Finalist 2020

Mitchell Harris Wines – Rebrand

Your Creative Agency / Mitchell Harris Wines

New brand identity aimed at widening the audience

The family-owned business has been making wine since 2008 and running the Mitchell Harris Wine bar in Ballarat. We were asked to tell their story and develop a new brand identity aimed at widening their audience and making room for new product offerings – particularly online offerings for product and events.

Design Excellence

The MH wine barrel stamp became the central visual anchor for our designs. It formed the grid system for our collateral, repeated in colour reflecting the unique qualities and varietal differences of the wines. It is instantly recognised by the public and winemakers alike. We kept the original brand mark across the product range and used it to develop a system of graphic stamps and refreshed the logotype match. Each vintage captures the essence and ritual of life in Ballarat, expressed through panoramic photographs of iconic scenes, moments, and places true to the region.

Design Impact

Leading the brand strategy, we developed new product labels, packaging, digital, and created a new experience-led product range. This new identity was met with a digital strategy that informed the design of the new MH platform and online store.

The launch campaign saw Qantas lounge order thousands of bottles for their member lounges, a feature in Timeout’s ‘Best Christmas Gifts’ and a direct increase in online sales.

Design Transformation

The core brand identity was then rolled out across the wine range. Continuing with the initial concept of capturing and personifying contemporary Ballarat, the wine label concept was a series of panoramic photographs that reflect both the wines characteristics and the regional areas overlaid with brand assets. The photographic style incorporates imagery of the landscape, in-action and still life scenes at the MH wine bar, and images reflecting the values of family and the feeling of nostalgia.

Design Innovation

Ballarat as a wine region has expertise, skill and heritage. Mitchell Harris’s product and destination combines these regional characteristics with a fresh, contemporary approach to wine making and selling. We were engaged to create a new Mitchell Harris Wines brand identity that framed the brand as both a leading product range and destination.

Our challenge was to tell their story, and ultimately showcase Mitchell Harris as a brand built on meaning and purpose. The commercial goal was to assist in strengthening Mitchell Harris Wines position in the market, creating a brand that allowed for product diversification and ultimately take the business national.

Other Key Features

The experience product range that was created was inspired by the new brand identity, offering locals and tourists the opportunity to buy an experience that incorporated the wines, the venue and the people behind business.

Image direction that captures lifestyle, culture, and place that MH lives and breathes.
This photographic style will incorporate imagery of the landscape, in-action and still life scenes at the MH wine bar, and images reflecting the values of family and the feeling of nostalgia.

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