Harpers label win puts winery on world map

Rod McDonald Wines have been awarded the Red Wine Trophy for Font Studio's One-Off Pinot Noir label at the 2016 Harpers Design Awards.

Hawke's Bay's Font Studio scored the winning design for the 2016 Harpers Design Awards, the only New Zealand entry to win an award in the wine publication annual awards.

Rod McDonald Wines were awarded the Red Wine Trophy for Font Studio's One-Off Pinot Noir label, with Zoe Chisholm principal designer.

Only seven trophies were awarded in the UK wine publication's annual award which received entries from 10 countries.

Harpers editor Andrew Catchpole said the awards standard was high "with some stunning examples of enticing and engaging design, really lifting those products above the ordinary".

"Our brief as judges went beyond purely aesthetical considerations, looking at how well the design of each product had been tailored to the client's brief and its target market."

Rod McDonald, owner of Rod McDonald Wines, said the win put the company on the wine world map.

"It's a huge testament to our unique branding approach and the talented team at Font Studio," he said.

Label images for One Off wines reflected the style of wine "in this case blueberries, peony rose, violets, the deer, a cigar, the peacock and the admiral butterfly".

"Each of these elements give the consumer an insight to what awaits prior to even reading the back label."

He said One Off wines were an opportunity to break wine conventions.

"The idea behind One Off is that we can make, blend and bottle it with a healthy disregard for brand families, consumer research and marketing fundamentals.

"The only catch is that it's a one off, once it's gone, it's gone so we basically gave our designers free reign with the brand design and they came back to us with the 'One Off' character concept."

The wines had a cult following, with each release "always keenly anticipated with some almost selling out prior to release".

The internationally recognised design awards received entries from 10 countries.