wine labels and graphic design

On this identity project we took a grape berry as reference and worked with the company name initials – quinta das peixotas –, as it is the same character rotated and reflected.

Grape berry is suggested by closing the character’s body and redesigning it from the same type family’s -o-, as it is the main company name; we made an exception on the word -peixotas-, opening this -p- for easy reading.

This graphic solution also suggests a musical note, as a homage for the company founder.

Branding and labels’s main idea was to create a balance between 2 contrasts: a clear and modern language on the typeface logo – rational – and a manual /artisan, organic language on woodcut printings – human.

For label design, the designer got inspired with one of the most special features in Douro vineyards region: the terraces. These shale walls, when looked from above, draw a topographic design from the region; interacting in curved lines in harmony with the river turns.

The project started from the survey (in plan) of the terraces of Quinta das Peixotas that, in a reinterpretation, were sculpted in wood, creating woodcuts. Thus, in each wine, the label presents a distinct piece of engravings, revealing itself poetically as fingerprints of the place.

In order to create a system for labels to be used for several years, a color palette was developed based in Douro’s landscape colors throughout the year. A color scheme for cold and hot hues (white and red wines) was created, working with similar chroma and value levels.

Graphic design: Maria Fraga