With its traditional-experimental spirit, Kontyos Fruit Winery in Hungary is operating with a traditional and reductive process, whereby fruit wine specialties are produced from first-class Hungarian seasonal fruits. Nine different kinds of fruit wine are produced here, in four types (sweet, dry, rosé, barrique).
Graphasel Design Studio’s assignment was concerned with brand building and packaging design. The aim of the identity change was to introduce the brand, which had previously appeared at festivals, to the retail market. This also required a new packaging, as the client felt that their role in the market was not reflected by their previous identity. On the packaging, we had to translate the respect for tradition, innovative technology and craftsmanship diligence characteristic of the brand into a unique design language.
The labels of the basic fruit wines
During planning, the biggest challenge was to position the fruit wine product category, as it was almost completely unknown in the Hungarian market. We wanted to move away from the visual world of grape wines to make the new product category recognizable.
The labels of the basic fruit wines feature the fruits in the graphic style of classic plant identification books. Since the natural colour of Kontyos wines covers the entire warm colour spectrum, we chose blue, the complementary colour, as the base colour, which looks elegant and allows the colours of the fruits to prevail. We played a little with the colour, which sometimes has a metallic shine in a very thin fashion; sometimes it’s lighter, cyan blue, and sometimes has a dark, matte surface.
The labels of the premium wines
The pricing of the products was quite variable due to the extreme price range of the fruits, so we suggested lifting the more expensive wines into a more exclusive bottle with a separate product name. This is how Klára, the “Goddess of orchards”, was born, a premium fruit wine category with a distinct visual identity. She symbolises the winemakers’ passion for fruits and winemaking, their respect for women and their love for the hometown of the winery, Klárafalva (“Kláratown” in Hungarian).