Two new cans for Turkey Flat Vineyards.

Turkey Flat Vineyards is making two new ready-to-drink cans: a Sangria and a Vermouth. The team came to us with concept art for both and asked us to turn it into label artwork that’s ready for the printer. Here’s how the labels came together, from the first concept to the print proofs.

The brief

Turkey Flat sent the brief on 24 September. They had concept art for both cans and a short list of changes. The plain “Turkey Flat Vineyards” type at the top was to be replaced with the Turkey Head logo from their Quinquina bottle label. The wording would stay as supplied for now. Each label had to be 164.5 mm wide and 115 mm high, so it wraps the whole can. The mandatory marks would be finalised with the printer once the winemaker had confirmed the blends.

From concept to artwork

The concepts set the look, but they weren’t print artwork. We rebuilt each label as a flat wrap in four panels (front, right side, back and left side), set every line of type for the can, and cut the illustrations out so they could be placed and moved around the label. The illustrations were upscaled to print resolution, and the Turkey Head logo was taken from the high-resolution artwork of the Quinquina label, so it prints sharp at the size it sits on the can.

Four rounds, step by step

Here’s how the Vermouth label changed over four rounds.

1. The winery’s concept (24 September): the starting point, with “Turkey Flat Vineyards” in plain type at the top.

2. First proof (24 September): built on our label template with the Turkey Head logo in place of the type, and the winery’s wording set for the can, including a larger 250mL volume statement.

3. Proof for review (28 September): after our own check of both labels, the golds and inks were matched across the pair, the Vermouth glass and botanicals were rebuilt whole, and the mandatory marks got their own strip on the side of the can. This is the round that went to the winery.

4. Final round (7 October): the winery asked for the imagery to flow further round the can, especially on the Vermouth. The gold rule that cut the bouquet off is gone, whole botanicals from the same painting now carry it round the side, and a small spray crosses the seam. The wording didn’t change.

Carrying the art across the seam

A wrap label meets itself at the back of the can. We kept the text and barcode 5 mm clear of both ends, and on the Sangria the fruit on the left side now carries on across the join onto the back, so there’s no hard edge when you turn the can.

The print proofs

Each label went out as a full-size print proof: 164.5 × 115 mm at trim, with 3 mm of bleed (a 170.5 × 121 mm print extent), a 3 mm safe area and crop marks. The back panel’s mandatory marks, nutrition panel and barcode are confirmed by the winery and the printer, so we’ve covered those areas in the images below, along with the Vermouth side-panel copy that’s still to come.

A 3D proof viewer

Flat artwork is hard to picture on a can, so we built Turkey Flat a private 3D proof viewer. In a browser, the team could spin each can, zoom right into the type, switch between a silver and a gold lid, see the two cans side by side and check the flat label, all before anything went to print.

The print files

For each can we prepared a print-proof PDF with crop marks, a print-ready PDF without marks for the printer, a separate gold-foil plate (the gold is planned as a foil, like the Quinquina label, so it’s kept on its own layer), the master artwork file, and flat and mock-up images. The colours were checked against what can actually be printed in CMYK, and every font on the labels is licensed for print.

Labels, packaging and print

Label and packaging design sits alongside our logo, branding and website work, all from the same studio in Nuriootpa. You can see more of it on our branding and label design page. If you have a label, a can or a bottle that needs artwork, tell us about it.