L'Om wine a simplistic example of packaging design inspired by nature
Nature’s Patterns
The colder weather is starting to arrive in the Northern Hemisphere, especially here in London. Whispers of Christmas are creeping into daily conversations. It's the perfect time of year for a heart-warming full-bodied wine like a Grenache. One of the better wine labels I have seen recently is L'Om by Celler Masroig situated two hours outside of Barcelona.
They approached Atipus a Barcelona graphic design studio to help redesign L'Om wine. The label honours the elm tree, which grows on the vineyard and is a symbol of the El Masroig area. Elms thrive in well-drained soil, which also happens to be the ideal soil conditions for Grenache. Both don't like having "wet feet". Vineyard and wine branding often centre around the land and soil because that's where grapes develop their distinctive flavour. Sommeliers say they can taste the land where grapes are grown. The elm is a deciduous tree changing colour from green to goldy orange during autumn when the colder weather starts to arrive. This is nicely reflected in the label foil colours of the L'Om Negre and L'Om Premium.
The asymmetric label shape and foiled lines were inspired by the elm tree's leaf structure. A beautiful simplistic pattern inspired by nature. Patterns from nature inspire all sorts of structures, architecture and packaging forms. Whether that be for purely visual delight or because they're mathematically efficient.
Elm trees have branching trunks. This is when two or more trunks branch out from the main trunk allowing it to grow a very large span. This characteristic of the elm tree can also be found in an iconic Barcelona building designed by Antoni Gaudí. Inside La Sagrada Familia, tree-like columns branch off to support the roof. In-between these columns are green and gold glass skylights. Could this also be representative of the elm tree’s colour changes?
Other examples of where patterns from nature have influenced packaging?
Island Gin is distilled on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island. The bottle designed by O-I Glass was inspired by the Kina, also known as the sea urchin, which can be found off the coastline of New Zealand.
