From Hops to Vines
A New Tradition
As a new vineyard in Kent, Penn Oast recognised the need to establish a strong brand at the start of their journey. Oak Creative has helped to give their brand strong foundations from which to grow, ready for their first harvest.
‘Having a professional team on our side has been so helpful – there’s a huge amount to do and learn when establishing a vineyard, so having our branding taken care of was one less thing to worry about.’
Why did you first approach Oak Creative?
We’d been trying for a while to get a logo together as the starting point of branding for our new vineyard. The ideas we produced ourselves were just not portraying the high class and professional nature that we wished to exude.
It was after months of failing to produce our own logo that we decided that we needed to seek the professional help of those more artistically gifted than ourselves. When we were looking for a creative partner we needed someone that could understand our ethos and produce a complete branding style with logo, website and bottle labels being paramount.
How did the Creative Partnership begin?
From our perspective the relationship was easy to get going. We initially made contact with Oak Creative at the Vineyard Show in Detling, and after having a quick chat on their stand, we felt that it was worth talking to them further. After the show we had a longer telephone conversation about our needs to confirm that our expectations were within their scope and from there we had an initial hour face-to-face meeting at their premises in Ashford.
During this meeting Oak outlined in detail their experience of viticulture branding and options for website creation and showed us how the process would work if we proceeded, which was all straightforward and logical.
What is the goal of working with Oak Creative?
We specifically wanted to have a professional brand image that would hold its own and stand out when compared to the many existing excellent English Wine brands already out there. We wanted our label and logo to be personal to us while portraying an indication of the site that the vineyard was situated in the grounds of our oast house where lots of local wildlife flourish. In working with Oak Creative we’ve really been able to hone our identity and our values, which are key foundations to build our brand upon.
How have you found working with Oak Creative?
In a word, easy! After agreeing to work together Oak took us through a very well thought out process to ascertain what we liked (and didn’t) in terms of colours and styles that would generate that back bone of the branding and lead to the logo. At all times they provided options, listened to our thoughts and were quick with providing feedback and suggestions. Having a professional team on our side has been so helpful – there’s a huge amount to do and learn when establishing a vineyard, so having our branding taken care of was one less thing to worry about.
What have the results been?
We’re very happy with the logo, branding style and website that Oak have produced for us. The logo captures our love for the animals that live in the vineyard and our location, the website is clear, modern and easy to navigate and update with great back-end facilities for making business happen. Oak provided clear instructions for keeping the style behind the brand functioning, it may seem obvious but having clear instructions for what font style and size to use in various scenarios and having a logo that can be used in multiple ways, will make our future communications stay on brand.
