A Label Design Between Tradition and Innovation

Manchov Chiflik is a small family winery located in the village of Vinogradi – in the heart of one of the most interesting wine regions of Bulgaria, the Valley of Struma river. The area where their vineyards are located is called Solinar. That’s where the name of the wine brand comes from. This is a place with an extremely serious and long wine-growing and making tradition, which we somehow wanted to continue in the design of the label itself. I tried to make a modern take on the classic wine label design. In this way I managed to convey the theme of the connection between the past and the future. I tried to be both traditional and innovative in my work. Even the choice of bottle itself was very different and defining for me how to approach this project. We chose a very original Bordeaux style bottle – much shorter and wider than the standard silhouette. It made me think differently and feel the individuality of the whole project.

The label has a classic shape with rounded corners. The main element is a vine leaf from Shiroka Melnishka Loza – perhaps the most famous local variety for Struma Valley. The vine leaf is a very common motif in wine label designs, so I somehow wanted to show it in a different and even unconventional way, using the printing superpowers of my friends at Dagaprint. Together we chose a very special thicker paper on which we stamped the leaf, creating quite a serious debossing effect. Every single leaf detail was made to stand out as much as possible after debossing. At the same time, I made a fragment of another leaf, which was behind the first and stamped it with copper or red hot foil. I made a special micro-texture that showed the details in the leaf in a very interesting and elegant way. At the bottom of the label, I left some space for the Solinar brand and varieties.
The last detail in the entire design of the series that we paid attention to was the closure – we decided to use wax to give more sophisticated and classy look to the whole package.

This was the final touch in my work where I tried to meet past and future, tradition and innovation, in a single wine label design for Solinar wines.