Label Update and Design Costs

August 8th, 2006 → 5:23 pm @ Josh Hermsmeyer


NOTE: We’re still giving away free tee shirts and free Pinot over here.

A Big thank you to everyone that voted on our labels. 79 of you voted, which is just tremendous!

You spoke and we’re listening, so I got together with our graphic designer Chris and told him that we’re going to be using label 21 as a base going forward.

A couple people mentioned that having the vintage date too close to the Capozzi logo detracted from the brand so we’ve eliminated that. We were split internally about which logo to go with, the original one designed by The Calligraphy Lady or the slimmed down version Chris created. While it wasn’t a slam dunk, we’ll be going with the new slimmed down version. We’ll also be using the darker mesh gradient from label 32 as was suggested by a couple of you.

I’m hoping to post a vlog of Chris doing the design work that shows the development process and us putting the finishing touches on the label. But first he has to agree to let me film him ;) .

Label Costs

By the way, for those of you interested in getting a label done for your wine, let me share some facts and figures with you:

  • CF Napa charges around $50,000 $25,000 for a complete identity development package.

    UPDATE: After talking with David Schuemann, the owner of CF Napa, I was alerted that the number stated above is high for most clients. In fact, their services are often less than half of what was quoted above. If you want a highly original design from the best in the business, this is money well spent.

    They are good, of that there is no doubt – if you have the cash.

  • Mid level designers and consultants will do an identity design for around $15,000. A little better. If you have no idea what you want in a label and you need someone to brainstorm for you, this is probably the way to go.
  • Our label, which you all helped us choose, will end up costing under $2000.

How? I knew what I wanted going in. I knew how I wanted the label to look, what my market niche was and how I wanted to position my brand. This is the heavy lifting that CF Napa does for you at an extravagant cost. It is the heavy lifting the mid-level designers will do for only mildly extravagant cost. If, however, you already know what your brand is going to be all about, how you want consumers to perceive it, and you have a strong idea about how to capture that in graphic form, you don’t need to pay an arm and a leg to get good results.

I knew I wanted a hand crafted, one-of-a-kind script for my label. So I Googled around and found a woman named Dayna in New York that does calligraphy for weddings. She’d been featured in Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine, an E True Hollywood Story on Jennifer Lopez, and her portfolio was (and is) thick with excellent work. I contacted her with my proposal and she said she was thrilled to be able to work on a wine label, something she’d never done before.

Keep in mind this is a woman who is used to grinding through hundreds of invitations, menus, and placards at a time. A one-off to a pro like her was a complete breath of fresh air and she really seemed to enjoy the work, and I think it shows in the final product. It also showed in her quoted price: $300

I then took that logo to Chris, a long time friend and an amazingly talented artist and designer. His work ethic is unparalleled: for every hour he bills I bet he actually works two and a half. He also knows as much as any professional working today about press work because he’s worked in a print shop for years. In short, he was the perfect choice to complete our label design.

He took the rasterized version of the logo Dayna gave me and converted it to vector art, which prints better and is infinitely scalable. Then he modified it for the better. Awesome work all the way around.

As I mentioned earlier he almost always underbids a project (in terms of how much effort he actually puts in) so we agreed upon a price at the beginning. I’ve since added to that, so I’m estimating that total costs will be around $1500.

You may not love our label or the style I chose, but you can’t knock its visual appeal or professional appearance. And we were able to get it done for something much less than 50 grand, and that makes me very proud.