The Brief

“Harker Wines” were strictly for personal consumption only, until a chance conversation at a sporting event led to our client (& neighbour) talking himself into a wine taste-off with a local importer. As the best jokes are those told with a deadpan face, when he asked us to design a label for his wine bottles, we decided to play it dead straight.

Our Solution: Label Design

An antique metal representation of a ploughman and his horse had hung on the wall of our clients farmhouse home since time immermorial.  Turned into a silhouette, it became a perfect logo design representing the artisan nature of the product.

Adding a sepia filter to a quick snapshot of the actual farmhouse itself allowed us to create a suitably aged domain lozenge while rich burgundy and gold were used in conjunction with a modern typeface to balance the design and give a sense of depth and clarity.  In the spirit of the taste-off, we added copywriting which parodied the traditional information found on wine bottles.

The devil is always in the detail and so to give the label design that final touch of class,  we sourced a tradition wooden presentation case and organised the addition of a perfectly placed pyrogravure for that finishing touch. All that was left to do was put the label on the bottle and enjoy.

The Result

If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Although the commission was a pro-bono favour for a neighbour, that didn’t prevent us from employing the same high standards and meticulous attention to detail that we use for everything we put our name to. The result is a label design that can hold its own at any top table.