Catholic Guilt Wine

Image Descriptions

First: Hand drawn type logo for Baby Bat Winery. I sketched for awhile playing around with whimsical and gothic fonts, settling on a simple script as my inspiration. The finished flourishes on the type design are slightly spooky, but not scary. And fun, but not goofy. Just what I wanted in this logo, and all it needed after that was as simple graphic element and minimal rendering.

Second: "The Blood of Christ" Pinot Noir, the first label illustrated. When I decided upon doing this theme, I knew I wanted to have my concept and color scheme influenced by the parish my family attends, St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in Burbank, IL. As a youth, I enjoyed attending church there because I was entranced by the particularly elaborate decorations and lighting from the stained glass that curated a grand atmosphere. I used these strong blue and red hues + gilded elements as the base of my color scheme and picked the accents from colors used symbolically in the Catholic faith.

Third: "Baptism Blend" Rosé, the second label illustrated. I decided to follow the same format as the first label, drawing over a translucent layer of line art to match composition and style. Each illustration relates back to the title of the wine on both labels, as well. Attention to detail was important in this piece to ensure the stained glass felt as close to real religious stained glass as possible. There are often entire bible stories packed into just one or two panes of glass, the entire narrative laid out visually. I wanted the audience to see and recognize real symbols representative of each bottle's theme.

Fourth: "Oil of Salvation" Pinot Grigio, the third label illustrated. Before starting this label, I had absolutely nothing in mind about what to do for my third bottle. Deciding against doing another bottle in the same style, I picked a white wine + name to begin. The color scheme was inverted and a few new hues added, but colors were pulled directly from the first two bottles to retain a sense of cohesiveness. "Oil of Salvation" is used in baptism and is believed to strengthen the person being baptized to turn away from the temptation of sin. The epitome of that concept is the Original Sin, which I chose to depict in the center panel of this bottle.

Fifth: Each main illustration in the line shown together. It was important for the artwork to be successful both individually on the bottles, but also when shown connecting like a triptych. I illustrated in this specific style to emulate early religious paintings, a lot of which were contained in gilded panels. These triptychs were seperate paintings, but connected by theme or sequence. Sometimes there were even smaller accent panels contributing to the narrative or containing portraits, which also heavily influenced my composition on the individual bottles.

Sketch For Future Plans

I'm not through with Baby Bat Winery or even this line, Catholic Guilt. I had the idea that due to the color scheme I chose, three more bottles could be created. I mocked up a color palette for the proposed new wines in the series and started playing around with types and possible names. To be decided (and researched) is the imagery to utilize.

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