With its traditional-experimental spirit, Kontyos Fruit Winery in Hungary is operating with a traditional and reductive process, whereby fruit wine specialties are produced from first-class Hungarian seasonal fruits. Nine different kind of fruit wine are produced here, in the classic 0.75 litre bottle, in four types (sweet, dry, rosé, barrique). ?Our assignment was concerned with brand building and packaging design. The aim of the identity change was to introduce the brand, which had previously appeared at festivals, to the retail market. This also required a new packaging, as the client felt that their role in the market was not reflected by their previous identity. On the packaging, we had to translate the respect for tradition, innovative technology and craftsmanship diligence characteristic of the brand into a unique design language.?

Kontyos is certainly a beverage of Generation Y. It has been shaped primarily for the taste of young ladies, who prefer to drink fruit wines on exceptional occasions or at summer festivals. That is the origin of the concept of “365 days of summer”: each season has its own scent; summer is characterized by fresh, colourful fruits, the essence of which is carefully sealed in bottles. Kontyos turns everyday little pleasures into a celebration, and its intense fruity flavours fill the moment with the feeling of summer exhilaration. We aimed to picture this concept visually.?The pricing of the products was quite variable due to the extreme price range of the fruits, so we suggested lifting the more expensive wines into a more exclusive bottle with a separate product name. This is how Klára, the “Goddess of orchards”, was born, a premium fruit wine category with a distinct visual identity.?

During planning, the biggest challenge was to position the fruit wine product category, as it was almost completely unknown in the Hungarian market. We wanted to move away from the visual world of grape wines to make the new product category recognizable.?The labels of the basic fruit wines feature the fruits in the graphic style of classic plant identification books. The packaging of the premium wines depicts Klára, the Goddess of orchards, in the same illustrative style, with four different fruit wreaths.?Since the natural colour of Kontyos wines covers the entire warm colour spectrum, we chose blue, the complementary colour, as the base colour, which looks elegant and allows the colours of the fruits to prevail. We played a little with the colour, which sometimes has a metallic shine in a very thin fashion; sometimes it’s lighter, cyan blue, and sometimes has a dark, matte surface.?

The final result is a carefully designed identity – just like Kontyos fruit wines themselves. The quality and the appearance of the packaging certainly adds to the joy of consuming the drink and helps to evoke the scent of summer.

With the characterful design, we managed to position the brand on the Hungarian market, to match it to the needs of the target audience, and to put the brand as well as and the fruit wine category onto the Hungarian alcohol map.

As a result, since entering the market in February 2021, the managers of Kontyos Winery have been constantly opening new sales channels, and the initial sales are already 50% higher than last year.