Janoschka magazine Linked_V8_2023

20 i n s i g h t s
issue #8 ©
l i n k e d
21
MESSAGE
ON A BOTTLE
THE FINE
ART
OF KEEPING
THINGS BRIEF
Wine labels are small, but they do an important job. They need to be eye-catching
and they need to communicate quality, identity and an entire lifestyle – all in a highly competitive
market. Either the wine is displayed in a limited area or else consumers find themselves
facing endless aisles stacked with identically shaped bottles. Here, too, as at any point of sale,
the purchase decision is made in seconds. So if a bottle of wine is to grab the customer’s attention,
the label designer needs to come up with something unusual.
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
That’s fair enough when it’s books you’re looking
at. But when it comes to wine, the bottle label
is pretty much the be all and end all. You have a
space measuring just ten by fifteen centimetres
to tell a convincing story. Each element needs to
strike a chord. But how? With a name that resonates?
With coats of arms and seals? With amusing
drawings, colourful graphics?
Should there be simply a gold-embossed line
representing the horizon at the respective vineyard
location? Or is real art required? There are
many possibilities. And yet the impression that
customers get when surveying the wine shelves
is that they’ve seen it all before. Or have they?
You might think so until you see people kneeling
in front of the shelf holding their smartphone up
to wine bottles and listening.