Samhain Brew Harvest Wine Label Illustration and Lettering for Wine Packaging

Image of an illustrated wine label front featuring handdrawn lettering Samhain Brew, a boiling cauldron, and intertwining leaves and vines with a ghost on the top — Samhain Brew, an Irish harvest seasonal wine label design, shown here featuring hand-drawn lettering and wine label illustration with a ghost, cauldron, and autumn leaves.

The Brief: To create an Irish harvest seasonal wine label incorporating illustrated lettering and autumn illustrations in the tradition of the Samhain Irish tradition.

Role: Illustrator responsible for concept, design, and implementation of all lettering and illustration. Brief provided by artist Steve Simpson.

Tools Used: Procreate app, iPad Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, Apple pencil.

The Irish harvest season is called Samhain (pronounced similar to “sow-whun”, like a sow pig), and I was tasked to create an hand-drawn wine label illustration incorporating autumn illustrations and hand-drawn lettering together for a bespoke illustrated wine bottle label packaging design. The brief was set by the talented artist and illustrator Steve Simpson for a workshop for the Luvin Letters in Design conference in Dublin in October 2024. I started by researching the Irish tradition of Samhain to come up with some iconography and motifs that I might use in the label, including ghosts, turnip jack-o-lanterns, autumn branches, and more. I was inspired by a spooky lettering style, so I drew iterations from that in my own style to create bespoke lettering for the wine name to integrate into the illustrations on the label. Lastly, on the back label I created a fun barcode style so that the barcode became part of the illustration rather than just a utilitarian part of the label. In the workshop, we drew everything on paper and used the materials present, but afterwards I came home and digitized it and added some vibrant colors to finish it up. A very fun workshop, and Steve was great to learn from and work with, and I love the finished hand-drawn wine packaging design.

Image of multiple sketches and drawings on a table for a bespoke wine label design for Samhain Brew, a harvest wine label illustration by Jennifer Hines — Some of the sketches and explorations created by hand for a harvest-inspired wine label design, including the hand-drawn lettering and hand-drawn label packaging design.

Hand-drawn lettering and illustration for a harvest inspired wine label front label for Samhain Brew, featuring a boiling cauldron, autumn leaves and vines wrapping around the border and lettering, and a ghost at top — The final hand-illustrated wine label design after digitizing it and adding vibrant colors, showing details of the hand-lettering and harvest-inspired illustrations.

Hand-drawn lettering and illustration for a harvest inspired wine label back label for Samhain Brew, featuring a creative UPC code that is boiling cauldron, autumn leaves and vines wrapping around the border and a ghost along the right side — The back wine label for the wine packaging design, featuring a fun barcode design that becomes part of the design.

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