Here you can see the three parts of the videos I have recorded based on the presentation I created about wine branding.
You can download the presentation here to be able to access the links that I mention in the videos:
Presentations: How To Brand A Wine Business
Visual Wine Branding
Welcome to my little presentation about how to style a wine business, whether as a wine producer, it can also be if you’re a wine retailer, or running a wine bar.
But mostly, I will be talking about the design and the branding of wine labels and wine bars – so that you can attract the right target audience. However, you will also find ideas for other kinds of businesses within the wine industry.
Visual wine branding, video 1
Visual Wine Branding Video Part 1 Transcript:
Welcome to my little presentation about how to style a wine business, whether as a wine producer; it can also be if you’re a wine retailer, or running a wine bar.
But we will mainly discuss wine labels and lines’ design and branding. But you can also find ideas for other kinds of wine businesses.
So the plan for today is as follows:
- What are your goals with your wine business?
- What are you offering, why, and to whom?
Think about it before you start branding anything or hire anyone to design anything for you. So what message do you aim to reflect with your wine brand? Which colors and visuals forward that message most efficiently to your target audience?
First of all, you have to find clarity
Find your own golden keywords that describe your project best. You will hear a little bit more about that. And get help from my blog post, “Find your brand clarity.” This post is about how to find clarity and brand message analysis.
Also, map your ideal customer: who you are targeting and what kind of tone and visuals should be used in your marketing, branding, and label design. What is the message you want to forward? Choose your brand’s keywords. I have listed them here. Here you can read more about the four brand personalities I will also describe in this presentation. So pull your message together, then you will be ready to put the keywords on the paper or the computer screen and move further with your wine brand.
So why are we doing all this? The visual branding and color psychology we are talking about here will help you to reflect your message. It will help to elate the character of your brand and forward emotions. It will be easier to communicate what kind of wines you are producing.
What is it you want to let people see and know through the branding of the wine labels when they see your bottles of wine on the shelves of a wine store?
Why should they choose your wines? Connect with your customers, and become more self-secure. When creating marketing materials, banners, videos, headers, or whatever, you can be more self-secure as you know what to put there. You know what colors to use, what fonts to choose, and what kind of photos to use. Become more creative, and look professional!
Now we’re going to talk a little about color theory, which is the crucial part of our presentation here.
You have to learn to understand the theory of colors. It will take less than 10 minutes and completely change how you have seen different branding solutions until now.
So from now on, you will analyze all the other wines, logos, and designs with different eyes. By the end of this presentation, you should have a good idea about the colors and visuals you should use for your wine business and brand identity.
Here is one video on YouTube: The Value Of Colors. I would like you to watch it, and you will learn about the value of the colors, pure hues, tints, tones, and shades that will make the difference.
It’s not even that much about what color you are using. Is it red? Is it blue? Is it green? Is it purple? It is much more about the value of the color. You can use tinted or toned colors but never mix them in one palette in one branding. You will learn way more about it during this presentation.
Color theory group 1 – tints
Let’s dive into four personalities of colors in business. Four personalities and four different types of color palettes. We’ll start with group one.
As you can see a little mood board here, we are diving into really bright and clear colors.
We will discuss businesses whose main keywords might be playful, happy, open, welcoming, inspiring, and eye-catching. I entered here six different keywords. You can also choose five to seven keywords and highlight the three most important ones.
So here is playful, happy, and inspiring. These keywords were meant for one different kind of business, but they show well what Personality 1 youthful, lively company should be or could be about.
If you choose to use Group 1, then with the colors I will show you, you will express an optimistic, lively, and moving brand. People who see the labels and marketing will see your wine brand as a positive, youthful, welcoming, informal, enthusiastic, and fun business.
In the wine business, there are not so many wines that are branded as Group One, only a few. I will show you some.
Group 1 colors and visuals are suitable for attracting a vast target group in the wine business, from young adults to older people, women, and men. In other suitable businesses, it would also be children. Many products directed to children are branded in Group 1 style. Many ice creams, sweets, toy brands, telecommunication companies, and so on -businesses with an extensive group of people as their target audience.
In the wine business, it would be mostly young adults, and as a rule, the price level of the products in Group 1 tends to be average unless you have decided to match it with Group 4 personality. Group 4 is luxury branding style, and we’ll discuss it later.
