\/\/\/\ WALDRUCHE DE MONTREMY | CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE | PACKAGING DESIGN
FL@33 was commissioned by members of the French family Waldruche De Montremy to develop a minimal, modern identity for a new champagne brand, including a family shield redesign, a champagne brand identity with packaging solutions and a champagne logo system.

\/\/\/\ CONCEPT GENERATION | CUVÉE NAME | ANNUAL PATTERN
Focusing on the women in the family tree, the champagne's cuvée is identified by a selected first name of a family member instead of merely stating the year of production. The changing cuvée name forms part of the champagne logo. Starting with “Cuvée Marie Annick”, the cuvée will be updated every year and going forward.
___ The visual identity system was created to encourage a playful treatment of various different patterns such as wallpapers that can be found in the Château du Montremy or maps of the property and surroundings .
___ For the launch of the identity we selected an original French “Toile de Jouy” as found in the Château and we also photographed others for future editions.
___ The Toile de Jouy pattern is an integral part of the visual identity and is shown on one side of the otherwise white paper bottle bag. It also features on a deluxe silk fabric gift wrap and on the champagne's online boutique.

FUROSHIKI BIN TSUTSUMI | \/\/\/\ CUVÉE BOTTLE BAG | CUSTOMISED TISSUE PAPER
It's true – Furoshiki Bin Tsutsumi sounds more Japanese than French – and that's because it is – an extremely sustainable Japanese bottle wrap folding technique using a square piece of printed sustainably sourced silk.
___ In the hope people will keep it, this silk fabric is not only an elegant gift wrap but when folded correctly, it is also creating a small handle at the top to carry the bottle. The printed silk is the \/\/\/\ luxury gift wrap in this range and is given to customers of at least one complete case of six bottles of champagne.
___ A sophisticated but slightly less expensive gift packaging is a customised paper bottle bag – enhanced with gold-foiled champagne logo and family shield and the red cuvée-exclusive pattern. There are currently three of these bags in each case of 6 bottles.
___ Still very elegant, an optional customised tissue paper is offered as standard gift wrap for each bottle of champagne. Printed in gold on white, it only features the family shield. This standard tissue gift wrap can be used across different cuvées.

THE YEAR THAT WAS NOT | \/\/\/\ PRESS
As with so many things around the world, this project too, was delayed by the pandemic. Design and production already started in 2018 but came to a grinding halt before the planned launch in 2020. It all finally came together at the end of 2021 and we now look forward to regular updates.
___ Related press is usually listed below on our website's project pages, but this time something rather unusual happened, so we break our own rule a little at this occasion...
___ The logo and the family shield were selected for inclusion into esteemed logo design books before the champagne was even launched. Namely the must-have publication Logo – The reference guide to symbols and logotypes (revised edition) and Modern Heraldry – Volume 2 with its subsequent review in Creative Review. Before the official launch of the champagne, this meant that we were not really allowed to mention the press or show the content on our website or social media channels. Very strange times indeed. Who would have thought in 2019 that the fairly slow wheels of book publishing would overtake us...

PICTURE CREDITS
The pictures of the hot-foil die and the champagne bags being printed were kindly taken and provided by the stellar UK-based printers Pressision.

\/\/\/\ LOGO DESIGN | FIRST CUVÉE | CHAMPAGNE WALDRUCHE DE MONTREMY
FL@33 was commissioned by members of the French family Waldruche De Montremy to develop a minimal, modern identity for a new champagne brand, including a family shield redesign, a champagne brand identity with packaging solutions and a \/\/\/\ champagne logo system.
___ The new FL@33-designed champagne logo is often shown together with the redesigned family shield and both were therefore created in tandem. The boutique champagne's cuvée – identified by a selected name of the family – forms part of the logo and will be updated every year.

DESIGN | CROWNS AND ZIG AND ZAG
There comes the time in every designer's life when a zig-zag logo is one of the favourite solutions to be presented for client's initials or company names – abbreviations such as MMM, MVV and the likes – and this time zig-zag, with a touch of royalty and other associations, won the race.
___ Waldruche de Montremy: WM or \/\/\/\ – resembling a little bit the silhouette of the Château Du Montremy with its two towers. The logo's shape is also like a crown and a bit like an exploding cork.

Champagne!

