PROCESS BOOK

INDEPENDENT STUDY | FALL 2010

it starts here
“The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the second
of intoxication, the third of disgust”
—Diogenes
THE ASSIGNMENT

CREATE A BRAND OF WINE DESIGNED FOR AND TARGETING COLLEGE

STUDENTS & BEGINNING WINE DRINKERS.
I knew absolutely nothing about wine before beginning this project, and that was exactly where I needed to start. Most college
students know little about wine and what they do know is often sterotypic. I had to first document and understand the stereotypes that
young people had about wine.

COMES IN GLASS BOTTLES

NOT TARGETED TO YOUNG PEOPLE

TOO MANY VARIETIES (CONFUSING) OLDER PEOPLE DRINK IT

IT’S TRADITIONAL, OLD

TWO VARIETIES, RED AND WHITE?
THE OLDER, THE BETTER
EXPENSIVE GIRLS MAINLY DRINK IT
RESEARCH

MAKE IT RELATABLE.
The target audience, 21- 28 year olds, are generally under-exposed to wine, yet over exposed and heavily targeted by the beer and
spirits industry. Vodka in particular is very popular among college students and a noticeable trend in this category is the use of bold,
san serif type treatments.

Void of antiquity, confident, honest and strong, these are a few of the qualities that young people connect with in a brand, and are
evident in numerous company identities. This trend permeates deep into what pop culture has deemed as cool or hip companies.

Brands with bold, confident and modern identities.

RESEARCH

MAKE IT SIMPLE.
Wine can be complicated. Different varietals, blends, vineyard locations and packaging can confuse a new consumer. Then they’re
confronted with questions like how do you drink wine, how do you store it and how do you taste it. The list goes on.

My vision for a new brand of wine was simple. Be honest. Teach the basics. Offer only 3 flavors of wine, moscato (white), pinot gri-
gio (red) and white zinfandel (rosé). These particular flavors were selected as a result of researching which wines were the easiest for
beginning drinkers to handle.

3 1
Types of wine
&
Variety each

WHITE, RED & ROSÉ

moscato pinot grigio white zinfandel
RESEARCH

WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The potential of a brand most often, starts with its name. It has to be strong, memorable, easy to say and easy to read. It needs to
stand out amongst the competition. Wine labels are typically high brow, sophisticated sounding and often lengthy.

These are the most common brands bought by 21-28 year olds.
RESEARCH

STAND OUT.
This new wine label, in order to reach and relate to it’s target audience, had to differentiate itself from every other competitor. It had to
be cool, fresh, modern sounding. No more of these antiquated sounding labels. It needed to be clean, it needed to be flexible and it
needed to stand out. Thus the name VINE was selected, and from the very beginning of the name generation process, VINE was a clear
favorite. It was short, flexible, understandable, deep.

VINE
DESIGN

THE ORIGINS.
The more VINE was analyzed and examined as a brand name, the more it made sense. VIN is the Latin root for wine, and with the
simple reflection of an E, you suddenly had a 3, tying in the brands philosophy of making wine easy to understand for beginners, with
only 3 varieties.

The tagline, “it starts here” tied in perfectly with the brand name. Wines are usually made from grapes. Grapes grow on a vine, this is
where wine begins, or starts. And like these grapes, the brand VINE is intended for inexperienced and beginning wine drinkers to use
VINE as a starting place to familiarize themselves with wine.
DESIGN

THE LOOK.
With the brand name established, the next step was to design the identity. A typographic solution was favored, over an illustrative or
image based designed, for it’s ability to convey truth. Many brands utilize animals or structures to help build a story or an idea,
attempting to connect to the mysterious and natural world with the products grapes and vineyard. Appropriate for certain audiences,
this sort of brand image does not align itself with college students. They simply don’t care because they’re merely drinking wine to get
drunk. But by drawing inspiration from popular culture and emphasizing a bold, brash and confident design, VINE began to take shape.

Sampling of sketches for VINE identity.

DESIGN

WHAT’S YOUR TYPE?

Because the mark was going to be typographic, a great deal of research was done to select the perfect typeface. From tall and lean to
short and stalky to retro and futuristic, dozens of typefaces were looked at in detail for character, elegance and strength. In the end, it
was Avant Garde Gothic Bold that was selected for its clean and linear nature.

VINE
Sampling of typographic explorations.
DESIGN

WORKING ON A WORDMARK.
With the typeface established, focused shifted towards creating the right visual harmony between letter forms while maintaining
legibility. Kerning, reflecting, rotating, positive space, negative space, rhythm. All of these were taken into account.

Sampling of rough drafts.

VIN 3
DESIGN

THE ONE.
The mark, once fully refined, contained the bold, brash and confident look that would separate it from it’s competitors in the $5 - $10
price range. The mark was a solid but elegant mass. The V and I combined to mirror that of the N, while the E was reversed and stood
as a symbol of the brands promise, wine made simple, and honest.
DESIGN

HIERARCHY.
With the identity established, the additional information like wine category (white, red, rosé), flavor (moscato, pinot grigio, white
zinfandel), vineyard location, and date had to be worked out. In creating this new brand, it was important that it could be asked for or
talked about easily, and by selecting the name VINE, I knew that complications could arise from asking for VINE wine, as the two sound
almost identical.

To solve this problem, I created a system where the brand name, a noun, could have an attached adjective that provided clarity and
meaning. The adjective in these instances where the wine type, white, red, and in the case of rosé, pink. With these descriptors in
place, a customer could simply ask for a “red vine,” “white vine” or “pink vine.”

Front labels.
DESIGN

THE VOICE.
With the visual identity set in place, it was time to turn the attention to the body copy. Done right, it could reinforce the brands promise
to be honest and create a language that spoke to its target audience. The wine varieties, “white” and “pink” have been shortened to
three letters. This creates a system in which each adjective is a consistent 3 letters long, and is communicated as might be done in a
text message. As well, using Vitamin Water’s tongue-in-cheek approach to copy, VINE attempted to do the same. The result, body copy
that says to the consumer, “We get you.”

Back label copy.

“ maybe you’re new to wine, maybe you’re looking for a good bottle at a great price. or maybe i’m
just an accident. either way, you found me. and now that I got you, I think we should talk. i’m not
gonna tell you some fancy story about how i’m made, or pretend to be from some magical place
where a gentle breeze caresses each and every grape. no, i’m better than that. i’m honest. i’m real,

”
unlike your favorite reality show and no I won’t judge you if you drink me from a red cup. so here’s
to us ... and I better not see you with that other wine from now on.
DESIGN

BOTTLE ME UP.
With all the designed elements in place, the brand’s product was almost complete. But in order to compete with Yellow Tail, Barefoot
and Gallo wines, VINE had to stand out on shelf. It had to make a statement, catch your attention, beg you to look. In my research of
college students who drank wine, hardly any did so in glass. Typically it would be drunken from a red party cup, a faux pas amongst
wine drinkers. But this lack in interest for customary behavior made me realize that young drinkers didn’t necessarily care if they could
see what was in the bottle to begin with. Malibu uses a shrink wrapped bottle for its products, so why couldn’t a wine? By implement-
ing a white shrink wrapped bottle and placing it on a shelf with dozens of other selections, VINE would literally pop off the shelves and
immediately differentiate itself from the competition. The result is a contemporary packaging system created for a specific audience,
intended to beat out the competition.

Finished product.
Fred Hart
University of Arizona
Visual Communications
fredhart@email.arizona.edu
808.221.3804