If you decide that your brand keywords are funny, probably youthful, and so on, then your color theory would be hues with plenty of white. That would be pure colors with lots of white, so they become these bright, bubbly, lively colors. The undertone would be warm. Even blue and other cold colors look pretty warm in this palette.
The color palette is clear, warm, and light, and this personality has no dark colors. Here are a few brand boards I found on the internet that can be used as an example of this personality. I wouldn’t use any of these for professional branding, but they give you an idea of what we’re talking about.
Keywords
So I have more keywords here for this personality, so if you have already written down the keywords that describe your brand and you can see that most of them match these words here, then this personality is for you. Here I have a few examples of personality one wines.
So designs can be vibrant and sparkly, bright, asymmetric, and jumpy. Asymmetric, let’s say here you can see in many places the bubbles are there. The illustrations are not symmetric; if they are, some things interrupt the too-static look.
Also, the shapes are round. Open and friendly, welcoming and youthful illustrations. They’re not very detailed. The forms are round, with bright color palettes, fonts are rounded and sometimes childish.
So in these particular examples, the fonts are we can see: the wine brand Hugo Grüner there is roundish. Yes, maybe on the upper Riff. That is also a bit roundish, and the other fonts are pretty simple. So don’t use serifs here; use sans serifs.
Here is one wine branding example from Georgia. The bottle could be better, and the cap, because they are instead from Personality 3, would be earthy and down to earth, but the label is Personality 1. You can see the childish, playful illustrations and very playful font; the colors are bright and light.
Here we have a Sangria. The bottle is round, and the cap and the label are bright pink. The illustration is playful and not static.
And here is one wine form from California. You can see the illustration is very playful. You can see people having fun on it, and the colors are bright. And the cap also plays together with the whole design. So this is a rather youthful, playful design. Of course, let’s say this one comes from a brand with all its wines following the same line.
But sometimes, like this, the brand, or the wine producer, can be from a different personality. This brand or this producer is from personality three, but they can have some products targeting another group of people. Let’s say youth or younger people, so then they can make some products that talk to them much better than their traditional label designs.
Here we talk about the brand Personality 1 photography. Photography should also be happy and bubbly and usually clear and sharp. Avoid haziness and fogginess. Dynamic and have movement in them.
Here you can see some wine poured into the glass; it’s in movement. Often you can see in these photographs people who are shaking their heads or jumping or who are moving and laughing, so you don’t see static things standing or placed on the table or whatever. Props can be made of artificial materials, and they’re colorful. Here you can use plastic, colored plastic, or whatever metal, bright colors, and so on. It is very suitable for this personality. In comparison, it’s not playing well in any of the other personalities. The photos are informal and inviting.
Here I just wanted to add some illustrations. The pictures are drawn with a very open hand and little attention to detail. And also, the fruits and berries and the other tiny graphics are thrown on the canvas, so they are dynamic.
I have added a little mood board that shows why Personality 1 is connected to Spring. Because the Spring is the time when nature and everything are kinds of waking up again. Many leaves on the trees are bright green, and then the birds and the animals are born. And there is lots of funny, happy noise in their nature at that time of the year. The air is so fresh, and this youth and playfulness are all over the place.
We have made it to Group 2 and will continue in the following video.
How to brand a wine business, video 2
Transcript:
Now we are in part two of wine branding and brand styling videos. And we are looking at Group number two. But here, you can see a mood board from Saffron Avenue. You see keywords like feminine, elegant, soft, maybe calm, or understated. The brand’s main keywords also could be calm, understated, quality, fine, feminine and elegant.
Elegant wine branding, Group 2
Usually, when you use the colors best for Group 2 branding, you will express feelings like calm and feminine, elegant and relaxed, but also high quality and romantic. But not only colors, but you have to match these colors with the right kind of fonts, the right kind of illustrations, and the right kind of photo style. We will be looking at them as well.
So in the wine business, the nature of Group 2 company and its product and the visuals used to leave an impression of elegance and lightness, to speak very well, especially to women.
The color theory – tones
Here we use tones. Tones you get with a hint of gray in pure colors. So take your color, add black and white, or ready mixed gray. When it comes to the darkness or the gray, it decides the darkness and the end result, so here it’s no problem to use darker colors, but they still have to be the tones. You don’t add only black or only white to pure color. It has to be both black and white or gray.
The colors in this palette are cool. They have a high percentage of gray and no primary colors here. The keyword is muteness. If you compare tints and tones, you can see that in the tint color palette, you can see the liveliness and brightness. While if you put the tones’ color palette beside the tints, you can see that the tones are calm and understated. There you can see the difference. Look at each color separately.
Here I have an example of a brand board of Personality 2. These are from Creative Market, where they sell all kinds of digital design products. This brand board template is from Creative Market by Pretty Bloom Designs. I chose this one because this person uses tones in this example. The color palette and also logos here are exquisite.
This B there is a serif, and it looks flowing and lovely. Also, Montserrat and Playfair both of these fonts are perfect for branding Group 2 products. And these pictures also show the elegance and gentleness we want to express. Here we have more keywords, so you can see many of them when you write down your brand keywords. That means that brand Personality 2 colors and visuals are the best ones for you.
We connect Personality 2 with summer because, after Spring, the summer comes, and all the noise and bright colors in nature are muted. The summer evening in nature is hazy, and it’s much quieter. The trees are not any more lime green; they are way more muted, with green tones. The flowers even are much more muted. So yes, the summer is the land of the tones.
Here we have some examples of Group 2 wines or wine label designs. And you can see all of them have very finely detailed illustrations and some flowing. All three of them are flying. That’s a funny coincidence, but you can see that attention to detail in them all. All these labels look relaxed and work together with the bottles and the colors of the caps. You don’t see any actual black color here, so don’t use coal black in Group 2 or any group besides 4.
If you want to use a dark color, then use dark gray, brown, dark green, and dark purple, but not black.
Here we see one Georgian wine, a very fine-lined illustration, and some handwriting in cursive. Also, we see the fonts in both of those scripts; they are elegant serifs and colors. They are muted red, rustic hues, and the label has beautiful fine strokes around the edges, which makes the whole thing more sophisticated and elegant.
Here we have a simple and elegant and kind of minimalistic design again. The logo looks royal here and is also very finely made, emphasizing the sleek feel of the design. The material also seems high-quality, more sophisticated than simple plain paper. Here we have a very flowy bottle design, and the label has very much flow. We can start from the illustrations to the calligraphy and the rest of the fonts. The letters have extra space between them, giving some extra elegance and a feeling of luxury.
Group 2 personality branding usually works at a higher price level or makes people willing to pay more. Group 2 and Group 4, especially four, and Group 2 express high quality and higher prices.
Here we have photography. Photography, also in social media and websites and all over the marketing, should be elegant and thought through, somewhat hazy. Often use deep depth of focus, so some part of the photo is very sharp, and the rest is not. Props should be of high quality and refined. So if you use food or cutlery as a background, they should be high quality. Photos are relaxed, calm, and somewhat static, with no movement.
Group 3 Wine Branding
Now we have made it to group three, and we continue here. You can see from the mood board we have lots of nature here, and the overall feeling is way more rustic than in Group 2. And I also chose the font of Group 3 here, something called slab serif. Slab serif means that the letters’ ears and feet are squared. That kind of script is fine fitting with Group 3. There is some heaviness in them, and it fits well.
So your brand’s main keywords may be warm, friendly, ambitious, family feeling, and authentic. Group 3 branding is earthy, organic, and natural. This kind of branding fits well with products and businesses that want to emphasize community, family friendliness, history, organic products, Fairtrade products, chocolate, coffee, wine, and beer. It expresses passion and an ambitious, authentic mindset.
The wine branding of Group 3 personality is like autumn, so the tones of the visuals are intense like we see in autumn nature, and the color range from intense purple to deep brown.
The color theory – shades
We get shade by adding black to pure colors, never white or gray. But black, more or less. The more you add, the darker the result is, so the colors become warm.
The group palette. Group 3 palette is again warm, but this time it is intense and rich. Compared to the tints in Group 1 palette, where the palette is also warm but bubbly and light. In contrast, Group 3 palette is more kind of heavy. And no primary colors here.
I have cut off the edges of the color swatches here because, in the design of Group 3 visuals, it’s working well to have rounded corners; it gives the design a little bit more down-to-earth, friendly feeling. So I should have done that to this picture as well. The font that I’m using throughout this presentation is called Georgia. It’s also much Group 3 font because it is also heavier, traditional, and simple.