To be precise: Champagne Waldruche de Montremy, Cuvée Marie Annick, Brut Régence – the first of hopefully many cuvées to come. It was produced in a limited edition of 500 bottles – all featuring the new logo screenprinted in gold directly onto the glass.

THE YEAR THAT WAS NOT | PRESS
As with so many things around the world, this project too, was delayed by the pandemic. Design and production already started in 2018 but came to a grinding halt before the planned launch in 2020. It all finally came together at the end of 2021 and we now look forward to regular updates.
___ Related press is usually listed below on our website's project pages, but this time something rather unusual happened, so we break our own rule a little at this occasion...
___ The logo and the family shield were selected for inclusion into esteemed logo design books before the champagne was even launched. Namely the must-have publication Logo – The reference guide to symbols and logotypes (revised edition) and Modern Heraldry – Volume 2 with its subsequent review in Creative Review. Before the official launch of the champagne, this meant that we were not really allowed to mention the press or show the content on our website or social media channels. Very strange times indeed. Who would have thought in 2019 that the fairly slow wheels of book publishing would overtake us...

FAMILY SHIELD | COAT OF ARMS | DESIGN REFRESH | WALDRUCHE DE MONTREMY
FL@33 was commissioned by members of the French family Waldruche De Montremy to develop a minimal, stripped-down and modern design of the family's coat of arms.
___ The design refresh of the heraldic escutcheon – or shield – on which the coat of arms is featured was created with the family's champagne brand in mind for which FL@33 also created a new \/\/\/\ logo at the same time – together with a brand identity and champagne packaging design.
___ The coat of arms and the family's champagne brand logo will often be shown together from now on and were therefore developed by FL@33 as part of a joint new visual language.

A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT THE DESIGN REFRESH
Shown below are a just few of the numerous incarnations of the Waldruche De Montremy coat of arms.
___ The Waldruche De Montremy title was reportedly given by a grateful Mary Stuart – Queen of Scots or Mary I of Scotland – who apparently stayed at the château occasionally.

History | Hereditary symbols | The hereditary symbols such as the triangular elements, stars and rings were all maintained so that the originally represented family achievements are not altered. The triangular elements represent the roof of a house such as the Château du Montremy and signifies protection and faithful service. The ring symbolises fidelity and is the sign of the fifth son. The hexagram (Greek) or sexagram (Latin) – the six-pointed geometric star figure – or mullet – is rendered with an outline in the new design – representing the pierced mullet as found in traditional incarnations. Typically having five points, the mullets with six points are presumed in German-Nordic heraldry, while five points are presumed in Gallo-British heraldry.
___ Elements were optimised so that the shield can easily be printed with one colour only – black on golden champagne bottle neck wraps for example – but also so that the escutcheon can be reproduced in very small that way.

History | Tradional shield shape | The bottom shape of of the shield originally features a so-called “French” style used from the 17th century. The slightly curved lines at the bottom meet at the centre, pointing downwards. This shield shape was used in the Armorial général de France in 1696 for example.
___ This “French” shape of the base is found earlier, in French and English heraldry, from ca. 1600 (“Stuart” type).

21st century | Simplification | However – since there is no possible mix-up with similar heraldic shield shapes the design refresh also involved the shape of the shield itself.
___ After countless variations and considerations we all agreed to further simplify the coat of arms and replace the curved lines at the base by introducing straight lines that still meet at the centre of the escutcheon pointing downwards.
___ The result is a minimal, carefully considered and timeless design of the family's shield.

THE YEAR THAT WAS NOT | PRESS
As with so many things around the world, this project too, was delayed by the pandemic. Design and production already started in 2018 but came to a grinding halt before the planned launch in 2020. It all finally came together at the end of 2021 and we now look forward to regular updates.
___ Related press is usually listed below on our website's project pages, but this time something rather unusual happened, so we break our own rule a little at this occasion...
___ The logo and the family shield were selected for inclusion into esteemed logo design books before the champagne was even launched. Namely the must-have publication Logo – The reference guide to symbols and logotypes (revised edition) and Modern Heraldry – Volume 2 with its subsequent review in Creative Review. Before the official launch of the champagne, this meant that we were not really allowed to mention the press or show the content on our website or social media channels. Very strange times indeed. Who would have thought in 2019 that the fairly slow wheels of book publishing would overtake us...