Wines

Wines also have interesting typography to them, although they can be categorised as mainly being san serif and serif they also have qualities which make them look and feel similar yet different at the same time. I looked at the wine selection from Tesco to see how their typography is used.

Most of the typography I found on the wines are serifs. I think this may because wine has a very long tradition of thousands of years and through its creation and production for customers comes the usage of the old traditional typefaces such as gaelic or gothic style fonts.

According to designer Sarah Hyndman, typography can also be used for different purposes in order to attract and sometimes manipulate a customer’s view on a certain wine or brand. Typography can be used to describe the taste of wine, how strong or light it is; emphasise certain aspects of types of wines e.g. red wine form white wine or rosé etc. For example, usage of bold and often ‘manly’ types of gothic serif typography can be associated to the strong, bitter dark taste of red wines, whilst usage of softer and more cursive type of serif type can be associated to rosé or white wine on the other hand. However, from what I’ve found this isn’t always the case as cursive and soft typography were also used for a lot of red wines such as ‘Red Burgundy’ and ‘Viña Albali Grand Selleccion’, though the majority of them are very strong and both serif typography as well.

Typography can also be used in order to change or manipulate a customer’s perspective and price outlook of a wine. Traditionally, ‘Old World Wine’ as said by Hyndman use busy typography with lots of illustrations and colours and strong type in order to emphasise the richness of the wine but it also signifies to the customer that it is ‘expensive’ wine as often we associate serif fonts with authenticity and long history thus better quality wine. In addition, it may also make the customers feel rich themselves as wine can be associated with class and pompous. ‘New World Wine’ on the other hand focuses more on modernity and has more minimal aspects to it in my opinion which in turn can attract a younger more contemporary audience. I’ve also seen that although the ‘New World Wines’ such as ‘Louis De Camponac – Cabernet Sauvignon 2017’ use a serif font and is from France (Old World) has a milder use of the serif typography making it look more youthful and approachable to the younger market. Details such as use of wide kerning e.g. ‘Barolo 2014’ creates a clean aesthetic as well as elongated typography such as ‘Marqués de Carans’ adds a subtle modern tone to the wine.

 

I think overall, the use of typography for wines is very important to its taste, price and customers like Hyndman has said as there are many different types of wine, typography will can help identity each wines characteristics as well as help them sell to the customers. I also think that the usage of typography to these wines are very effective and are very fit for their purpose as they are able to sell and attract customers just by being read from the shop shelf according to maybe how they look and feel and how relevant the typography and design is in accordance to their description.

• https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/typography/how-wine-label-design-typography-really-influences-how-it-tastes-sarah-hyndman/