The challenge: The Australian pinot noir market has almost doubled in size in the last few years. There’s plenty of choice for the customer, but it’s still mostly focused on the premium market. Pinnacle Drinks, partners with specialist wineries to make exceptional quality, taste & value wines, wanted to create packaging for their new pinot noir, a lighter, more ‘sessionable’ red wine that still offers a complex taste. It’s priced keenly to appeal to a broader market and to introduce more people to the wine varietal. It’s also suited to day-time drinking occasions – a growing trend in Australia and globally. Their brief to our team: they wanted a unique, innovative design that not only turned heads and lived up to the reputation of its fun, light-hearted name, but also to ensure that customers, deliberating on what to choose when in-store, chose this bottle over its pinot peers. For this wine to do well, it needed to provide a compelling, visually led call to action on the shelves. It had to be colourful and creative but still radiate a premium feel that elevates the quirky name.

The idea: The Because team used their inhouse talented illustrator to create a signature look and visual story. The brief was to create a design showstopper – something which helped to differentiate this bottle but also created a premium feel. We asked our designer to create hand-drawn, exclusive illustrations – we didn’t want to use any stock imagery. We worked closely with the client throughout this design process to make sure that they ended up with a custom product that nailed the brief both commercially and creatively.

The solution: We started with the market and competitor research that our client provided, and then did our own strategic analysis. Traditional wine packaging for the main uses muted colours, subtle graphics, and mainstream names – but there was evidence to show that bold colours and melodic names can help improve sales. Everything from the bottle top to the canvas of the label was investigated as potential real estate for the creative work. As the client wanted a bold design with plenty of rich colours and contrast, our design team started with two primary versions, one with dark tones and one with light tones. The client preferred the darker version with strong golden and blues on the primary black colourway, as they found the lighter version to be too feminine for the brand. They wanted a gender-neutral product; however, they didn’t want to discard the lighter version entirely.

The creative team experimented with a few more colours, backgrounds and new visual elements, and the final product was a combination of both versions. The illustration of the rhino from the lighter concept was combined with the rich hues of the darker version, and an intricate background of a painting was added – this was called the Portrait of the Wind from one of the designer’s personal collections.

The final product was a vivid, illustration-based product that included bright colours, some characterful, textured typefaces, and striking artwork that wrapped around the bottle and cap.

Making it extraordinary: On a limited budget, Pinnacle Drinks ended up with a spectacular bespoke bottle package, one that told a story in artwork, and which radiated a sophisticated feel. This contemporary look set it apart from its numerous pinot peers, and helped to drive positive awareness and talkability, and introduced it to new customers.

When you work with the right creative agency, designing customised, timeless packaging for your product which places it above your competitors can be done cost-effectively and quickly. We’ll help develop your brand into a top-shelf product with plenty to celebrate.

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