For Nabidh Wines, I was tasked to create a logo, brand identity, and website. The focus was to include Nabidh's arabic background to reach new markets in the wine industry.
Role: Art Direction, Graphic Design, Web Design, UX Design, Brand Design
Nabidh Wines is a new wine company that specializes in creating wine from all around the world. Based in the meditriennian part of the world, Nabidh is Arabic-based and wanted to break into the wine market. By having a arab-based company and product, this gives them an edge in the market as not many wine companies are occupying this space and they see it as a way to push their brand and become a staple in this region as well as have a global impact on how others see wine.
I was tasked to create a logo and brand identity for Nabidh Wines. They wanted their logo to be modern but incorporate the arabic language as they wanted the appearance to be more exotic and different from the competitors. Along with this, I was tasked to create wine labels for the bottles that they sell. They wanted a minimal approach and something that will set them apart on retail shelves. Lastly I was tasked to create a website in which they will sell their product.
When I took on this project, I really didn't know anything about wines as I don't drink. I knew the basics like there were 2 types (now I know there's 3) and that some are made in California and Italy. That was really it. So I had to do initial research on what the difference between the types of wines and how the flavour profile differs between regions. I also needed to research different ranges of the types and what the difference was between a $20 Merlot and a $75 Merlot. As for the logo, I knew the direction I wanted to go with since I knew that grapes and wine glasses were the main shapes that companies tend to use and are incredibly recognizable in the wine industry. As far as the bottle designs, I wanted to see how other bottles were designed and how they displayed their brand on their labels. A lot of what I say had a standard rectangle label, but some had the info printed directly on the bottle, which was more of the direction I was leaning toward. For the website, when I was doing my initial research, I was a bit overwhelmed because there wasn't much educational content aimed towards new wine drinkers so I wasn't really sure which wine was good or what flavour profile I would aim toward. This was something I wanted to address in my designs.
For the logo, I started by experimenting with different shapes that are synonymous with the wine industry. I found that wine grapes, wine bottles, and wine glasses were usually used but also other competitors tend to just use a wordmark as their logo to keep things clean. For the wording, I opted to using arabic writing instead of english. The reason I chose this was because Nabidh is an arab-based company and by incorporating that into their brand would definitely set it apart from others. Also since arabic writing is script-based, I feel that it matched perfectly with wine since it's very fluid and customers would be reminded of flowing wine. For the colour scheme, I went with three different choices: merlot red, silver, and gold. I went with these colours to help with defining the quality of wines customers can choose from based off these colours, with Merlot Red being an average wine and gold being the premium.
For the wine bottle, I wanted to capitalize on pushing the brand. I placed the Nabidh Wine glass logo at a large background element for each bottle, one to set it apart from the standard wine label that the competitors are doing, and two to let customers know that this bottle is from Nabidh's and it won't be mistaken by others. I added the type of wine and the name of the wine in a serif font because it added a sense of luxury that I wanted to portray and it paired nicely with the logo. Since the design is already different from the standard wine bottle labels, this will Nabidh's Wine apart from the competitors, which is what they were hoping to accomplish, but will also give it a more minimalist approach to the label.
For the homepage, my focus was to get customers to products as quickly as possible. I started the page with one hero banner that displays the 3 types of wine that Nabidh carries. I then added 3 different product sections to highlight the best sellers for those 3 types. I wanted to include little write up for each type for those customers that may be new to wines and not know what the difference between the types are. At the bottom of the page, I included a writeup about Nabidh and what makes them stand out from the competitions. I felt that by having this on the homepage instead of an About Us page, makes it more transparent and easy for customers to really find out about the brand and what makes them special.
For this page, I have a sidebar filter navigation as well as having all of the products displayed in a uniform way. For the sidebar, I felt this was an important aspect of the page because with such a wide variety of products, customers need to be able to narrow down the initial results to find the wine they are looking for. For the filter menu, I opted to include Country, Region, Sub-Region, Style, Type and by Price. Since most wine connoisseurs have particular tastes in wines, these options should be able to better narrow down the selection to their tastes, and for those who may be newer to wine, it will allow them to pick broad filters without feeling overwhelmed. As far as writeups, I included a short description at the top of the page to describe the type of wine they are currently searching for. At the bottom of the page I expanded on that by including some history behind the type of wine and the popular regions that produce that type of wine. These descriptions are not only helpful for new customers who may not know the difference between the types of wines, but is also important to SEO as it should give some authority to the page by including high ranking keywords.
For this product page, I wanted to go a more informational route than a traditional e-commerce site, since wine is a complex product to sell. For the first half of the page, I put the product image, title, price and description of the wine and the add to cart button. These are important aspects to any site selling wine online as they are key pieces of information that consumers look for. For the second half of the page, I wanted this to be more information heavy. It is important to have the specifications of the wine, including the Alcohol level, Country, Region, Taste, and more. I also included a visual guide to the wine profile so that customers can know where a particular wine lines up on a scale of boldness, to see if that wine fits their taste. Lastly, I included a section of food pairing as wine can be an important aspect of a meal and if customers are buying a specific wine for a certain occasion, this will be able to help them make that decision.
Overall, this project was a success. Having designed a logo that not only will stand apart from the competition but also uses a different language so that it add a uniqueness to the design. For the bottle designs, by having the logo as the main draw of the bottle designs, it will set itself apart from competitors and will be recognizable by the consumers. Also by keeping a minimalist approach to the label, the bottles will all have a consistent look and will make that section retailer shelves look like it's dedicated like the Apple section in electronic stores. For the site, I wanted to be a bit more informational for the new wine drinkers, but also accessible for the seasoned connaisseurs. I felt that with the design, there is a good balance for both as it educates those looking for information about wine, but also has more advanced filters for those who are looking for that specific wine.
