A design agency made its own wine – and it's as beautiful as you'd expect

Branding agency Tavern is celebrating its two-year anniversary, and to mark the special occasion the team have created a beautiful custom wine complete with a wonderfully extravagant glorifier. "Inspired by dive bars, Italian American social clubs, and red sauce joints," the sparkling red Lambrusco is the ultimate agency gift, capitalising on Tavern's playful spirit and unbounded creative ingenuity.

The bottle alone deserves a spot in the packaging design hall of fame for its contrast of vintage typography and cross-genre aesthetic inspirations. Thoroughly unique and delightfully ostentatious, Tavern's biennial celebration wine is a prime example of how the agency is already making its mark on the industry with its fresh and innovative spirit.

Speaking to Creative Bloq, Tavern's strategy director Lisa Franck reflects on the agency's second anniversary. "Year two has been a wild ride in the absolute best way. We’ve launched a number of exciting projects into the world: a huge rebrand for Sizzler Family Steak House, a historic spiritual home for Overholt rye whiskey, heritage-inspired merch for Burt’s Bees, just to name a few. To celebrate a year of wins, we wanted to end things on a high note with a toast to all those who’ve helped us along the way," she says.

Created as a client gift, Tavern's house wine was inspired by Italian American social clubs and the "timeless" and "deeply lived in" essence of the traditional tavern. The label design centres around the agency's wordmark which appears in a bold condensed version of Centry Schoolbook. Paired with 70s-era Minuet and Grilli Type Standard, the label has a stylish juxtaposition of contemporary sleekness and retro class, complete with "vintage seals, overlay stamps, and plenty of label blocking" inspired by the agency's favourite beer labels.

To add an extra flourish to the gift, Tavern created a custom glorifier for the bottle that doubles as an ashtray. The horse motif (which also appears on the wine label) is a nod to the agency's "unofficially official mascot". Decked out in patinaed brass and embossed with Tavern's seal and logo, the horseshoe-shaped glorifier-cum-ashtray is the perfect embellishment to the experience of the lavish gift, demonstrating the agency's thoughtful and delightfully offbeat creativity.

"All year we work on other people’s brands. So while the goal of this gift was of course to show our gratitude to our clients and close agency friends, it’s also a treat for ourselves to get to delve into our own brand," Lisa explains. "This year, we embraced the magic between two unexpected things in tension with one another. All the trappings of a high-class bottle of wine, sat on gilt glorifier that doubles as an ash tray. A sense of timelessness that can only come from something that feels both new and old at the same time," she adds.

Each package comes with a mock membership card to the agency's imaginary tavern, adding an extra level of immersion, while each bottle is dipped in wax and stamped with the horse insignia. "We love our clients, but we might be our own best client because we get to show off," says Tavern's founder and CCO Mike Perry. "We love DIY projects, crafting things by hand, and dipping bottles in wax. It connects us to why we became designers in the first place," he adds.

While Tavern's house wine is a thoroughly ambitious, immersive and impressive product, it's going to be a hard act to follow in years to come. As for future Tavern projects, Lisa hints "Our agency brand is built around the idea of the many incarnations of a tavern. As we continue to evolve, the Tavern we are building (and the Tavern-branded drinks inside) will certainly evolve with us."

For more design inspiration, check out Tavern's delightfully retro branding for Burt's Bees. If you're after more packaging inspiration check out Benefit's adorable grocery-inspired retro makeup products.