The project mixes a range of disparate images from the 90s (TV dinners, CDs, Skechers), nodding to Penley’s tagline: “A wine brand that pairs with practically anything.” This scrapbook approach sits comfortably in line with the decade Simple finds its inspiration. “[The] 90s was an era that truly connected with me, from Backstreet Boys and lava lamps to Tamagotchi; it had it all,” Pat Parisi, Simple’s creative director tells It’s Nice That. “Even though we know 90s culture is making a comeback, we went back to original sources to find our inpso.” From old magazines (like Woman’s Day) to ads and thrift shop visits, Pat recalls: “We wanted to connect with our audience on a nostalgic level, so we treated the final art in a way that felt like we had cut it out from an old magazine or favourite poster.”
The type system for Penley extends this approach. For the wordmark, Simple compresses the typography “like a sign writer might do to maximise its size on a small store shop front”. In other areas, the agency exaggerates the nostalgic edge further. “The way the typography snuggles in neatly under the logo goes against our traditional rules of allowing the logo negative space to breathe.” Wider typography throughout the brand harks to traditional print ads, which “always made up the bottom section of a full-page advertisement”, says Pat.
All this translates onto the shelf with packaging that brings the wordmark to the fore on a lighter weight glass bottle. Simple also uses an 100 per cent screen printed label, meaning “that the bottle doesn’t risk heading to landfill after being polished off”, the Simple site concludes.