Villa San-Juliette

We were commissioned by Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick (Executive producers of American Idol) to create the brand for their Californian vineyard Villa San-Juliette.

Our brief – to create a brand that had impact and a distinctive personality, and of course represent Nigel and Ken’s dream of owning a vineyard in California. The brand consists of three components – the logotype, the Fat Monk character and the VSJ stamp which are all featured here. These elements work together in a variety of ways depending on the application, the most notable of course being the wine labels themselves.

“Gavin was extremely inspiring at the beginning of our project and extremely receptive as we progressed it. I could not have wanted more from a creative partner.”
Nigel Lythgoe, Villa San-Juliette

Some of the development work for the lables is shown here. Currently there are three wines in production at Villa San-Juliette – Pinot Grigiot, Cabernet Blend (Romantique) and Rosé (Pleasant Valley Pink).

The tag line ‘a little drop from heaven’ references the vineyard’s location. Locally this part of Paso Robles in California is known as Heaven. This fact was the inspiration for the Fat Monk, which actually started life as an angel. The wine labels work together as a family and the Fat Monk sits proudly as the focus for the 2008 versions.

Shown here are just some of the branding and label options we produced. You’ll note that the brand started life as Villa San-Michelle. All our work featured in ‘Corkscrewed’, the reality TV series which documented Ken Warwick’s journey to our London studio to commission us and then again in a later episode to discuss the development of the work.