LOVE looks to the ‘dark side’ for new Laithwaites wine range

Manchester-based creative agency, LOVE, worked with wine retailer Laithwaites to create a new identity for The Dip, the brand’s darkest wine release to date.

LOVE was tasked to create the identity for Laithwaites’ latest Black Red after the online wine retailer saw a gap in the market for a new Spanish blend. The brief was to look beyond the usual red wine category norms and create something altogether darker and more enticing in proposition and design.

Inspired by the dark and crimson of the Tintorera grape, which turns the liquid almost black once added, LOVE explored the dark side of Spanish folklore before arriving at The Dip. The wine range recalls the story of a blood-thirsty demon dog with a taste for human flesh. In name and in character, LOVE found the beast to be right for a red wine with a dark side. 

“The liquid lent itself to the myth which allowed us to call out its unique properties through the identity. It also gave us the opportunity to provide customers with a taste of the unexpected. Something you rarely get in the traditional wine world. Ultimately, we wanted to create a bit of theatre with enough suspense and surprise to make the moment both memorable and shareable,” says Ed Hall, design director at LOVE.

While red wines are traditionally bottled in green or dark glass, The Dip comes in a heavy-shouldered transparent bottle to hero the semi-opaque liquid. The clear bottle also reveals a spooky illustration, drawn by artist Maria Octavia Russo for the task, which depicts the devil dog on the reverse of the back label. Russo’s illustrations aims to bring the legend behind the liquid to life.