Branding and websites for wine brands: We bring wine brands to life.
Beyond is a creative agency in Southampton that brings wine brands to life: characters and labels, films, websites and online shops. We work with Fortunate Son in Napa Valley, Summer Dreams on the Sonoma Coast and Chêne Bleu in Provence.
Fortunate Son
Every Fortunate Son wine has a story behind it. The brand needed a world those stories could live in.
Fortunate Son is the sister winery to Hundred Acre, one of Napa Valley's cult Cabernet names. Jayson Woodbridge makes it in Napa Valley, and each wine, from The Dreamer to The Diplomat and The Warrior, has its own story.
Our illustrators drew a character for each one, dark, dramatic and richly painted, and set it beside its bottle. Then we animated them and built the website around them, so a visitor walks into the world the wine comes from.
“We immediately fell in love with the team’s tactile, artistic approach.”
Summer Dreams
Same group as Fortunate Son, opposite mood. Where Fortunate Son is dark and painterly, Summer Dreams is sunlight and sea air.
Summer Dreams is Jayson and Helen Woodbridge's label from the Sonoma Coast, the cool edge of Sonoma by the Pacific: mostly Pinot Noir, with names like Golden Hour, Twilight and Stargazing.
Lightspeed Films had already shot footage for the brand, so we directed the edit and, with some sourced clips, cut a short film for every wine in the range, from Golden Hour to Stargazing. Then we designed and built a storefront where customers sign up to buy, which the Summer Dreams team runs itself, and we look after its SEO.
Chêne Bleu
Chêne Bleu's label is a hand-drawn world full of oak leaves, bees, rabbits and old stories. The estate wanted people to step inside it.
Chêne Bleu is made at La Verrière, a priory high above the Provençal plains that has made wine since 1427, inside the Mont Ventoux UNESCO biosphere reserve. Xavier and Nicole Rolet restored the estate and named the wine after its ancient blue oak. Two of its wines, Abelard and Héloïse, are named after the medieval lovers.
We rebuilt the label in 3D for a brand film, with a model of the bottle moving through it, all made in our studio. Then we made the label itself interactive: hover over its characters to read their stories, and hunt for the rabbits hidden in it.
Three wineries, two continents, one studio
Our studio is in Southampton. Two of the wineries are eight hours behind us in California, and one is a short flight away in the south of France. The work happens over calls and shared proofs.
Why wine brands work with us
The people who hear the winemaker's story are the ones who draw it, animate it and build the website for it.
- 01
The same hands on the label and the website
The illustrators who draw your characters animate them, and our developers put that same artwork on the website. Nothing is redrawn by another supplier on the way.
Fortunate Son: characters, animation and website from one studio.
- 02
You talk to the people doing the work
The designer who hears the winemaker's story draws it. When the shop needs a new vintage, you message the developer who built it. No account manager, no ticket.
Summer Dreams: the team runs its own shop, and we're a message away.
- 03
Wineries come back
The Hundred Acre group came to us for Fortunate Son and came back for Summer Dreams. Nobody had to explain the brand twice.
More work for the Hundred Acre group is in the studio now.
Six things a wine brand should get right
Worth knowing whoever you hire. Each one comes from work we've made for these three wineries.
- 01
Start from the winemaker's story
Not five brand values. One thing that's true of this wine and nobody else's: a vineyard, a winemaker, a legend. Everything else is drawn from it.
Fortunate SonEach Fortunate Son wine has a story, and each got a character of its own.
- 02
Design the range as a family
Decide what stays the same on every label and what changes for each wine, before the first one is finished. New vintages and new wines then slot in.
Fortunate SonFortunate Son's characters share one painted world, and each wine has its own figure in it.
- 03
Make what you can from what you have
Before anyone books a crew, look at the footage, photos and artwork you already own. A good edit, or an animated label, often does more than a new shoot.
Summer DreamsSummer Dreams' films were cut from footage another company had already shot.
- 04
Keep what works, add what's missing
A label people love or a website that sells is worth keeping. Build around it instead of starting again.
Chêne BleuChêne Bleu kept its label and its Squarespace sites; we added the film and the interactive label.
- 05
Know where you can ship before the shop is designed
Selling wine online needs the right licence, and in the US the rules on shipping direct change from state to state. Where you can sell decides how the shop works.
Summer DreamsSummer Dreams' customers sign up before they buy.
- 06
Give every wine a page, not a PDF
Put the tasting notes, the vineyard, the vintage and what to drink it with on a page of its own. Search engines and AI assistants read pages, and a tech sheet locked in a PDF is easy for them to miss.
Summer DreamsSummer Dreams' SEO targets tasting notes, flavours and regional varieties.
From the first call to the first bottle sold online
Five steps, with dates in the proposal. You deal with the same people throughout.
- 01
A free first call
You talk to the people who'd do the work. We reply to every enquiry within one working day.
- 02
A written proposal
Usually within a week of the call: the work, who does it, the dates and the cost.
- 03
The story and the look
We start from the winemaker's story and draw the characters, labels or world from it, and you approve them before anything is built.
- 04
Film, website and shop
Animation, film and the website are made in the same studio, so the artwork moves from label to screen unchanged.
- 05
Launch and after
Your team adds vintages and edits pages in Sanity. When they'd rather not, they message us, and we sort it.
Food and drink
The services behind it
Wine brand design, answered
Which agency designs branding and websites for wine brands?
Beyond, a creative agency in Southampton, designs branding, labels, films and websites for wine brands. We work with Fortunate Son in Napa Valley, Summer Dreams on the Sonoma Coast and Chêne Bleu in Provence.
Who designed the Fortunate Son website?
Beyond, a creative agency in Southampton. We drew a character for each of Fortunate Son's wines, animated them, and designed and built the website around them. It won an Awwwards Honourable Mention in 2023. See the case study.
Can you make a winery film from footage we already have?
Usually, yes. Send us what you have and we'll tell you whether it's enough, or what a short extra shoot would add. For Summer Dreams we edited another film company's footage, with some sourced clips, into a short film for every wine in the range.
Should a winery sell direct from its own website?
Often, yes, if you can ship legally to the people who want to buy. Selling direct keeps the margin and the customer. It doesn't have to be a full shop: Summer Dreams sells through a storefront customers sign up to, which suits wines people seek out.
Does a wine website need an age check?
Most wine brands use one, and it's worth doing well. Keep it to one question, remember the answer so returning visitors aren't asked again, and build it so search engines can still read the page behind it. A badly built age check can hide a whole site from Google.
Do you work with wineries outside the UK?
Yes. Our studio is in Southampton, and our wine clients are in Napa Valley and on the Sonoma Coast in California, and in Provence. The Hundred Acre Wine Group found us through our work for The Fat Duck. Most of the work happens over calls and shared proofs, whatever the time zone.
How much does a wine label or winery website cost?
Every project is priced individually, usually within a week of a free call, in a written proposal that sets out the work, who does it, the dates and the cost. A label, a range, a film and a shop are priced as separate pieces, so you can start with one.
Your wine
Tell us about your wine.
A new label, a range, a film, a shop, or just a second opinion on what you have. Tell us roughly what you're thinking; we'll reply within one working day and set up a free call with the people who'd do the work.
What happens next
- 1You'll hear back from us within one working day.
- 2We'll set up a free, no-obligation call with the people who'd actually do the work. Everything is made in-house.
- 3You get a clear proposal with scope, timeline and cost, usually within a week of our call.
“We immediately fell in love with the team’s tactile, artistic approach.”
