10 minute read
PACKWINE Design for change
Design for change
Designers can be the agents for change, bringing innovation that advances both society and our world. In her presentation for the 2022 PACKWINE Forum & Expo, CEO and co-founder of Denomination Design, Rowena Curlewis, looked at how to drive change within the wine industry through design. She examined the ‘insights and truths’ that are shaping our world and the world of our consumers, and the need to define these in order to instigate change.
“If design exists to solve problems, assign meaning and enhance society, then one of its many jobs surely can be the betterment of the world and its inhabitants.” Rowena Curlewis began her PACKWINE presentation with this quote from Chris Ertel at Sustainable Brands.
“I think that was a really great way to frame what design for change is all about,” she explained before positing a question. “How do we, within the wine industry, instigate and change and drive change from a design perspective?” “How we do it at Denomination is we look at the insights and the truths that shape our world and those of our consumers.”
Curlewis said that the context of this in terms of culture, consumer and category needs to be defined.
“Then you will get to an insight and it’s that insight that if you address it, can then drive change successfully.” She explained some of the ways this process can be achieved. “If we look with a broad brush at culture, we know that the world and how we interact with it has changed, especially over the past three years. “Clearly we’ve had the pandemic that has caused both economic and social fragility. We have a climate crisis; I think everyone is very aware of that from wildfires in California to bushfires in Australia, there are floods in Australia and, obviously, the climate change that we’re all experiencing. “The subject of fake news is real and affects a lot of people and it means that trust in institutions and media is at an all-time low. As a flip side to this, people are really actively seeking out good news stories because what else is going on isn’t that great.” Curlewis said that a 2022 report showed that consumers see business as more competent than government and that business should be taking the lead in driving change. Looking to brands
“In terms of climate change, business is still not doing enough. But generally, people are looking to brands and business to drive the change that other institutions like government and media aren’t [delivering]. “What the last couple of years have done is they has actually pressed fast forward on a number of pre-existing trends that have been around for probably the last 10 years. Continuing her presentation, Curlewis focused on four trends in particular. “This idea of seeking some light relief from life’s stresses – and this was before the pandemic but obviously exacerbated throughout it. “Secondly, health and wellbeing we all know is a really big trend and that is not going away. Health is becoming more and more of a priority. “There is a desire to escape our everyday world, stuck at a computer thinking ‘where would I rather be?’
“And finally, there is this craving for connection to each other, to community and also to nature. We saw that really prevalent in the pandemic, especially during lockdown when everyone had their hours timed outside; you really became aware of how beautiful nature is and how we really need to protect it.”
Rowena Curlewis
Rowena Curlewis is CEO and one of the founding partners of leading drinks design specialist Denomination. Denomination is an award-winning drinks design consultancy based in Australia, the UK and the US. They work for a large cross-section of clients from boutique to international icons. Now in its twentieth year, Denomination aims to continuously push boundaries and do things differently. Over that time the agency has created an impressive track record of developing memorable, highly individual drinks brands. Denomination’s is the only global drinks design agency to have achieved Climate Neutral status. As branding and packaging experts who specialize in drinks, they recognize the impact our industry has on the environment; sustainability is high on their agenda. Denomination is a signatory to the Harper’s Sustainability Charter and a member of The Porto Protocol.
The full presentations of all the 2022 PACKWINE speakers can be viewed online now: www.packwine.
com.au/forum
Curlewis said that if these cultural trends are overlayed with certain consumer trends, there are some common overarching trends. “There is this idea of shared values, of wanting brands that share your values; this idea of identity and self-expression […] this idea of wanting to identify with someone else and something else as a way of expressing your own self; health and wellness and craving connection [are] also some overarching trends that define the consumer, as well as the world that we’re living in.” She said that the insight to be taken from understanding this is that our ‘worlds’ are increasingly anxious and uncertain. “We’re actually re-evaluating what matters to us and we’re seeking out brands that lead when it comes to things that matter to us, no longer believing in government and media to do that.” Changing consumer thinking and behaviour
She said that by addressing this particular insight a product or service can be developed that can enable consumers to change their thinking and their behaviour.
As a case study, she presented the example of Tread Softly, a brand that Denomination had designed about three years ago. The idea was to present this as “a new wine for a new generation”. “We needed to work out what this new generation was really looking for.”
Looking at the trends mentioned earlier, Curlewis said the strategy developed for the brand focused on health and nature.
