Design competition extends reach

Wines & Vines, March, 2001

More than 150 wineries, designers and suppliers participated in the Second Annual Global Wine Packaging & Merchandising Design Awards competition. In addition to wine producing regions in this country, entries were submitted from Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Murray J. Lubliner Associates, which also sponsors the Wine Package Design and Marketing Conference in association with Wines & Vines, organized this design competition last year at the urging of attendees of the conference which is now in its fourth year. The wine industry has taken a deserved leadership position in package, merchandising and advertising design. Other consumer product categories have design competitions; the time is overdue for the wine business to highlight its own creativity.

Lubliner says that competitive pressures, which offer consumers of wine more choices than ever before, are responsible for this upsurge in using design as the industry's most powerful marketing weapon. "We all agree that the contents of the bottle are most important, but the consumer visualizes and forms an image of the product through the package's visual and verbal communications. In many cases, the package is the 'product.' In the long run a good package will not sell an inferior product, but a poor package can negatively affect the consumer's impression of the best product. The most successful package is one that attracts and intrigues the prospective buyer and communicates product attributes and benefits in a convincing and credible manner."

He points out that advances in material and label application are enabling designers and marketers to achieve design solutions which were impossible just a few years ago. This marriage of design creativity and technology are producing innovative packaging of wines here and abroad.

Many of the competition's entries will be shown at the Wine Package Design And Marketing Conference which convenes on April 19 and 20 at San Francisco's Hotel Nikko.

This will be a rare opportunity to view, at one sitting, the design and marketing creativity that is helping drive the success of the wine universe.

The conference is an educational forum that focuses exclusively on the marketing, branding and packaging of wine. This year, about 20 speakers will present ideas, insights and information on a wide range of subjects that are critical to building sales and profits, including informative discussions by experts about the opportunities the Internet offers to wine marketers. For a brochure and more details about the conference, call Murray or Phyllis Lubliner at (212) 734-7841 or fax them at (212) 734-4964.

The professionals who served as judges for the design competition faced a tough challenge because of the high quality of entries. Wines & Vines joins Lubliner in thanking the judges for their valuable contributions. The judges based their evaluations on how effectively the design solution supports the marketing objectives and criteria which are described along with each entry. The judges do not vote for entries with which they have been involved.

Best of Show were awarded to CF/Napa of Napa, Calif.; Enterprise Ig. of San Francisco, Calif.; Lewis Moberly of London, U.K.; and Tardis Design and Advertising of Wellington, New Zealand. Usually three Best of Show were selected; however in this situation the voting was tied and it would have been unfair to eliminate any of the top-winners.

Gold winners are Britton Design, Sonoma; Caldewey Design, Napa; Calona Vineyards, Vancouver, Canada; Cannon Wines, San Francisco; Deutsch Design Works, San Francisco; Hanson Associates, Philadelphia, Pa.; Hornall Anderson Design Works, Seattle, Wash.; Michael Osborne Design, San Francisco; Packaging Arts, Mare Island, Calif.; Studio Black, Vashon Island, Wash.

Silver winners are AQ Australia, Nurioopta, S.A.; Blue Marlin Packaging Design, Bath, U.K.; Canandaigua Wine, Canandaigua, N.Y.; Cannon Wines, San Francisco; Di Donato Associates, Chicago; Dry Creek Vineyard, Healdsburg; Duckhorn Vineyards, St. Helena; Forward Branding & Identity, Webster, N.Y.; McElveney & Palozzi Design Group, Rochester, N.Y.; Martin & Weyrich Winery, Paso Robles; Rochambo Winery, Healdsburg; Scholle Corporation, Northlake, Ill.; Spear Incorporated, Mason, Ohio and Wright of Thomasville, Thomasville, N.C.

Bronze winners are Avery Dennison Decorating Technologies, Framingham, Mass.; Belyea, Seattle; Grapheme/Koo, Vancouver, Canada; Landor Associates, San Francisco; Lithocraft, Santa Rosa; Pemberton & Whiteford, London, U.K.; Quest Industries, Stockton, Silkwood Wines, Modesto; Trefethen Vineyards, Napa and Wallace Church, New York, N.Y.

In view of the intense competition all the winners deserve to be proud. We all look forward to an even greater response for the next Wine Packaging & Merchandising Design Awards.

Murray Lubliner, founder and director of the Wine Packaging & Merchandising Design Awards and the Wine Package Design And Marketing Conference, has developed solutions to hundreds of brand and corporate identity problems for companies around the world. His firm advises marketers as well as designers on marketing and communications issues. His most recent book, which he co-authored with Herbert M. Meyers -- The Marketer's Guide To Successful Package Design -- has become a resource for corporations, designers, suppliers, advertising and public relations agencies and others who interface with the marketing of consumer products and services. His wife, Phyllis Lubliner, is co-director of the conference and design awards competition.