I completed this Built & Branded package for Napa Valley’s VINE in spring of 2008. The project called for the complete design and branding of a winery and tasting room that could become an interactive location for locals and tourists to learn about and enjoy the process of wine making. I wanted VINE’s identity to take on a modern aesthetic but still reflect the beauty and depth of the wine making process.
Major concepts throughout the development of the project include exploration, peeking, surprise, and erosion. The concept of a material eroding away to provide a peek of something interesting became important to the branding of the project, architecturally and graphically.
BUILT WORK:
In laying out the architecture, I also referred to the growth of a grape vine for inspiration, allowing the building to branch off of the concrete wall that organizes the project. The wall guides visitors along the path, allowing them to stop and learn about the winery along the way. Aside from the tasting room, visitors are never permitted to enter the winery. It is observed as an exhibit or display. The visitors can view and learn about wine making while walking along the path, and while resting in the courtyards. Peek holes and descriptive text are carved and engraved from the rugged plywood finish to allow visitors to explore the winery at their own pace without the need of tour guides to show them what to do. Enjoyment and exploration occur as visitors discover the process of wine making for themselves and at their own pace. The winery takes on more of a park-like quality due to this; it can be enjoyed without reservations, and on the visitor’s terms.
Resting and viewing areas are incorporated into the architecture as niches within the concrete wall. These niches occur at the courtyards between buildings and more often toward the tasting room where they become private drinking areas for visitors. The concept of erosion was incorporated into the development of the niches. As the wall erodes away, seating and drinking areas are formed; in some areas the wall ‘erodes’ so much that viewports are formed, allowing visitors to peek through to the other side of the wall. At the end of the wall, a door erodes and visitors are invited to walk back to their car on the other side of the wall where they can enjoy the solitude and beauty of the rolling hills of the vineyard.
BRANDING WORK:
When developing VINE’s branding, I started with the design of their wine bottles. That would be the primary place people would see their logo and it needed to work there first and foremost. I used white coated clear-glass bottles to allow for a clean modern aesthetic which would reflect VINE’s modern take on an old-world process and allow for the concepts used within the architecture to unfold on a smaller scale. The white coating is slit from the neck of the bottle down, similar to the way the wall erodes down into seating. This slit becomes the ‘I’ of the word VINE and, against the clear-glass, it allows a peek at the wine within the bottle. This use of their name became their identity and was then used in their architectural branding, business cards, letterhead, and other packaging designs.