Here I have some mood boards from different businesses. Number one and three are more authentic. Number two is slightly different; here, you can see a mix of personalities 3 and 2. But it works well as well. But you can see lots of nature and earthiness in it.
We have more keywords: environmentally friendly, spiritual, growth-focused, historical, intense, warm, strong, and productive. You can see hard-working, traditional companies can use this kind of branding.
As I said, we connect this branding with autumn, so you see intense colors in autumn nature. And yeah, the smell of the earth, it’s all autumn-ish.
Here we have a few examples of the autumn or Group 3 designs. In the first one, you can see retro-style doing. In the upper image, you can see handwriting in big letters; in the third one, the illustration and the logo are very Group 3. Earthy, friendly, subtle, handmade feel.
You can use retro or nostalgic style, somewhat masculine. You can brand this product both for men and women, but the branding feels a bit masculine though. Simple, natural, down-to-earth, rather bulky, abundant illustrations are rough and simple, subtle and profound color palettes- shades. Fonts are a bit heavy, and you can use marker imitation or handwriting, but handwriting should also be a little bit on the heavy side.
So we have examples here. Three Woolly Sheep – it’s a very, very simple label. But the images you see are not very detailed; they are quite rough. And the font of Three Woolly Sheep is also a bit heavier and simple.
Here we have a bottle that is very much Group 3 bottle. It has these details and a hint of retro in it. Also, the label has rounded corners and a retro feel about it.
Here we have vibrant and deep colors, the perfect autumn or Group 3 palette. The illustration and the fonts are very fitting to this personality.
Again, super retro kind of our down-to-earth fonts, logo, illustration, cap, bottle shape, everything. This is a perfect example of Group 3 design.
Group 3 photography
It should be down-to-earth, warm, and abundant, including fruits, food, nature, natural backgrounds, and props. Avoid too delicate glasses and other details that are too luxurious, but also plastic and all kinds of stuff that are not natural, made of natural materials. You can include happy, friendly people, pets, and animals to express a welcoming feeling. Everything from nature is suitable.
How to brand a wine business, video 3 – luxury wines
Transcript:
Welcome back to our videos, part three of the wine branding presentation.
Now we go on with a description of Group 4 wine branding.
As you can see from the mood board here, we will talk about a rather dramatic personality.
Here we have nothing mediocre, nothing average. It’s either-or. It’s either very dramatic or completely minimal. Let’s look at it closer now. What kind of keywords could one brand with personality 4 use? That would be luxurious, high-end, cutting-edge, visionary, and grounded.
If you use the Group 4 personality and color palettes and the visuals used in Group 4, your products and branding look outstanding, exclusive, and self-confident.
In the wine business, high-end priced wines with a hint of luxury or straight-out exclusive wines. But also wine bars or shops can use the same personality. Refrain from mixing up with expensive wines that have been priced according to the maturity of the wine so we can easily find highly-priced wines that have been branded as personality 3 wines or even personality 2 wines. So keep in mind that fact.
The branding here is straightforward and specific, even in tonalities of color. The colors are cool and clear, and clean. Marketing is self-confident, bold, and either super minimalist or overflowing and dramatic colors. They are pure, clear, and crisp colors in this color palette. This palette consists of mainly very clear basic colors, and the overall impression is cool. Pastels are not found here. Group 4 is the only branding personality that includes black, polar white, and neon colors.
Here are a few mood boards or brand boards
You can find the one on the right on Creative Market again: A brand board template from Creative Market by William Hansen.
We have more keywords here, so if your keywords match most of them, then your business should be branded with the colors and visuals that fit personality number four.
Here are some designs. Designs can be minimalist or maximalist, but nothing in between. Delicate and strong, you can use gold or silver, both feminine and masculine works, and forms are sharp and dramatic. You can use sharp forms. Sharpness is something that you should avoid in personality 1 and also in number 3. Illustrations are well thought through, with clear color palettes. Fonts are either super minimalistic or over the edge, and overflowing calligraphy works very well.
Here we have an excellent example. That design is minimalist but impressive. Black, silver, and red are combined. Of course, a coat of arms fits the Group 4 personality and luxury. The name of the wine also makes a statement. Definitely not something average. And the signature appears a little bit edgy. The whole combination leaves an impression of luxury.
