CASTLE LION

Castle Lion is a small family-owned wine label with their own organic vineyard for red wines in Oakford, Perth, Western Australia. The vineyard is about 9 years old, however the label is only about 2 years old. The Cellar Door opened early in 2009 and is located on the Mulberry On Swan premises in the Swan Valley. Castle Lion also produces the Amor label, and exclusively distributes Catch Billy and Deckchair wines in Perth.

Currently, i work for Castle Lion fulltime as administration and sales support, based at the vineyard office. Unofficially, i'm their graphic designer. i create their posters, menus, table talkers, order forms, property signage and other point of sale materials. As such, i'm responsible for liaising with publishers and printers, with store/bar managers (customers), and with Castle Lion sales representatives from design to delivery of these materials.

i also maintain their website, although the original design was produced elsewhere. Large portions of code, graphics, and content have been replaced and updated over time, although the layout remains consistent. If you'd like to see more, open the Castle Lion website in a new window.

Projects completed from November 2008 to April 2010.

Castle Lion New Vintages Launch With Morish Nuts

To launch the new vintages for Castle Lion, a promotional deal with Morish Nuts was created. Sample bags of nuts were strapped to bottle necks. In combining the branding, Castle Lion's red becomes a seeming red curtain unveiling the Morish Nuts' black and white striped stage.

Castle Lion Generic Poster

This poster was designed to announce Castle Lion's 4-star winery rating in James Halliday Wine Companion 2010 and the organically grown value of the vineyard. It purposefully has no pricing for portability to numerous outlets immediately. Simple and bold was the aim.

Castle Lion Christmas Vintage Bargains

As a direct email campaign, a selection of Castle Lion wines were offered at heavy discounts for a strictly limited time nearing Christmas to previous customers. It linked directly to the order form on the website. Keeping to the Christmas theme, a pattern was made of the lionhead brand element on the corporate red to simulate gift wrapping, with the regular tear element being most suitable for revealing the wines on special. The slight diagonal aided the dynamic, fun and unordinary tone, whilst the reflective white inner area and minimal text kept a clean and fresh quality.

Maharaja Indian Restaurant Wine Menu

This double-sided wine menu rests inside the restaurant's meals menu. Like the table talkers, wines are promoted in white and red pairs. Castle Lion has its Organically Grown and Reserve Range wines, and this menu presents a pair from each range. The reverse side promotes Castle Lion as a brand and encourages the organic value of its produce.

Amor Wine Labels

Castle Lion recently launched a cheaper wine range under the label Amor. The aim was to create a label to be a little romantic and fun.

A previous project mocked several months back had included this image of a Spanish couple dancing in traditional dress. i started with some reference photos and video, drew pencil sketches of both dancers individually, scanned then created a vector illustration and brought the couple together. The love heart device originated as from a rather unintentional squiggle. Reminds me of a chocolate with a gooey centre.

The use of lowercase lettering and clean white space helps create an appealing, soft casual tone. Women are more often responsible for selecting wine for purchases than men, and this will hopefully be more attractive to this demographic.

The artwork was prepared for spot colour printing. A yellow and red plate remains constant throughout the designs, whilst a unique colour and black finish the print. The love heart shape in the logo has a raised screen which gives it a touch of texture and added sheen.

Castle Lion Brochure

This folded dl brochure describes the value of organically grown, the Spanish origin of the family, and promotes the Castle Lion Cellar Door venue. This brochure is distributed at the Cellar Door, at wine tasting events, and available from tourism stands.

Wine Of The Month Table Talkers

Table talkers are often used to support Wine Of The Month campaigns. These are venue specific and run for 4-6 weeks. i've templated a design that folds to an a6 card size for Castle Lion and Catch Billy. Some venues require different shapes, sizes, inclusion of their own logo, and/or table numbers. Usually i request a previous sample from the venue, and include their manager in the proofing process.

ALM Advert

Australian Liquor Marketers are a distribution business supplying many liquor stores and restaurants throughout Australia. Within Western Australia, Castle Lion wines are available via ALM as well as by direct sales. In launching with ALM, Castle Lion had a full page advert in their catalogue with a bonus incentive of lunch at the Cellar Door. i was responsible for designing this advert and preparing it to ALM's publication standards.

Castle Lion Cellar Door Restaurant Menu

The Castle Lion Cellar Door offers wine tastings, lunch dining, and function hosting. Wines are also sold directly to the public. The Cellar Door launched very early in 2009. A previous lunch menu had been produced very plainly in a word processor. Although the menu options did not change much, the design underwent a complete overhaul, featuring poigant Castle Lion branding. Street and most sale signage for the Cellar Door are also designed in-house by me.