Comments on: stormhoek label update

By: Andr

Andr — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:08:08 +0000

Last night I read Hugh McLeod

By: Andr

Andr — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:08:08 +0000

Last night I read Hugh McLeod

By: Andr

Andr — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:08:08 +0000

Last night I read Hugh McLeod

By: Andr

Andr — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:08:08 +0000

Last night I read Hugh McLeod

By: Andr

Andr — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:08:08 +0000

Last night I read Hugh McLeod

By: Andr

Andr — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:08:08 +0000

Last night I read Hugh McLeod

By: brian moffatt

brian moffatt — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:07:53 +0000

I guess a worm in the bottle wouldn’t do it?
I’m kinda fallin’ on the side of the argument here that wants to ignore the ‘freshness matters’ thang, in any direct way at least. Keep it on the back of the label.
Wine is sacrament or romance. Not dairy and beef, for chrissakes. What are you gonna do put it put it in a glass dairy bottle, with a peel away (collectable) lid? Collect all four and win a trip to South Africa? Hang a sampler of cheese from the neck? If the cheese is a little mouldy, contact sales clerk?
’Freshness matters’ is a thirty second message/argument to begin with. Leave it there. A conversation between merchant and producer.
You’ve got three seconds, to quote a sage.
Throw an abstract photo of a naked couple entwined on the label. Or a Viking with a big woody. Or have a screw cork/twist top with horns ‘fer easy openin’ on the high seas’/. When you’re in the moment. Or the boot in the mud from their blog. Some pride of place.
Restrategize. Send it back for revisions.
It’s too fucking earnest.
I buy red to feel like Jesus. With a little fish and a half hour of Jeopardy I’m on top of the world.

By: Shaded

Shaded — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 02:24:03 +0000

BTW I realized why so many people may not see “Enjoy the storm” as much as I do…
… I’m from Southern California, so rain is almost a relief when it comes.
Technically the area I live in is a desert, and put in perspective the rains are fairly gentle. No flooding no landslides or such near my home.
So I’m sure it was clear why my idea wasn’t the best for some reason I felt compelled to shoot down my own idea.
I would like to echo Garrett’s comments to you Hugh, good luck.
Regards,
Shaded

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 17:26:47 +0000

Thanks, Garret. Yeah, it’s around the $10 mark.

By: Garrett

Garrett — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 07:26:11 +0000

Hi Hugh
Irrespective of the relevant and educated response from people, there’s one thing that stands out, or rather, doesn’t. I can’t really see the freshness logo

By: Nigel

Nigel — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 03:12:54 +0000

Ignoring your concept of making it the central motif on the front I, like Tom, thought of having it up top. Perhaps on the neck label as they’re effectively redundant on so many other brands as they’re just a watered down logo.
Unfortunately that’s probably not the kind of ‘solution’ you want to hear.

