Cougar Crest Estate Winery label design
a package graphics project by debbie_

Creative brief

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT US:

CCEW is a boutique winery, selling limited production wines priced at $35 to $55 and is looking for an elegant, sophisticated wine bottle label, incorporating our logo. Our current label is 3.5" tall and 6.5" wide, and I would prefer keeping the horizontal format. Our current label and capsule (which I have a lot of) incorporates use of PMS red 200, but it's not mandatory in the new label. Our website shows the current label which is too plain and boring, we have been told that our wine is much better than our label would lead you to believe. Many consumers buy wine based on the label, we want ours to scream "I am worth every penny!"
There is some mandatory label info. required by law. These labels come on a backing and are pressure sensitive. Some techniques that are possible are gold foil, watermarks, embossed.

Our winery is small and family owned. The owners have been married for 30 years and run the winery and vineyards together. We have had the winery for 9 years, started it from scratch, and have been able to turn it into one of the premier Washington State wineries.

The wine industry in general tries to create the image of exclusivity, romance, and quality with its labels. A bad wine with a good label will sell better than a good wine with a bad label.

HERE IS WHAT WE NEED:

A single label, horizontal format (because our bottling machine likes it) that incorporates our logo, and creates an image that makes people feel they are getting an excusive, high end product

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS:

Mostly baby boomers with incomes over $150,000. We also have a lot of young professionals. Most buyers are from urban areas with high expectations of style and quality.

WE LIKE THESE DESIGNS:

Check websites of the following Washington wineries: Quilceda Creek, Matthews Winery, Northstar Winery, DeLille Cellars, Syncline, for good examples.
For bad examples look at Harlequin, Balboa, Kiona, L'Ecole 41.

WE ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE (or we don't want to see) THIS IN OUR DESIGN:

Must have: logo, must create "expensive" image
Don't want: multiple busy colors, cute or funny, difficult to read font,