Monroy Wines
Monroy Wines is a small-batch winery that is located in the heart of the California wine country. They are a new face to the winemaking scene, but Winemaker, Adolfo, and his wife, Nohelia, have both been immersed in the wine industry for many years now. They have combined their enology expertise and their passion for wine to create their own barrel-aged, delightfully aromatic, and delicious Cabernet Sauvignon. I was brought in to aid Monroy Wines in a concept-to-completion design of their logo, product, sales platform integration, and website. And, I have been lucky enough to work with them over the last few years since the original design in updating their website, creating new tasting notes, and generating marketing materials.
Monroy Wines wanted their wine labels and corks to have a timeless, elegant look that is common with many high-end labels. They wanted a white label with an emphasis on their name and an image that celebrated their heritage while also keeping with the branding style.
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I decided to celebrate their heritage with an elegant outline silhouette of a Quetzal, the native bird of Guatemala. This created a memorable visual that would set them apart from other white labeled wines while also subtly illustrating the name given to this vintage.
This logo design was even printed on the corks which can be seen through the neck of the bottle, as well as, on red wax cork toppers for a beautiful pop of color as a final detail. The remainder of the label was designed in compliance with government requirements and regulations for alcohol distribution.
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The website was a custom-designed multi-page site that I built through Wix. Monroy Wines had a specific idea of how they wanted their website to look. The constraints they provided were to have a website that stuck with the elegant branding style we created with the label, that continued to celebrate their history, with a black and white scheme, and even more specifically, the creation of a wine pour image on the 'The Wine' page.
And so I got to designing! I started with the images, creating the home page hero first. This image is the combination of the wind-blown sand dunes of the desert with the rolling hills of a vineyard. It celebrates the history of where Monroy Wines got their inspiration with where they are now. Next, I tackled the requested wine pour image. In sticking with the constraint of a black and white theme, I made the majority of the image in greyscale while keeping only the wine and the vintage red. I loved the contrast of the red with the otherwise monochromatic look, and thus the new color palette was born: black, white, grey, and red. The remainder of images created for this sight were all custom designed and constructed based on this new palette.
I also designed the Monroy Wines website to be multilingual with each page offered in English, Spanish, and Arabic. Not only does this design choice celebrate their heritage, but it also makes their site more inclusive for users.
In November 2021, Monroy Wines released their 2019 vintage. They reached out to me to help them prepare for this product launch. In addition to fashioning new tasting notes, building new digital bottles and glassware, and updating their website and alcohol distribution profile, I was asked to design marketing campaign emails and social media content. The objective was to create two email templates that were simple and elegant. The first marketing email was sent in October informing potential buyers of the projected vintage release date, and the second email was sent on launch day letting everyone know the bottles were now available for purchase. Our efforts were doubled with our cross-platform marketing by use of social media.
And to keep with the promotional theme, all wine purchases come with an engraved bottle opener and an embossed wineglass. These are the perfect gifts that will act as subliminal reminders of the purchaser's new favorite wine.
The high-quality items being added to the delivery package is just another thoughtful detail which enhances the purchasing experience and instills a positive association with Monroy Wines.
This was a large-scale project that included both product and digital design. I learned a lot and had an absolute blast working with Monroy Wines. Their website is live and since working with them they have released two vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon which are currently in stock and available for purchase. You can click on the image below to view the website for yourself for a more in-depth look into what I created for them. Enjoy!
