Dawn Hill Ranch Packaging

The private estate of Dawn Hill Ranch (DHR) produces small-batch olive oil and wine every year. Since it’s inception, I have been their sole designer for anything from logo design to wine and olive oil labels. Custom illustrations and graphics included. For full disclosure, I did accept boxes of wine and olive oil as a portion of my payment with utter delight.
Branding / Creative Direction / Design / Illustration / Print Production

Round 1: Brief to Comps

When DHR first asked me to design the wine labels for their inaugural vintage, they started with a wide range of disparate ideas, plus a certainty they would know what they liked when they saw it. The collection of ideas they gave included “Arpeggio + musical notes”; “Head Trained Zinfandel Vines”; “Graphic and bold color”; and “Black with gold writing”. Without any branding or prior designs to go off of, the first round was truly a wide-open field of options.

A visual play on “A to Z”, with the prominent A letterform that is only completed with a drawn sketch* of a Zinfandel vine. *FPO artwork by unknown artist

Inspired by the gradient colors of dawn, from the namesake vineyard. My alternative approach to a request for “Graphic Color”.

A play on the wine’s name, Arpeggio—a succession of notes in a chord. The final letter “o” acts as the final rising note on a bar of color.

Having fun with color, copy & type. A (literally) defining option for their first bottle.

The modern option with bold color and bold type on a crisp white ground.

Inspired by the actual vintage marquee letters hanging on the wall of their vineyard office. It began as a wine label option and ended as their new logo.

The vineyard is a family affair, including their beloved wire-haired dachshund who earned a spot as the winery mascot. This label was designed to honor him with a custom sketch to be done if chosen. *FPO artwork shown by Picasso

The traditional “safety” option designed based on the request for gold on black. The yellow lettering and details would have been printed with foil.

Round 2: Typography, Illustration & Graphics

I progressed three designed after their selection of R1 options 1 (old vine), 2 (dawn) and 6 (marquee). The first got it’s very own custom illustration (admittedly not my strength but was very pleased with the end result)—my signature initials tucked discreetly into the bottom right of the vine. The second received a fresh type hierarchy with a bold serif tracked tight. Additionally, I shifted the gradient for a more velvety color transition. The third and final option got its graphics polished up and tightened.

The Final Product

In the end, they loved each of these so much they couldn’t pick just one, so they decided to use all three! The old vine got two print treatments—black on white, and gold on black. Dawn was printed as-is. The Marquee became their vineyard logo.

The Olive Oil Label

In addition to wine, DHR produces its very own extra virgin olive oil. For this label, the client was very explicit about the retro infographic design they wanted, and the colors based off the deep reddish browns and greens of marinated olives. They gave me the notes about their olive oil production to play with and I went from there. Though the design was dictated carefully, I was still able to surprise them with the added detail of owner’s graceful signature printed at the bottom for a personal touch. I’d scanned it and cleaned it up from an actual note she’d once sent me.