Here we also have a pretty minimalistic design. So the choice of fonts and colors leaves us feeling luxurious.
And here we have a little over-the-edge design and gold and calligraphy. And it leaves a stunning impression of an expensive product.
Photography here is usually clear and sharp. Use high-end props like fine gourmet and fine cutlery. Or actually, the photos can also be super, super, super foggy. So it’s either-or, and one business usually only uses one style. Also, choose either-or your photos are super minimalistic and simple or overflowing and superabundant.
Group 4 winter. Winter is a very dramatic season, especially in the northern part of the globe. The weather is pretty extreme, and the landscape is quite dramatic. But I have also added pictures of technology. And the big city hurry-hurry, stressful life is a little edgy, too.
Examples
Now we are done with our personalities. But I have a few examples to show too. So here we have the branding of Pure Drops, which produces wine and olive oil. So here we are, looking at personality number three. The packaging and the labeling are very down to earth, reflecting nature.
And the colors as well are pretty deep. But at the same time, many colors are used. So it’s more than just very basic colors. We can see here some paper wrapping. And, of course, again, the illustrations make a statement. We can see lots of autumn here. There is also a little screenshot from the website.
The website has header images that are deep as well. Here too, where they talk about olive oil.
This brand is mainly personality three, down to earth, but also combined with personality two, giving a bit more of that fineness and giving a bit more of that expensive feeling to it.
Now you should pause, take a new piece of paper, and describe your project, business, or brand.
- And who are your wines for? What kind of people make your target audience? Who are your ideal customers?
- What should your brand or project look like?
- What kind of impression should it leave?
- Choose five to seven keywords that describe your wine business best, and then choose the three strongest ones.
And now again, think about which group your business belongs to.
Combining different personalities
Here I talk more about how to, or if you are supposed to combine different personalities. You definitely can do that. But only up to two personalities in one design.
The whole palette should belong to one personality when creating your color palette. But you could add, let’s say, the fonts from another personality or the photographic style, so it is combinable.
But be careful to use a maximum of two different personalities in one design, especially when it comes to wine. It’s most often done with Groups 2 and 4, creating an elegant, feminine, and luxurious feeling. But you can see a lot of 3 and 4 combined as well.
So here is one example of 3 and 4. Luxurious minimalism is presented in a down-to-earth setting.
Websites and social media examples for wine bars
Website is something that you really, really should have. Even if you don’t run a wine bar, maybe you are a wine producer or a retailer of wine. But you have to have a website.
So put only some of the trust in social media. Because the social media platforms, you cannot control yourself. You cannot brand it yourself. And it can’t just disappear one day. Is it for six hours or 24 hours, or is it disappearing forever? You don’t know; you don’t have any control over it.
Buy your own domain and housing and let the designer design your website. So you always have one place where people can go, and having your own website is way more professional than having only social media. Social media is an excellent thing to have, but it supports your website, not the opposite.
- Here we have one wine bar in Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s an Italian-style place. I love the website. It is so abundant and so inviting. It’s Group 3; check it out yourself – I have added the link to this website and get some inspiration. And here is their social media. You can see here the feeling of community. There are people, and there are wines, and there’s food. And the images are very cozy and inviting.
2. Here is another wine bar located in Tallinn, Estonia. They are a combination of three and four. So they are trying to show a luxurious look. At the same time, the feel of their social media is more inviting number three. When we talk about the logo here, that’s number four. So here are the social media.
3. Example number three is from Spain. Here we are talking about a high-end rooftop bar with a great selection of wines. Here are the photos on the website. You can also see the logo, fonts, and setup. It’s minimalistic and very-very delicate. They’re using this beautiful blue that is also very number four, together with crystal clear images. And their social media is also personality four, meaning that the photos are well done and well thought through.
And so again, having a website is crucial, allowing you to show your business at its best. And everything is concentrated in one place here.
I have given out an ebook about the same thing I was talking about. But it goes deeper into what kind of fonts you should combine. In which personality? What type of photo style should you use, what kind of patterns, are these illustrations and colors should be put together, and why should you do that? And I talk about how to make a mood board, brand board, and different things. Check it out.
You can find the link here: Colors For Creative Businesses.
