A Field Guide to the Latest Trends in Wine-Label Design

The wine's label is spare—almost coy. An elegant black blotch of a figure floats on a field of ivory. The wine's name, "Welly," is tucked down in a corner. There is no other text, no vintage or varietal or appellation, on the front of the bottle. The label is less like a billboard and more like a wink, an appeal to your right brain rather than your left.

For a wine with Welly's price tag and pedigree—a $175 Cabernet Sauvignon fromLail Vineyards, one of the Napa Valley's most esteemed producers—everything about the label is unorthodox. And yet it also feels part of this particular moment's zeitgeist.

"We're definitely seeing a trend toward very artistic, hand-drawn, minimalistic expressions on labels—almost like little fine-art pieces," says David Schuemann, owner and creative principal at CF Napa Brand Design.

Schuemann literally wrotethe book on wine-label design, and his firm has helped oversee recent label makeovers forHeitz Cellar,Groth等高端纳帕生产商。即便是10年前，他说一个像谎言一样的重量级可能不会考虑一个没有广播其真正的标签。但是时代变化，酿酒师正在适应新一代消费者，具vwin德赢ac米兰有新的品味和活跃的Instagram账户。

“葡萄酒市vwin德赢ac米兰场现在是一个千禧一代的市场，而且有更多现代性和与美国葡萄酒联系的前卫视觉提示的运动，而不是欧洲葡萄酒，”他说。

在葡萄酒标签上使用综合媒体设计和独立的彩色或黑白越来越受欢迎。vwin德赢ac米兰这也是非正统的甚至令人不安的图像。

It's impossible to talk about trends in wine labels without mentioning囚犯是过去20年的最商业成功和最重要的葡萄酒之一。vwin德赢ac米兰囚犯的酿酒师戴夫Phinney，囚犯vwin德赢ac米兰的标签具有一位围绕链条的人的讨论。

“我认为有一种不成文的规则，即[制片人]的名字必须在标签上，你永远不会使用任何有争议的图像，”Jeremy Otis，Desion Directr说力量和形式, a brand design studio in San Francisco. "Dave Phinney broke those rules with The Prisoner, and it worked, and now you walk into Safeway or Kroger and see a lot of labels that you never would have seen 15 years ago."

OTIS指出，除了囚犯的挑衅标签艺术之外，几乎所有葡萄酒的信息都被降级为背部标签。vwin德赢ac米兰“这建立了神秘，让人们拿起葡萄酒并滚动它来了解更多信息，”他说。vwin德赢ac米兰

Once a shopper does that, the battle is nearly won. "I know this sounds a little creepy, but I've stood in wine shops and grocery stores and watched how people pick wines," Schuemann says. "I can tell you that once a consumer picks up a wine and looks at it, there's probably an 80% chance they'll put it in their basket."

When people handle wine, they're not just reading the back label. The texture, cut, and other elements of the bottle's packaging also matter. "A lot of consumers rub their fingers over a wine's label, and if it feels rich and well-crafted, that gives them the sense that the wine will be as well," Schuemann says. Especially when it comes to higher-end wines, he says that many labels today combine clean, simple graphics with embossing, die cuts, or other textural elements that give the label a premium feel.

While the popularity of brooding or unorthodox label art shows no signs of abating, there's a coincident movement toward splashy color and whimsical imagery—something that was more prevalent 20 years ago, but that for a time went out of fashion.

“我们有了咒语热潮和所有这些色彩缤纷的标签 - 整个黄色尾巴现象，”Schuemann说。“这褪色了一段时间，但现在我们看到一个回到更明亮的标签和注射颜色，即使对于更昂贵的葡萄酒而言。”vwin德赢ac米兰

Some wine labels meld several of these trends—combining blocks of bright color with counterculture artwork.

Poggio Anima，来自意大利酿酒师Riccardo Campinoti和vwin德赢ac米兰Importer Ronnie Sanders的新系列，拥有其所有业主术语“Pagan”图像。“标签图像由我长大的纹身艺术家完成，”桑德斯，总统藤街进口. While the reds in the series feature winged bears and other "fallen angels," the whites feature arch angels. "We liked the idea of good vs. evil, red vs. white," he says.

Small, independent producers—including many European and natural winemakers—have helped lead and popularize many of these design movements, from the use of art and photography to unconventional printing techniques. "A wine's brand and label has to communicate its makers' beliefs and values, and a sense of the experience a consumer will have," says Alex Chrisman, owner and creative director at阿尔塔，基于Sonoma的设计工作室。“用天然葡萄酒，你看到这种湿vwin德赢ac米兰墨水，还有很多非常原始，粗糙的元素。”

来自自然葡萄酒场景的另一个蓬勃发展的趋势是放弃瓶胶囊，这是传统上覆盖葡萄酒的软木塞的vwin德赢ac米兰坚硬箔顶。“10年前令人震惊，释放没有胶囊或箔的葡萄酒，但现在在小型生产者中常见 - 它使葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰看起来更加地下，”表格和功能的奥蒂斯说。

他说，趋势中有许多其他“微型类别”或趋势，镜像持续多样化和葡萄酒市场的分割。vwin德赢ac米兰但标签设计中的当前运动也是关于酿酒商试图传达他们所做的事情以及他们所做的事。vwin德赢ac米兰“首先，标签的工作是创造差异化 - 在货架上弹出 - 但它也必须反映品牌的故事，”他说。

“很多葡萄酒来自较小vwin德赢ac米兰的生产者，这些人对他们来说非常个人，”他补充道。“这是他们多年来一直在努力的人的梦想，标签需要尊重和沟通。”