In 2019, Horsehill Vineyards was looking to rebrand the look and feel of its award winning White Zinfandel. This update coincided with the 80th anniversary of Cal Poly Pomona. Along with an amazing team of four other designers and strategists, we developed a whole new look for the vineyard.
Extensive notes and research were done before ever coming up with ideas for the endeavor. We learned from this research that there had to be a strong aspect of history (both of the wine itself and the university it's associated with) entwined with our design decisions.
Early Type Manipulation
Early Branding
Early Logo Idea
Early Color Palette
Our group of five worked over the course of three months to gather research, experiment, fail,
and finally come up with ideas that really took our client's values and expectations to heart.
and finally come up with ideas that really took our client's values and expectations to heart.
It was a long time coming, but we finally created a logo we were proud of. Next, that logo and the decisions we put into it helped us with our subsequent branding, bottle design, packaging, and overall personality of the product we were helping build.
Our team created usage and branding guidelines for our logos, colors, and typefaces. This way once we passed the baton over to the client's team, they could easily add content or keep continuity in their design choices down the line when our time together reached an end.
We went as far as to create full-on photoshoots to properly show off our products.
We wanted our client to have options in the event that this special occasion called for specialized packaging. The tapered label on the left served as our entry-point design and the variation on the right was mocked up in case the client was willing to increase their product budget and commission laser-etched bottles as exclusive gifts for key customers or board members.
We thought a lot about the customer's experience once they pass the point-of-sale and take the bottle home. Additionally, we believe a lot of wine bottles miss the opportunity to do something special with the cork. Our answer to this was to design the top of the cork with our logomark. The sides have a reoccurring pattern of our barrels/grapes, and the underside reminds you to enjoy.
We wanted this wine to be associated with sophistication. One of the ways we went about this was to focus on a powerful maroon with a pure black and white supporting cast to help it stand out. Our belief was that bright, saturated colors would skew younger and become problematic within the context of a university. Thus, we aimed for a color that felt mature and classy. Like our wine.
All product shots courtesy of team member Matt Tyler
A culmination of deliverables we created for Horsehill Vineyards. We learned a lot about production schedules, product and consumer research, and working together as a team. It was a fantastic experience that I'm so grateful to have been a part of.