Penfolds – all I know

10 months ago Tuesday June 27th, 2023 913 views

Absolutely everyone, a huge hello. Today’s post is about wine and design. Until yesterday, I had no idea about the existence of the brand Penfolds, but while working on my latest project related to wines, I accidentally stumbled upon it and started researching.

So, in brief, Penfolds. The company was founded in 1844 by Dr. Christopher Penfold and his wife Mary in Australia. Initially, they focused on producing fortified tonic wines to treat anemia, as Christopher believed in the medicinal properties of port wines and sherries. I’ll skip some facts and just mention that for the first 100 years, the company primarily produced port wines. However, everything changed significantly in 1950 when Max Schubert, a former messenger boy who had been working at the company since he was 15, became the chief winemaker. Max studied winemaking in France and returned to Australia with new knowledge. In 1951, he created the experimental wine Penfolds Grange Hermitage, also known as Bin 1, which became an icon of Australian winemaking in just a few years.

Therefore, Penfolds wine is now considered one of the best on the planet.

Okay, let’s figure out how design comes into play here. The thing is, a brand like this cannot exist without a strong graphic and creative element. Even back in those days, Penfolds wines had interesting advertising campaigns.

If I were to talk about all the design work done for Penfolds, we wouldn’t have enough time for anything else, so I’ll write about a few recent campaigns. So, it’s the year 2021. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Grange wine, only 7 handmade vinyl record players were produced in collaboration with Symbol Audio. (images from here)

Okay, what’s next? In August 2022, the company launched a global theme called Venture Beyond. Venture Beyond represents a new all-encompassing force for the brand, and this new territory opens up a universe of gaming experiences and activations that go beyond this world, created to capture the imagination of global luxury consumers. Since 1844, Penfolds winemakers have been pushing boundaries, constantly exploring new horizons, new opportunities, and new worlds to propel the brand forward. The new theme offers a globally consistent narrative that allows Penfolds to stand out among competing brands in various sectors of the luxury lifestyle and attract young consumers.

As part of Venture Beyond, a lot of graphics were released, and an event took place. The creative work was done by the Love studio, and they also brought in illustrator Jason Solo for the project.

It was made by LOVE Creative. Incredible results – 990K+ bottles was sold.

In late September 2022, Penfolds launched One By Penfolds. The wine One is exclusively released for China, and once again, everything is beautifully executed.