“We came up with this brand proposition that was about treading softly on yourself, in terms of a naturally lower alcohol wine, and treading softly on the Earth. “We did that through sustainable packaging but also with our above the line and below the line campaign. In discussing the product’s package design, Curlewis explained that the semiotics talk to a sense of “quiet” and of being “considerate of all that’s around you”. “As part of the introduction of Tread Softly, the client promised that there would be one native tree planted for every 9LE case sold. “It was an incredible campaign. What it did was it generated what we call a ‘Tread Tribe’, this very strong group of followers who are advocates for the brand and who spread the word in terms of its activism.” She said these followers have helped to purchase and grow a forest of nearly a million trees in Western Australia.
“You can see that ‘design for change’ has enabled this incredible planting, it’s enabled activism and really has driven a greater awareness of sustainability I would say in trade and in consumer land.”
Curlewis then focused on a different product example with the development of the Plus & Minus brand.
The branding of Treasury Wine Estates’ 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red has resulted in 27% of its consumers being new to the wine category.
“This was a zero alcohol wine that was trying to do something differently, to really drive consumers to look at nonalcoholic wine not in a way that was going to take something away […] but that would give them something back. “Again looking at those trends, [this]
really focussed on health and wellbeing as the top priority, and that’s where we came up with ‘Plus & Minus’. This contains, resveratrol, an antioxidant component derived from grape seeds, to increase the product’s health benefits. “The semiotics of the label [featuring prominent ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ symbols] are taken from the cosmetics industry, with brands like The Ordinary and Aesop, giving this really beautiful, clean cosmetic-like feel.
“On the capsule is very tiny writing; it reminds you of pharmaceutical or cosmetic brands, [it has printed on it] all about the addition of the antioxidants and what that means.
“In terms of design for change, we’ve done that through the packaging but also through the product – designing that product innovation to introduce the additional resveratrol which is obviously higher in antioxidants.” Another case study was then presented: Treasury Wine Estates’ 19 Crimes. “This is another fantastic case study of innovating the idea of escapism,” said Curlewis. “We didn’t design the initial 19 Crimes – it was done about 10 years ago – but we’ve played a very big role in continuing to innovate within that brand.”
She explained that the campaign for 19 Crimes plays into the notion of ‘getting some light relief from life’s stresses and a desire to escape our everyday’. “Everything within [the 19 Crimes range] has this sort of humour as well as this darkness and it really taps into consumers’ desire to perhaps become someone else in their mind that they wouldn’t necessarily be in their day-today life. Or, we like to listen to podcasts [about] crime, this really dials into that psyche. The brand has become “an absolute success,” according to Curlewis, who added that five million cases are now sold each year. Building a new world for consumers
“In terms of the change, I think it’s done two things: the augmented reality has really turned that consumer experience upside down, so rather than AI from a winery or the winemaker, it’s really built this whole world for consumers from the bottle; the second thing is with the development of the Snoop Cali Red, we’ve actually had 27% of those consumers who are new to wine.
“This is driving big change in the consumer uptake of the wine that we actually haven’t seen anyone do before.” The final case study centred on Wise Wolf by Banrock Station, a brand developed for the UK market. “This one again is looking at the trend of craving connection to nature and each other.
“Wise Wolf is the leader of the pack and it came from looking at some of the challenges of restoring the natural balance in the woodlands and the forests of Europe and America by reintroducing the wolf back into that natural environment – we re-established the natural order of being. Curlewis explained that the product, therefore, is all about ‘getting back to the essence of nature’ and stopping the negative impact that humans are having on the natural world.
“This is an incredible project that we did with Accolade Wines. Every single element of the package has been thoroughly thought through and researched. “The glass bottle used 100% postconsumer recycled glass cullet, so [there’s] no industrial waste, it’s all postconsumer.
“The labels are made from 100% recycled paper, the closure is made from 100% recycled plastic and in total, the whole pack is 95.1% recycled content. There is, obviously, some non-recycled content in some of the glue and the inks and so forth, but we are working on that remaining 4.9%” She characterised the design as displaying a ‘bold and unapologetic’ stance about trying to build better packaging solutions for the wine industry. “What Wise Wolf is really trying to do is to pave the way for others within our industry to follow.” In conclusion, Curlewis said that packaging designers can become the agents for change, bringing innovation that advances both society and the world. “We’d really encourage the wine industry to think about wine being part of that movement to be an agent for change as well.”
The design of the Wise Wolf brand displays a ‘bold and unapologetic’ stance about trying to build better packaging solutions for the wine industry.
More information about Denomination and its work within the drinks design category can be found online: www. denomination.com