By: ted

ted — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:06:06 +0000

hugh -
i missed out on the opening round of this bloggosphere design project (but read and thoroughly enjoyed the feedback you got) so let me start with what i might have said:
i’m living on a tight budget and rarely buy wines costing over $10, but i come from a wine-snobby background (my dad is that guy with the pda/cell-phone who looks up ratings every time he opens a restaurant’s wine list)…as such i actually know a little bit about wine, enough to know how to describe what kind of flavors i like, at least. so when i’m looking for a bottle, i want the label to give me a short, accurate description of how the wine tastes. and i don’t mean just some generic bullshit like “full-bodied with a hint of citrus.” i want specific fruits and other flavors, indications of spiciness or acidity — data that actually lets my imagination create a specific taste, and at the same time assures that the wine-maker has crafted a unique product and is competent enough to tell me about it. so for what it’s worth, there’s my conversation. it really annoys me that these descriptors are absent from a lot of wines, and almost always in tiny print on the back of the label when they are included, because to me, everything else about the label is secondary.
i agree with ben’s feeling that making ‘freshness matters’ the central label motif would bring in budweiser associations that would turn me off immediately. put it on the front label, and make it bigger, by all means — but don’t let it dominate the design.
what really surprised me about your response to bloggosphere label design round 1 was that you don’t seem to have latched onto some of the most interesting, and interactive, ideas that were put forward. my favorites were the one featuring pictures of actual satisfied stormhoek customers, and the label-as-letter-and-feedback-form (although the described snail-mail implementation seems almost self-defeatingly archaic) [these suggestions were posted by JJeffryes and Lauren Kozak, respectively]. i would love to see a merging of these ideas: each label features a different customer’s own photo of themself enjoying a bottle of stormhoek, their own concise (one sentence) description of why the wine appealed to them (taste-wise i mean) — both submitted through a Stormhoek webpage — and an exhortation from Stormhoek to the potential buyer to visit a webpage where they can a) read more customers’ opinions; and b) after they’ve tried the wine, submit their own photos/opinions for use on future labels. this allows the label to initiate a conversation not just between the vintner and the buyer, but between previous customers and the buyer, and makes it easy for the buyer to talk back.
and speaking of webpages — i understand that stormhoek has decided to tie itself inextricably to the blog thing, but it’s simply infuriating that there’s no specific information on any of the wines themselves at stormhoek.com. am i missing something, or is that page *just* a blog — and if so, why the hell doesn’t it at least link to some external site where you can easily find out more about the actual product? it doesn’t even tell you what varieties they make! definitely not holding up its end of the conversation.

By: Shaded

Shaded — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 08:22:26 +0000

How about a temperature sensitive portion on the label and include that in the freshness indicator. The label would change color if high or low temperature thresholds are exceeded. I'm sure Stormhoek is familiar with vendors offering guaranteed sale of stock. Therefore stores should not be worried about product going bad if the distributor is taking the bulk of the risk. http://www.rhvactools.com/weekly/serviceaid.htm the above is not a food product example but these labels can be changed a number of ways chemically to fit an appropriate threshold. .... damn, someone beat me to the idea: http://italianwinelabels.com/articles/04/ink.html I still liked what you said before. Something disruptive. Somethign to talk about. Something that is not about the wine. How about a label with a lightning bolt on it? http://images.google.com/images?q=lightning Or something else stormy: http://images.google.com/images?q=storm+cloud "Enjoy the storm." If you are shooting for the untapped customers who don't understand and don't usually drink wine... (mainly me) you have to be looking for someone who walks down the isle looking for down to earth product that will offer an altered state with a sense of class. Someone who is looking to broaden their horizons, instead of buy another pack of Becks. I have about as much hope of becoming a hoidee toidee wine selector, with this fancy word or that, as I do desire. (which is to say, none at all) However, I love a good thunder storm when it does not overstay its welcome. And I like Stormhoek because it sounds like the wine vikings used to drink before wadeing into the fray. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clangor+of+sword+and+axe%22

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 02:50:22 +0000

Hi Hugh
I would put the indicator at the top of the bottle. That way, it is visible at almost every angle. If the window of freshness is a few months, you might even do a seasonal theme (e.g., people in the suburbs tend to hang seasonally appropriate decorative flags out every few months).
The challenge with the freshness indicator is that it might limit the shelf life of the bottle. However, since Stormhoek is not on the shelf of my favorite liquor store, this is not too much of an issue yet.
I had another unrelated thought. I tend to drink $10 wine and give $20–25 wine as gifts. For the $10, the screw top is much more convenient. I would want a cork in any bottle I would give. Not sure where your client’s price lands.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:33:22 +0000

Freshness and quality wine just don't go together in the minds of most $10/bottle-wine drinkers. We are all taught that wine must be properly aged, and that old wine is better wine (whether or not it's true). I think saying a wine is fresh is the same as screaming "Cheap Wine!" If it were my label, I'd say "Properly Aged" or "Time to Drink" or "Blow the dust off this baby and enjoy." Orson Welles infamously shilled: "I sell no wine before its time." Yes, it's played, but it's a better message.