Damien Mulley pointed to some brilliantly designed wine labels from his blog.

Visually stand out from the crowd

Wine labels can be so important yet many producers just don’t get it. Why?

Producers may think of themselves in isolation rather than being placed adjacent to hundreds of other bottles. It’s not just that your wine tastes better, but whether it’s been noticed first, then picked off the shelf ahead of another wine. That’s the first challenge.

The Spanish seem to have got “it”. “It” being that in a commoditised marketplace, you need to clearly differentiate yourself.

Doing so visually is one step in the right direction. A striking label is probably more easily remembered than a foreign name. It’s shallow, but it’s how our memories work.

Below, a cobbled together slideshow of Spanish wine labels, where you can see the difference between the old traditional style and the new contemporary labels.

Getting the crowd’s feedback

Casavides have started to use Flickr to get some customer feedback on their latest labels. Very clever. They’re trying to engage people with their “brand” before their brand is even released, though I’m not sure if I like the labels.

Of course, this can go too far, with more money being spent producing the bottle rather than what’s in it.

A good rule of thumb could be to let the label do the selling and the wine do the talking.

Some inspirational labels…

But back to Damien Mulley’s orignal post, the following are taken from TheDieline.com and Lovely Package.