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The Blush

A Wonderful Blend – I met Ian and (now) Melissa Dunlap 4 years ago. They live in B.F.E  Berry-Far-Escondido so despite their amazing company and zest for interesting conversation, I’m unable to visit with them as often as I would like. When we do hang out it almost always involves wine.

The Bridegroom

The Escondido Sunrise Rotary, wine event was one of the first of many wine events that I’ve enjoyed with Melissa and Ian. One of the most memorable was attending their annual harvest at their family Vineyard, Escondido Sunrise Vineyard. We arrived at 7am to start a bit of picking and a bit of whining. Luckily, there was a luring picnic up on the top of the hill under the shade of trees and gazebos to encourage us to keep picking.

Escondido Sunrise Vineyard

Despite feeling a bit under the weather, I enjoyed it to the fullest. In the afternoon once we had gathered a ton (this is not an exaggeration, but the days goal) or so of grapes we started the de-stemming and stomping process… Local buyers came eager to purchase the grapes. And despite there being multiple CPAs on the premises, I wound up calculating the purchases for the buyers, until someone wised up…as a whole an amazing experience.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dunlap, CPAs and owners of E.S.V.

So it was more than appropriate and a huge honor when the couple came to me with a very special request: To design the label of the couples very special, very meaningful blush wine. Last September, together on the family vineyard, the couple picked, de-stemmed, crushed, fermented and bottled the wine as a symbol of their union. At the ceremony instead of the traditional candle ceremony they married two very different wines in one glass. As an extension of that, they provided their guests with a bottle of this wine. For those of you who have been involved in the planning of a wedding you can appreciate the uniqueness of the gift. Two and a half weeks before the wedding, I received a call from the bride. She gave me the story, an example of the wedding invitation and ALOT of creative freedom.

The Initial Concept Drawing

I was so enamored with the symbolism (avid Dan Brown reader here) that I was beyond stoked to get the project. The next day, after a very uplifting dream about, what else, love; I awoke at 6am and began painting. I had very limited acrylic paint colors in my room and a couple small canvases left over from a previous project. After a quick sketch, I painted for just under 2o minutes, I had completed the first painting of the combination of the two wines becoming one.

The inital painting on my 6x6 inch canvas

I came up with a poem that I believe fit very well.

“Two vines, One blend – One pour, no end.” It has been such a neat realization to continue to combine my loves of painting and graphic design.

The poem, rough draft, turned out most of it was usable.

Photographed the canvases and started cranking them

through the Yokibug factory. I initially focused on changing the colors of the paint to what I had envisioned but did not have in my room with me. PhotoShop is so cool.  I then headed to the Trader Joe’s wine selection to research some of the different styles of wine labels. Wine bottles can vary in circumference, height and angles. I was a bit nervous about not being able to see the bottle shape before hand so I decided to make two labels; a front and a back.

Front Label

Back Label

When I was finished with my initial concept I ran it by a wine label designer, in my Interactive Media class, Lois Harrington. She gave me some great feedback and helped to remind me of the importance of type and leading. She confirmed my instinct to preserve the organic nature of the paint brush strokes as opposed to a graphic interpretation of the sketch.

Graphic Option

Two weeks in all essence was a tight turn-around for concept, execution, approval and printing but, overall the piece was a success and it was great to see it on the bottle at their wedding party. Congrats to the wonderful couple.

How the guests recieved the gift from the Bridegroom