MAKING YOUR CUSTOM WINE LABEL DESIGN
WITH PETER SHRAGG
“Most professional operation I have worked with. The very best”
Katie Jones
Welcome to Kings Hill Cellars. Along with crushing, pressing, tasting & bottling your wine, you’ll also be designing your own wine label (Front & Back). For some the prospect can seem a bit daunting, but never fear-- I am here to help!
My name is Peter Shragg, I am a graphic designer/art director, illustrator, photographer, painter, and basically a creative jack of all trades. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from California College of the Arts I have spent many years working freelance, developing into a one-man design studio. I've worked on design projects and with clients of all types and have a solid background both working in the wine industry and working with individuals to help them fulfill their vision. If you desire, we can work together to design a customized wine label that you are proud to show off to your friends, family and colleagues.
Keep in mind that this is your label & because this wine is your own and not for sale, you are unfettered by any rules and regulations as to what you can or can’t put on your label. So let's have fun with it!!
PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR ANY OTHER DESIGN OR CREATIVE PROJECTS YOU HAVE. I AM ALWAYS READY FOR NEW PROJECTS AND AWESOME CLIENTS!
NOW UNTIL END OF APRIL - Work on coming up with your name, theme, concepts, style, design ideas & gather examples of labels you like the look of, photos or pictures you’d like to use. Please email me (PETER@TREEBIRDCREATIVE.COM) with questions, send scans of photos or drawings you like, inspired ideas etc. Rather than re-inventing the wheel all over again and again, I strongly encourage you to look around and find something that we can base the look of your wine label on. It might be an existing label, a photo, book cover, film or theater or old travel poster, a page from a design book, a fruit crate or old luggage label, a painting or drawing... A google image search usually leads to ideas.
APRIL - By barrel tasting you should have a very good idea of what your label is going to be and we should have communicated via email by this point and have your label underway or ideally finished -- The more developed the better! I will meet with everyone individually remotely & go over your design, talk about ideas, etc. Send me whatever you have in the way of label examples, text, sketches, photos, etc -- please scan photos in a high resolution. Even if you can’t attend the barrel tasting, you still need to communicate with me about your label asap. NOTE: Due to the current state of affairs, you will be contacted by either Timothy or Lindsay to set up you own private barrel tasting to avoid the usual larger gathering.
FROM THE BARREL TASTING THROUGH MAY, if you need help, we will work together to get your label finalized. Even if you are designing it on your own or have someone doing it for you, we need to make sure it’s in a format the printer can use.
MAY 30 - FINAL DEADLINE - All labels must be finalized with all artwork, text, etc. to me and in a format the printer can use. Labels not received by this date will be charged a late fee and may not be able to be printed with the others and applied in the bottling truck. If you miss this deadline, you will most likely need get your labels printed & hand-apply them at yourself.
JUNE 13 - Printer proofs will be emailed for final okay-- this is the time to check for misspellings, dropped text, etc,-- not to make major changes. If we don’t hear back by June 30th we will do our best to check the proof and then sign off on it.
OPTION 1: You can make your labels yourself or have someone make them for you.
Download one of the templates for either Illustrator (.ai file) or Photoshop (.psd file) here:
LABEL SPECS:
• 3” wide by 4 1/4” tall plus a 1/16” bleed on all sides.
• Keep all important elements 1/16” in from the edges.
• CMYK color (not RGB)
• 300 dpi (final size with bleed should be 938 x 1313 pixels)
If you're making your own labels in a program other than Illustrator or Photoshop, please let me know so I can see if it's possible to translate it into one of these formats, as this is what the printer needs.
If you have just a front label design, we can easily make a standard back label to match your color scheme, fonts, etc. generally at no charge. Below are some examples of member-supplied front labels and the back label made to match with or without supplied text as well as labels that were designed:
OPTION 2: Using your photo or artwork and text, we will plug them into the following general format:
A photo, cropped or full-bleed, with text -- name, varietal, year, appellation, perhaps a name for your personal winery (i.e. "Bartice Estates" on the Cab ABOVE).
Or a piece of art can be used. Feel free to use art you like -- famous paintings or anything you may find lying around...
BACK LABEL:
The basic back label is information such as the name, vineyard, appellation, year, "Produced & bottled by you @ Kings Hill Cellars", the alc % and "This wine is not for sale." You can pen a lyrical ode to your vino or just stick to the facts. Or do something completely different -- it's up to you.
EXTRA CHARGES APPLY FOR PHOTO RETOUCHING:
$100 & UP (Depending on complexity, etc.)
Old photos can be retouched to remove creases, tears, etc. or unwanted elements such as the folding chairs and picnic tables below.
INSPIRATION:
Here are some links to various collections of wine labels on the web... steal some ideas or just get inspired... or go to your local wine shop & find a label you like the look of and send me a picture of it & we can use that as a jumping-off point...
Peter F. May's Unusual Wine Label Collection
Vinetiquettes Label Collection Translated From the French
ELITE CUSTOM DESIGN:
If you'd like something even more special & unique, that can be certainly be arranged. I work with a group of artists who specialize in all forms of artistic media including pen and ink, hand drawn custom typography/logo font, painting, illustration etc. We can make any dream come to life. Charges for original art & design start at $200, depending on the complexity, if you want custom art for front label only or front & back, is the art black & white vs color, etc...
These are examples of the labels that have been done in the past:
CONTACT ME: Send an email to Peter@TreeBirdCreative.com or call (415) 710.0503.
I look forward to hearing from you!
MORE PAST LABELS FOR INSPIRATION:
