In San Antonio, even breakfast can become a Fiesta medal.”
In San Antonio, Fiesta medals are small charms with a deep culture behind them. Fiesta itself dates back to the first Battle of Flowers Parade in 1891, and over generations it has grown into a citywide celebration of San Antonio’s culture and traditions. The medal tradition followed later, evolving from coins distributed by King Antonio in the 1940s into the collectible Fiesta medals San Antonians began wearing and trading in the decades that followed.
Working in the District 8 Office under then-Councilman Manny Pelaez, I was tasked with designing our office’s 2024 contribution to that tradition. Rather than create something centered on government or District 8 itself, I wanted the medal to feel personal, playful, and unmistakably San Antonio.
The concept came from one of Manny’s self-proclaimed “Breakfast of Champions”: a carne guisada taco and an ice-cold Mexican Coke. It was a simple combination, but also one that offered plenty of personality to build around.
I illustrated the two favorites as the centerpiece of the medal, pairing an oversized carne guisada taco with the instantly recognizable silhouette of a glass Mexican Coke bottle. Behind them, a stylized yellow sunrise reinforces the breakfast theme while giving the composition a bold backdrop. Hand-drawn arrows and annotations identify each item, adding an informal, almost doodled quality to the piece, while the curved “Breakfast of Champions” typography gives the illustration movement and frames the composition.
I intentionally leaned into bright colors, exaggerated scale, and imperfect hand-drawn details rather than making the artwork feel overly polished or official. Fiesta is colorful, expressive, and sometimes a little over-the-top, and I wanted the medal to share that same sense of fun.
Seeing the illustration translated from a flat digital concept into a physical medal added another dimension to the design. Glitter-filled lettering, metallic outlines, dimensional enamel, and the bright green ribbon amplified elements that were intentionally bold in the original artwork and turned a simple breakfast joke into a small Fiesta collectible.
At its core, the project was an opportunity to take something personal to the councilman and reinterpret it through a visual language familiar to San Antonio. The result was a medal that didn't take itself too seriously, and it wasn't supposed to.