Familiarity of this sort breeds an extreme sort of competence and
assurance that allows the IKD team to stay at the front of design in
this category worldwide. In fact, the company has earned numer-
ous Australian and international awards in its 30-year history for its
exemplary work.
“Some 60 percent of our business is in the wine industry—there
are so many brands out there that the competition is huge,” ex-
plains principal Ian Kidd. “It really is quite intellectually demanding
to come up with solutions for any specific brand. A design has to
say everything at the point of purchase and not look like someone
else’s brand. And it gets even worse on the international level when
we have to be considerate of what else is already out there. We
have to do more and more searches out front to generate solutions
that are genuinely new.”
The project described in this article emerged from a preexisting
relationship IKD had with two clients: U.S. wine importer Dan
Philips and Australian winemakers Sparky and Sarah Marquis,
partners in a new venture to create a brand of wine made ex-
pressly for import to the United States, where Australian wines
have proved themselves to be very popular.
The design firm had developed a number of brand identities and
packaging solutions for the Marquis team, so its designers al-
ready had a sense of what the client was all about: Husband and
wife Sparky and Sarah are exemplary winemakers who freelance
their services to a number of small companies, Kidd explains. The
newly formed, winemaker/bottling company, Marquis Philips,
wouldn’t have a budget for much advertising for the new brand,
so the designers knew they had to create packaging with plenty
of shelf appeal.
The design began by deciding on a name for the wine. The client
initially had entertained abstract names options, but the IKD
team eventually convinced the partners that the name Marquis
Philips had real cache: “It looked good and sounded good,” re-
calls Ian Kidd.
“If anything, it almost suggests European connections with the
word ‘marquis.’ In addition, we felt that by putting their own names
on the label, as a new brand starting from scratch, it was a good
way to communicate not only who they were but also that they
were willing to put their respected names behind the product.”
IKD Design Solutions Pty Ltd. of Adelaide, South Australia,
designs packaging for about
20 clients each year, including
recently,
Marquis Philips. At any one time, the office may have
30 to 50 wine projects in house, in various stages of development.
The success of the “roogle” brand led to two more en-
tries into the line: S2 (for the winemakers, Sarah and
Sparky Marquis), and 9 (the number of the vineyard).
The packaging of these higher-quality products focuses
more on the makers than the actual brand, although
the brand precense is still evident. The S2 and 9
marks are applied directly to the glass.
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The design problem was compounded by the fact that the label
had to communicate something about a wine no one in the Amer-
ican market had ever heard of. Of course, the design had to say
“Australia,” but not in clichéd terms.
Because this brand was a collaborative effort between an American
and Australian group, the design team looked for ways to visually
merge the cultures, The result was the “roogle,” a strange but
somehow convincing half-eagle, half-kangaroo melange.
Ian Kidd says that they felt strongly that the new creature had
to be illustrated so that it looked as if its likeness was pulled
directly from a plate in an 18th century zoological book or a set
of botanical prints. “People had to take it seriously at first
glance,” he says. “It could not be too humorous, or else the art
would suggest that this may be inferior. A label should never de-
value the product.”
Enhancing the notion of an art print is the way the roogle’s label
was ultimately applied to the bottle: alone and almost like a
framed print.
The art has a traditional feel, but the labels placed above the
roogle on the bottle are a mix of traditional and modern design el-
ements. The colors chosen for the upper labels of the various vari-
eties are elegant and contemporary. The typefaces specified for the
design are timeless—a design cue meant to suggest that this prod-
uct was marketed by an experienced winemaker—but at the center
of the labels is a very modern stroke: a simple line of perforation.
“The perforation is being retained for most labels in the Marquis
Philips portfolio. It makes the labels almost like stamps,” notes
Kidd, adding that, as the price point rises in the wine line, the
color in its label is softened, suggesting increased sophistication.
“Stamps, as subtle graphic devices, indicate a connection be-
tween countries.”
Kidd likes to take a more contemporary approach with wine, a
product whose design is usually dripping with historical nudges.
After all, designs that blindly cater to an antique sensibility run
the risk of being dull and not standing out on the shelves.
“There is still a feeling among some in the wine world that you
must use crests and leaves and other rubbish in a design. But
wine is as contemporary as tomorrow,” Kidd says. “You can think
of wine packaging like housing. We design homes now that are
far more intelligent and deal with our lifestyles better. We hang
on to certain elements of tradition in our wine designs, but we
focus on making a contemporary statement. I call it ‘contempo-
rary elegance’.”
With so many wine projects coming through the door, how does
Kidd and his team know when they have found the right solution?
A knowledgeable, experienced designer will have an instinctual
feel about it. Kidd says that properly evaluating the creative brief
will reveal the issues that must be addressed: All answers to the
problem are there.
To combine the notions of Australia
and the United States for the packag-
ing of a new wine brand that would
be imported from down under to the
States, designers at IKD Design in
South Australia happened on the con-
cept of combining two familiar national
icons: the kangaroo and the eagle.
The trick to creating a creature that
was both convincing and not overtly
humorous was to make the drawing
look as though it came out of a zoo-
logical studies book from the 18th
century. An animal that was silly in
any way would devalue the quality
of the wine.
Here the designers established the
stance they wanted for the creature,
but it was still not perfect.
Finally, they create the right mix of
light and dark tones, of whimsy
and science, and of posture and
scale. This drawing eventually
made its way onto the packaging.
This simplified illustration shows the
roogle label used in combination with
the newly designed Marquis Philips
label, which is a mix of traditional
and contemporary elements.
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“We don’t just design things that look good,” Kidd says. “If we
have the right answer, the design will look good in its own right.
You have to do the hard work to answer these questions, or you
will end up with something that is no better than wallpaper.”
A design that does not answer the questions presented by the
brief will not speak to the consumer, who, after all, knows nothing
about the brief. “But the consumer will know if the design feels
right, if it has the right depth and substance,” he adds.
“Think of the process like designing a house,” Kidd advises. “You
aren’t looking at the design you are going to make all by itself.
You have to think of how climate will address the house, how
many kids you may have, your lifestyle and personal interests. At
the end of the day, the promise expressed on the label must be
consistent with the imbibing experience, a bit like a beautiful
home must be a joy to live in.”
This spec sheet lists all details and
special production considerations for
the client and printer, such as the fact
that gloss black varnish was used to
simulate the seration on these labels,
rather than actually punching them.
The labels were applied to the bottles
at an angle because off-square was
more visually arresting, and because
it implied that the application was
done by hand, as a bond or tax
sticker might be applied.
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The complete packaging concept, with color coded labels to designate particular
varieties. Principal Ian Kidd says that this design is effective because it is able to
say everything on the store shelf: what the product is, where it is from, what its
personality is, as well as what sort of quality it provides. “The worst wine labels
around,” he says, “are on the biggest brands. They have boatloads to put into
advertising, so their bottles get no real assistance.”
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