António Braga – Independent oenological authorship

António Braga — Independent oenological authorship

António Braga is an experienced winemaker venturing for the first time on his own with the goal to tell stories that have never before been told, in each of his new wines. So we set out to create a wine brand about stories.

But, while António Braga is a brand about stories, these stories aren’t popular tales, known by everyone and told by many. These stories are António’s own creations, fruit of his knowledge and point of view. So we wanted to represent António not as a storyteller, but an author.

For that we found inspiration in a visual staple of the history of stories: the title page of a book. More than a book cover, often designed to seduce or represent the story, the title page is where the author is presented as the creator of the story, right before the start of the narrative.

Two important aspects of title pages were central to our development of the brand: the type-heavy hierarchical layouts and the thinness of the paper, which usually would let the shadow of the next page be seen giving us a glimpse of the beginning of the story.

So, in every wine, there are always two layers to the packaging. the first layer, much like a title page, is composed of strong typography, with António’s name in a central role, presented as the author. The second layer, much more classical and reminescent of a novel’s first page, tells the story behind each wine. In the packaging this was achieved by the use of a silk paper wrapping with the “title page” that once removed, would reveal the “first page” label on the bottle.

The brand’s connection with stories is completed with other details of editorial inspiration: The brand’s icon and seal are an homage to old publisher’s stamps and the whole packaging is composed of literary terms, like “edited in 2022” or “a story by”.