Beer & Wine

There was one thing that I knew I wanted to use before I did any research, and that was the swing-top style beer bottles. One of the leaders in the market Grolsch have used it as part of there brand for years, but it also currently very common in Germany as well.

Although this is only the smallest of details, I believe it's a really important one, because when you are branding something in relation to it's location, all these little details add up and are what really makes a brand effective. When it came to the look of my wine bottles though, I didn't have such a clear idea, so I first looked into german wine bottles...

I found that there wasn't much going on with these and they all tended to look very similar in size, colour and design. This made me think about what I actually needed on the label if they were simply house wines. How much info would be necessary? Could I just use a design? I chose to look at the wider picture and at a variety of creative wine bottle designs.

I found examples of unique bottle shapes, creativity in using illustration on a full bottle design and also bottles that don't use a label at all. I really love all of these as they show how tradition can be broken slightly and modern twists can be applied. However, having worked on this project for a while now I just felt that none of these would be right for the brand that I am creating and the styles that I have chosen. I carried on my research though and came across a style that I instantly liked...

I really like the simplicity of these designs, and the lack of all the usual info that is plastered across wine bottles. I don't know if this is because I'm thinking about house wines not needing to sell on a shop shelf, but it gives a bit of freedom when it comes to what's required. Imagery is something that I am going to definitely look to use on my bottles because imagery is a bit part of my brand so I'm conscious of keeping that theme running. I will look into how I can develop my own designs from this research and report back soon.