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和其他高端纳帕生产商。他说，即使在10年前，像Lail这样的重量级人物可能不会考虑并未播放其真正的贴合标签。但是时代的变化，酿酒师正在适应具有新品味的新亚搏电竞一代消费者和活跃的Instagram帐户。

他说：“葡亚搏电竞萄酒市场现在是一个千禧一代的市场，并且已经迈向了更现代的运动，也是您与美国葡萄酒相关联的前卫视觉提示，而不是与欧洲葡萄酒相关的。”

在混合媒体设计中，摄影的使用以及自己，颜色或黑白的使用都在葡萄酒标签上越来越受欢迎。亚搏电竞非正统甚至令人不安的图像也是如此。

It's impossible to talk about trends in wine labels without mentioning囚犯这是过去20年中最商业成功和美学上非常规葡萄酒之一。亚搏电竞酿酒师戴夫·芬尼（Dave Phin亚搏电竞ney）的创意，囚犯的标签上有一个o养的人，其中一个被连锁的人。

“我认为有一种不成文的规则，即[制片人]的名字必须放在标签上，您永远不会使用任何有争议的图像，”杰里米·奥蒂斯（Jeremy Otis）说力与形式, 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."

奥蒂斯（Otis）指出，除了囚犯的挑衅性标签艺术外，几乎所有葡萄酒的信息都已降级到后标签。亚搏电竞他说：“这建立了神秘感，让人们拿起葡萄酒并将其滚动以了解更多信息。”亚搏电竞

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.

舒曼说：“我们有小动物的热潮和所有这些五颜六色的标签 - 整个黄色的尾巴现象。”“这已经消失了一段时间，但是现在我们看到了朝着更明亮的标签和颜色注射，即使是更昂贵的葡萄酒。”亚搏电竞

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

Poggio Anima这是意大利酿酒师Riccardo Campinoti和进亚搏电竞口商Ronnie Sanders的新系列，其所有人术语“ Pagan”图像。“标签图像是由我长大的纹身艺术家完成的，”桑德斯总裁桑德斯说葡萄街进口. 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，基于索诺玛的设计工作室。“有了天然的葡萄酒，您会看到亚搏电竞这种湿墨的外观，还有很多非常原始的粗糙元素。”

自然风景场景的另一个新兴趋势是放弃瓶胶囊，这是传统上覆盖葡萄酒软木塞的僵硬的箔纸。亚搏电竞Form＆Fight的Otis说：“十年前，释放没有胶囊或箔纸的葡萄酒令人震惊，但现在亚搏电竞在小型生产商中很常见，它使葡萄酒看起来更加地下。”

他说，还有许多其他“微类别”或趋势中的趋势，这些趋势反映了葡萄酒市场的持续多元化和细分。亚搏电竞但是，标签设计中的当前动作也是关于酿酒师试图传达他们的工作和全部内容。亚搏电竞他说：“首先，唱片公司的工作是创建差异化（弹出架子），但这也必须反映出该品牌的故事。”

他补充说：“很多葡萄亚搏电竞酒来自较小的生产商，这些葡萄酒对他们来说是非常个性化的。”“这是他们多年来一直在努力的人的梦想，标签需要尊重和交流。”