Helena Lobo

Las marcas del Vino de Oporto no son solamente marcas, son símbolos de una historia rica, de un vino único, que presentó siempre una posición de destaque en la economía portuguesa.
Desde el punto de vista del diseño, estudiar la identidad de una empresa de Vino de Oporto ha permitido: profundizar el conocimiento de la identidad visual del sector; catalogar y organizar los documentos gráficos de una marca de este vino, en su historia y reconocer sus diferentes identidades visuales en etiquetas de vino; organizar cronológicamente y estilísticamente y finalmente, identificar las marcas visuales registradas. El estudio fue basado en documentos ephemera de naturaleza gráfica y se han aislado las identidades visuales presentes en etiquetas de las marcas Wiese & Krohn y sus marcas secundarias, Arnsby y Falcão Carneiro. Se agruparon por similitudes gráficas, ordenadas de acuerdo a series de etiquetas y clasificadas por tipologías marcarias.

Port wine, being a Portuguese icon, has evidenced an increasing strategic and economic importance in the last decade. This study aims to analyse the use of typography in Port wine labels, according to the areas of information present on its formal composition, whereas a consumer-centred approach and his perception of the label, that is, to analyse the typographic message — an informative one — shortly after the moments of chromatic sensation — a psychological one — firstly, and the intuition of the formal composition — an organizer one — secondly. With this purpose in mind, we gathered a collection of labels in use on the market in the year 2011, belonging to thirty-two companies / fifteen brands, representative of the sector. These ephemera documents are related to all mandatory traditional mentions of Port wine, regulated by the IVDP (Institute of Douro and Port Wine). To classify the typographic typology, an hybrid of the FBA-UB classification (BALLESTER, 1998; FERREIRA, 2003) and its adaptation by MARQUES, 2011 was adopted. In each series of labels of each brand, the use of typographic typology, the case and the colour of the letters were identified. The resulting scores of the typographic typology were grouped by wine category and by areas of information in each label, that is, on the brand, on the origin designation, on a traditional term, on the identification of the producer/bottler and finally in an eventual other existing designation. It was possible to quantify the percentage of each item in all the labels and finally, the average percentage of each typographic typology in each category and in any mandatory mention. The resulting tables of each area

Port wine, being a Portuguese icon, has evidenced an increasing strategic and economic importance in the last decade. This study aims to analyze the use of typography in Port wine labels, according to areas of information present on its formal composition, whereas a consumer-centred approach and his perception of the label, that is, to analyze the typographic message — an informative one — shortly after the moments of chromatic sensation — a psychological one — firstly, and the intuition of the formal composition — an organizer one — secondly.
With this purpose in mind, we gathered a collection of labels in use on the market in the year 2011, belonging to thirty-two companies/fifteen brands, representative of the sector. These ephemera documents are related to all mandatory traditional terms (mentions) of Port wine, regulated by the IVDP (Institute of Douro and Port Wine). To classify the typographic typology, an hybrid of the FBA-UB classification (BALLESTER, 1998; FERREIRA, 2003) and its adaptation by MARQUES, 2011was adopted. In each series of labels of each brand, the use of typographic typology, the case and the colour of the letters were identified.
The resulting scores of the typographic typology were grouped by wine category and by areas of information in each label, that is, on the brand, on the origin designation, on a traditional term, on the identification of the producer/bottler and finally in an eventual other existing designation. It was possible to quantify the percentage of each item in all the labels and finally, the average percentage of each typographic typology in each category and in any mandatory mention. The resulting tables of each area under analysis, allow us to assess the use of typography, contextualizing that, in the whole sector: the typographic typology and the chromatic option are neutral and classical, associated with the ideas of quality, excellence and tradition; the typographic model is "conservative", lacking diversity, and "innovation" only exists in the case of the standard port wine categories, in less expensive wines.
This study provides knowledge of the actual reality of the use of typography on the Port wine label, and consequently, it motivates questions about the need for flexibility/alteration/reformulation of the graphic standards and options of Port Wine labelling, in order to allow more innovation/visibility, although it is understandably imperative not to lose control of the visual transmission of the values of tradition and historical identity.
From an holistic perspective, the study provides: an innovative and analytical methodology approach of the ephemeral documents; the in-depth study of the visual identity and graphic typology of an iconic Portuguese product; a growing recognition of the importance of design and designers in the construction of a people’s memory and culture; the positioning of the designer as a creator of graphic systematization programs and chronological/iconographic mapping of brands and products and, finally, the legitimation of the role of design as a mobile of economic development and social acceptance.