HP Indigo's Windigo wine label design competition was held during the international wine exhibition, Israwinexpo 2010, in February 2010 in Tel Aviv. This was the first ever wine label design competition, in the hope that it will become an annual tradition.

 

Dozens of graphic designers and wineries participated in the competition, organized by HP Indigo, together with "Ish Hanavim" and "Roltag". The terms of the competition were the design of only new wine labels, including designing for a special limited edition of wines within an existing series.

 

The wineries and designers took full advantage of this opportunity. Wineries could offer their select wines and benefit from a unique design from the leading graphic designers in the industry. The designers could display their works – wine labels designed especially for the competition. The event guests included different wineries, designers, journalists and photographers. The Israeli Food Channel covered the award ceremony and interviewed representatives from HP Indigo and winning wineries.

 

The winning wineries received a free production of thousands of wine labels in different quantities. The graphic designers won laptop computers, hotel weekends and training courses.

 

The judge panel included top graphic designers, directors of leading design schools, and food and wine specialists. Among the judges were: Professor Arnon Zuckerman, President of Bezalel, Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, David Tartakover, an artist and visual communications designer, Haim Gan from the Ish Hanavim company and Riki Tzirin, sales manager, industrial sector, at HP Indigo.

 

• A winery that produced in 2007 or 2008 up to 100,000 bottles • A winery that produced in 2007 or 2008 over 100,000 and up to 1 million bottles • A winery that produced in 2007 or 2008 over 1 million bottles

 

Category A -(up to 100,000 bottles a year): First prize: Mond winery and the designer Niv Kasher Second prize: Villa Wilhelma winery and the designer Galit Karpol Category B - (over 100,000 bottles a year): First prize: Teperberg winery and the designer Adlai Stock Second prize: Rimon winery and Merhav design studio A special citation award – Har Odem winery and the designer Ruthi Rotem.

 

The competition was open to a select number of professional designers, some of whom are active in the wine and alcohol industries. Excelling design students were also chosen from the leading design schools. Registration to the competition was free of charge.

 

a. Strategic idea – is it good? b. Design – level of professionalism c. Did the design concept meet the requirements of the brief? d. Was the level of presentation sufficient (including imaging on the bottles and verbal presentation)? e. The technical level of the performance f. Were the printing abilities of the HP indigo presses used well and in optimal way: use of 4 or 7 colors, light and dark colors, which finishing methods were used – gold/silver embossing, matte/gloss varnish, selective varnish and lamination, was personalization used, was there print of white text over a color background, was numbering used – wine number X out of a series of 8X. g. Was the presentation files submitted in accordance with article 6.2 of the rules and regulations (i.e. not changed)? h. Did the designer meet the deadline of the presentation submission? i. Is there a correlation between the design and the selected substrate?

 

HP Indigo develops and manufactures digital printing systems, and leads the digital print world both in Israel and globally, both in the commercial and industrial markets, while leveraging technology and end-to-end complete solutions. HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press is the most advanced press for productive and quality printing of labels on a wide range of substrates. This HP Indigo system provides an answer to the demands of the growing wine label printing industry, along with the increase in the number of boutique wineries. This system enables wineries with flexible needs, to print relatively small quantities of labels, according to market needs.

 

In the last decade, the wine consumption in Israel has increased by 50%, and is now 7 liters per person per year. The Israeli wine market is now worth NIS 850M a year, in a total of 60 million bottles produced by 300 wineries. The name of the fame is branding! On the one hand, boutique wineries are interested in differentiation, and trying to build a unique image. On the other, the two major wineries in Israel invest regularly in series branding.