is the sauce garlicy?
How strong of a blackberry flavor is it? Is it a spicy pancake syrup type sauce or a very subtle barely detectable note of subtle bliss?
Is this sauce salty? Does it emulate an existing category (e.g. Louisiana style)?
And then heat levels. Can't stress this one enough. Even chileheads want to know how hot it is.
