Knee Deep in Margaret River

knee-deep: adj. submerged to the knees (in water or something liquid);
intensely preoccupied with, or by a given topic or emotion.

The founders, the Child’s family, broke ground back in 2000 establishing what was to become an iconic Margaret River winery. The brand name of ‘Knee Deep in Margaret River’ was a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of jumping in ‘boots and all’ during a testing time in the wine industry with the grape glut of the late 1990s. Times have changed and so too have the reins.

The brand rejuvenation was instigated by the new owners, Matt Holden and Clair Chatel-Holden. With its descriptive brand name of ‘Knee Deep in Margaret River’, we designed an immersive storyline approach to the identity and application to their winery, wine portfolio and brand collateral.

The Knee Deep logotype becomes a device to express the clients’ depth of involvement. The logotype can be read in multiple orientations playing on the ambigram nature of the word ‘deep’.

The shorthand icon of the ‘K’ (which we nicknamed ‘the bended knee’) is used in small spaces like on the cap tops, label backs and favicons.

On the labels, the editorial-like text columns form a longitude grid which wraps around the label; while the latitudinal ‘band’ of colour signifies both the sense of immersion and the above-and-below watery influences of coast and climate in this maritime region. Within this grid structure, the story continues with individual vineyard growing conditions, the tasting notes and mandatories flowing around to the back of the labels.Tactile high-build effects on the illustration engages the senses of ‘where the river meets the ocean and the winds and clouds create the waves and shift the sands’…