Logo & Branding
I wanted the logo for “Fiddlehead” to feel playful, simplistic, and relaxed. At first, I considered having a photo-realistic fiddlehead fern or other such elements in the logo; however, it didn’t really fit, so I ended up scrapping it. I decided to really lean into the illustrative elements of the brand. I played around with the style of the logo for a while before settling on the doodle-y look of the final version. Even the type in the logo is drawn, traced over the original type (Averia Serif) to give it more of a hand-drawn look. Color was probably the most difficult part of the logo. I went through several different palettes before settling on a more monochromatic palette.
Menu
Creating the menu took quite a while. Much of my time was spent researching the content of the menus themselves. A few of the wines selected for this menu were things I’ve had before, but most were wines I’ve never heard of. The food menu also took a considerable amount of thought, with much of it being inspired by dishes from restaurants I love, such as Staplehouse.
I really wanted the menu to have the appearance of something printed on a typewriter, so the names and titles use the font JMH Typewriter. Ingredients and other important information use Consolas, so it’ll be easier to read. Aside from the logos, I also included an illustration exclusive to the menu of two lesbian mice having dinner together.
Packaging: Wine Bottles
Making these wine labels was quite possibly the most difficult part of this project. They went through so many changes and alterations, and I got stuck quite often while working on them. But I’m extremely pleased with the final results. Each of these was designed to emphasize the wines they were designed for, as well as their names. For instance, “Salmon Run” was designed for a pinot noir not only because it pairs well with salmon, but because the grapes are harvested around the same time as their spawning season.
Collateral
I had the most fun designing merch for “Fiddlehead”. Originally, I was going to make sweaters and wine bags, but ended up deciding against it as it felt too boring. Instead, I decided to make tote bags, stickers, and a matchbook. There weren’t any decent mockups for the designs I envisioned, so I ended up making my sticker designs into a sticker sheet. Some of my favorites made it onto the tote bags as well. My favorite piece of collateral to design was the matchbook. I adore cute matchbook designs, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to design my own!
Environmental
Finding mockups for the environmental aspects of the project proved to be quite difficult, as the restaurant I had envisioned was cozy and a little kitsch, and all the mockups available at the time were extremely minimalist. In the end, however, I found ones I liked and could easily modify. I’m particularly proud of the restaurant exterior, which took a while to perfect.
Advertising
When it comes to advertising, “Fiddlehead” seems like something that wouldn’t have much physical presence as far as promotion is concerned, a billboard is hardly the place to advertise for a cute little wine bar. So instead, I decided to design their instagram page. Posts including information about the restaurant, its events and updates are all illustrations done by me, and the photographs are ones I’ve taken myself, with the exception of the one mockup.
Conclusion
I was looking forward to this project before the semester even started. I worked at a farmers market near my house over that summer, and so many of the products, especially wine bottles, had really excellent package design. One such wine bottle was this chardonnay by Obsidian Wine Co. that had this absolutely stunning woodgrain print on the label. The wood used to make the print was actually from the area the wine was made in, and there was even a little description of the tree and the area on the back of the bottle. This got me really pumped to design a wine bar this semester, and despite the struggle I went through to get to this point, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Fiddlehead Wine Bar, Procreate/Photoshop/Indesign, Advanced Graphic Design, 2022