Wine-by-Design Label Competition
I was one of seven judges at a wine label design competition held on
April 6th at the office of Pigeon* Branding + Design, the company who
initiated the event.
The idea was to showcase the talents of Ontario's design students.
Students were invited to submit packaging design and promotion ideas
for a hypothetical Canadian wine brand called Oakville Ridge, in an effort
to develop a unique look for Canada's domestically grown wines.
Over 600 students from 11 Ontario colleges were briefed, and 255 entries
were received. Each entry was reviewed against the following judging criteria:
- Overall Creativity
- Strength of family look
- Quality of presentation
- Emotional appeal
- Shelf intrusiveness
- Uniqueness
- Canadian flavour
- Response to the design brief
- Strength of promotional idea
- Written rationale
From a semi-finalist group of 18, six finalists were selected. The finalists,
in order of submission to the competition, are:
- Janet Hau Ling Chan, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto
- Emma-Davida Catmur, Algonquin College, Ottawa
- Michelle Luk, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto
- Nillo Autio, Conestoga College, Kitchener
- Cindy Nguyen, York/Sheridan College, Oakville
- James Pentland, Humber College, Toronto
See a PDF of the finalists' submissions
(96 KB).
Prize winners will be announced at a reception at The Wine Establishment
in Toronto on May 8, 2002. Prizes are a $2000 bursary, a $500 wine weekend
in Niagara, a $200 gift certificate from The Wine Establishment and three
wine collection awards of merit with a value of $150 each.
The judges were:
- Tony Aspler, wine expert, author and journalist
- George Haroutiun, President and Publisher, Applied Arts
- Krystyna Hoeg, President and CEO, Corby Distilleries Ltd.
- John Nadeau, President, The Wine Establishment
- Michael Olson, chef and educator
- Thomas Pigeon, CEO, Pigeon* Branding + Design
- Stephen Stanley, Creative Director, Brunico Publishing
The competition is sponsored by Pigeon* Branding + Design, in partnership
with Applied Arts, Ontario College of Art and Design, Strategy Magazine,
and The Wine Establishment. The finalists may be viewed online at http://wine-by-design.ca/finalists.html.
