Aalto Winery: Anniversary Visual Identity and Packaging Design

Kiira Keski-Hakuni & Sanni Wessman

Janne Ojala, Hannu Paajanen, Mikko Ristimäki, Tatu Vuorio.
The work was created under the supervision of lecturer Markus Joutsela

Aalto winery in Spain celebrates its 20th anniversary with an iconic package for collectors, wine lovers, and fans of design. This limited edition consists of 450 bottles in a 3-litre format, created from a selection of six barrels from different vintages. The project is a collaboration with Aalto University and it is a small work of art symbolising the passion for the earth, modernity, and design.

Aalto takes its name from the high location (“alto”) and also from Alvar and Aino Aalto, a respected designer couple and contemporary thinkers among the Aalto Winery business owners. It is not a coincidence that the winery contacted Aalto University for collaboration on their 20th anniversary.

They wanted to see and be involved with the Aalto University community and observe the contemporary mindset in the student design field. I and Sanni were chosen to be a design team in this project after the first round of applicants showing their skills and interest. We were very glad of this opportunity and were more than excited to meet the client.

We had our first meeting in May 2019 in Aalto University Väre building where we met with the Winery Director Eduardo Ferring, the Aalto University Vice-president Hannu Seristö, and our Project Supervisor, Lecturer Markus Joutsela. Eduardo gave us a brief on the anniversary identity: to design an unconventional anniversary identity for the wine industry with a sophisticated and modern touch that respects the climate, design, and contemporary lifestyle.

After a couple of months, we travelled to the winery for a site visit. There we got to know the wine industry and how Aalto differed from the field. We shared our material research and concepts continuing to refine the needs. The whole concept was designed to remember the end-users: the design enthusiastic wine collectors, who are already familiar with Aalto Winery and know their background and quality. Our task was to create a wow effect and show how the traditional wine industry can be seen as a work of contemporary art.

Our concept is leaning on a narrative of Contemporary Roots. It is what the winery has always been and is the key element for the anniversary celebration. The industry depends on the environment and therefore it was evident to work with sustainable and innovative materials. We wanted to challenge ourselves by thinking about how the package can be interpreted as a piece of art while protecting the bottle inside. It was interesting to think about how it would be possible to lengthen a life cycle of a package by adding value to the design that is treated otherwise than its original purpose. A package that becomes a rare design element for wine collectors.

The concept focuses on the Aalto winery’s roots and how the process of winemaking starts from respecting the area, the soil, and the seasons. The winery differs from its competitors by adding a contemporary touch to the industry: Aalto Winery is a combination of traditional methods and technological innovations. The river Duero is a key element and a lifeline for the vineyards. The first vines were planted there over a hundred years ago. And still today the same vines produce grapes from a demanding ground.

We embedded the Aalto winery’s history, location, and modern way of working into a concept that shows how much effort one bottle of wine includes. The design process for the package started by focusing on materials that were suitable for creating a wine package but also not yet used. We tested different kinds of materials at Aalto University’s wood workshop and tried multiple methods on the materials. We noticed quite fast that the suitable material has to be coloured throughout if we want to create a unique surface for the package.

We chose Forescolor as our main material for the case. It is an MDF-based wood panel that is ecologically produced and CNC-milling of this material provided us the artistic quality we aimed for. We wanted that the material speaks the language of nature, the soil, and the vines, but also to embrace the modern aesthetic of the winery. We aimed to portray the contrast of rough and sleek, the old and the modern, and to look for different materials and the ways to shape them.

In the package, our concept is shown as playing around with the contrast. It’s a combination of a sleek and a rough surface: the package is opened by sliding up and separating the sleek upper part from the organic bottom, mimicking the bark from the vines. The borderline between the rough bottom part of the package and the sleek upper half is not arbitrary but draws the true shape of the Duero River to wrap around the package.

The package is a rare design piece. It changes how we think wine bottles are transported and stored. The design tells a story, how a modern winery changes the industry. In the package, the modern shapes come together with the natural curves of the old vines in a sophisticated way to celebrate the wine’s past becoming tomorrow. The rough bottom represents the demanding ground and the soil that nourishes the grapes. The top gives contrast to the bottom with a sleek look representing how the contemporary winery operates in a traditional industry with its own rules.

The borderline of the surfaces draws the shape of the Duero River to wrap around the package. It tells the story of how the river is always attached to the wine production and thus surrounds the package and protects the bottle.

Even though the visual identity and the anniversary brand focus mainly on the package, we wanted to make sure that the bottle is also unique with its design. The client reminded us that the bottle should look like part of the Aalto Winery brand and fit with other bottle labels they have produced. The other bottles are also red wines with either a label of white square with black and silver text or a narrower either grey or black set square with white and silver text. The price range of the bottles starts with the Aalto white-labelled bottles. The next bottle of their prince range is the Aalto PS bottle with a black or grey label and the anniversary bottle is the most expensive. Since the anniversary identity is about celebration, we decided to develop the brand even further by taking all of the unimportant elements away to highlight the existing brand and respect its already built visual identity.

We played around with how wine bottles are stored and decided to put the AALTO text vertically with individual letters without any background label. The Winery has a design pattern that the second letter of A is always with a different material, so we followed the guideline in the anniversary label with a combination of glossy and matte letters. Winery’s traditional silver colour changed to a white gold/champagne tone and all the important information including the bottle number x of 450 is marked on the bottom label and is visually more dimmed.

Production of the wine labels and packages are made in Spain and the design and the prototypes in Finland at Aalto University. I’m thankful to everyone participating in the project. It sure wasn’t the easiest process creating something unexpected and new with unknown materials. Thank you!