It’s said that drinking good wine with good friends in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures. Well.. At least I think they say that. When I started doing graphic design it was for the passion of it and that fact remains true to this day. I never sought out to make or design one specific thing or even be labeled as a graphic designer in a professional space. Being able to express myself creatively is all I wanted to do and that’s given me the opportunities I have today.
I was tasked with designing both the front and back of a wine label for del Lago Resort and Casino. This was their first wine and they wanted the product to not only taste good but to also stand out, to be interesting. So first, we had to find the right name for it.
There were quite a few options that they wanted to go with but the ones that caught the most attention were “essenza” and “felt”. I experiment with different silhouettes to see what both of these words could pair really well with. I thought hands would work best with “Felt” I mean.. The word speaks for itself. “essenza” I thought some kind of modern symbols and stars as well as maybe an outline of a herb or flower could also pair well with it.
After showing the first drafts and thinking on the name, they land on “essenza” and now that we have our name chosen we move forward with the font..
I try a handful of different typefaces and have them choose their top three out of the those found in the first image. After I received those I then make a variety of mockups at multiple weights to see what would make the most sense. Considering it’s the name of the wine, I figured that you want it to be simple and elegant but not get lost within the label. You’ll also notice that at this point we aren't sure of the color of the bottle so I added in different label colors that you would normally see in the grocery store, your whites, blacks and tans, and ran with those. Alright, let's see how they like these!
A few weeks go by and after some deliberation and a “a-ha!” moment we do a 180 and change it up completely.... this is gonna be fun! So I was toying around with the typewriter fonts that I found online and one of the team members said “what if we did it like a ransom note.. What if we named it ransom” and then BOOM we’re off to the races. The team loved the idea and I immediately started working on it that day. I think that the typewriter letters would be great but what if I got actual scanned clippings of letters and used those. I start piecing everything together and below is what I came up with ..
I tried two variants of the letters to give them options and at the end, they decided on the one on the left. And there you have it.. we have our label.. well.. sort of. With a wine bottle being as tall as it is the label has to match the length of the bottle which means we have our label name but now we have to fill the space. Now because they were partnering with an outside vendor to actually make the wine, we decided to put both of their logos on there as you’ll see below. We also need the kind of wine it is and they also wanted to add the region and year of the harvest down below that and oh yeah.. My signature in the bottom corner which was a thrill to be able to do. And just like that we have our front label, I then go on to do the back label and this is where all the texts live with the standard alcohol disclaimer, it also notes where the wine was made, the ABV and a few other notes that's required for wine.
Now that everything was done it was time to wait for it to be bottled and packaged which I had the pleasure of being able to see first hand. Below you’ll find the final product, a video of the bottling process and the tagging of the wine. (Loud Sound)
Thank you to del Lago Resort and Casino for letting me design your first ever bottle of wine. This project was a huge chance for me to showcase what I’ve learned so far and do it in a very professional manner. I’m very proud of the results, with how it came out and that I can add this to my accomplishments. Oh.. The wine tastes great also!
Comentários