Casa Mariol

Innovationasapathtotradition

Casa Mariol represents more than a hundred years dedicated to the land and winemaking in Terra Alta, Catalonia. Three generations have kept the tradition of Casa Mariol alive since José María Vaquer Bes started to sell the wine he made at home. Touring through the streets of Batea (a village where vineyards are a religion) in his brand new Opel Blitz until now. They are devoted to wine, to what they do and to who they have become. You can tell by what ends up in the bottle, with Josep Maria Vaquer Llop (viticulture and oenology), Marta Vaquer Llop (production) and Miquel Àngel Vaquer Llop (winemaking) being ultimately responsible for it.

This devotion is also evident in its image, product of the visionary mind and transgressive spirit of Miquel Àngel Llop, the third and most brilliant head of Casa Mariol. In his hands lied among other things, the creative direction of the brand. Unfortunately, Miquel Àngel died during the Covid19 pandemic, but the mark he left on his brand and the world of wine, as well as on those who knew him, is indelible.

ClientCasa Mariol

Date2021

The Challenge

Casa Mariol has launched a new line of products and they contacted us to create its graphic identity. On top of that, we needed to redesign the catalog of all its products and the logo of both the Celler and that of Casa Mariol. The challenge lies in the essence of the client itself: How to build identity, character and personality in the universe of a brand that is already all about identity, character and personality?

The Solution

The new product line launched by Casa Mariol, "Licors Generosos", includes 3 new products: Mistela, Moscatell and Vi Ranci. And 3 premises when approaching the design of its identity: avoid pretentious language, follow the groundbreaking trail established by Miquel Àngel at the head of Casa Mariol and renew the classic image of the world of liqueurs as they had already achieved with the vermouth.

Casa Mariol has always relied on digital language, so we chose to draw a new line in this territory and unify the industrial code of the packaging with digital illustrations created from Text-Art/Ascii. We took advantage of this process of illustrating through text to insert a hidden message in the bottles. This message says: Miquel Àngel Vaquer ♥.

Long story short, we sought innovation within what unmistakably identifies Casa Mariol.

The redesign of the catalog took us to another layer of challenges because it implies the coexistence and unification of the different graphic lines of each product range. This requirement was indispensable so that when new additions to the catalog are needed, they can be implemented without the need for editorial redesign or graphic modifications.

Our starting point to approach this company is the notepad of a bar, a simple and cool format that allows us to bring together the variety of graphic styles of the different types of product through a clean and powerful art direction at the same time.

For the catalog finishing touches we opted for a transgressive and casual style, like Miquel Àngel's way of doing things: a silver wire-o binding, acetate covers, low grammage glossy paper and adhesives.

Once again, and although it may seem contradictory, seeking innovation helps us to build coherence and cohesion.

The logos of the Celler and Casa Mariol had to posses their own identity and character but, at the same time, transmit that they are part of the same family. Being two logos so important for the brand, we jumped forward in time and that made us opt for simplicity, so that the possible subsequent evolution of the logos would be easy, and for versatility, so that they would be able to adapt naturally to any activity or application of the company. With these premises in mind, typographic composition and minimalist formalization were our greatest allies.