Post your labels here

[dangerdave]

I get a little carried away sometimes, with my labels. I like the simple ones, too. What's the building, Berl? Is that a church?

 

[geek]

what a great label Dave, LOVE IT..!!

 

[vernsgal]

TonyT I love the effect! I'm going to have to try that myself on one . Berl sometimes simple stands out more, great shot. Dave , well what can I say that hasn't already been said..Great labels everyone.

 

[Tess]

Here's the label I made for my friend (Mr. Mitten) who gave me 35 pounds of blackberries he picked around his property. I think he'll like the blackberry wine I'm making...and the label. He has several German Short-haired Pointers. Great dogs!

oh wow, I really love that one!!

 

[copenhagen]

Here's the label I made for my friend (Mr. Mitten) who gave me 35 pounds of blackberries he picked around his property. I think he'll like the blackberry wine I'm making...and the label. He has several German Short-haired Pointers. Great dogs!

your illustration totally outstanding man! great skill!
I love it!

 

[RCGoodin]

Tess, Great label. It tells a story.

 

[bchilders]

Here's the label I made for my friend (Mr. Mitten) who gave me 35 pounds of blackberries he picked around his property. I think he'll like the blackberry wine I'm making...and the label. He has several German Short-haired Pointers. Great dogs!

A very professional looking label. Very nice..

 

[midnightsolace]

Hello guys,
let me share my label works for californian based winery.

Looks good! Ah, Cardiff. I used to live about 15 minutes north of there. =) Pretty place!

 

[GreginND]

This is awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about how you made it? Is the Mitten Estates done with a font or some other way? I really like the sort of paint splotches there. Well Done!

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, Greg, since you asked. The "Mitten Estates" text uses the Many Weatz Font. Google it to find a link for downloading. I get most of my cool fonts from OnlyFreeFonts.com.

I use an old piece of software to create my labels; Corel Draw 9 was released in December 1999. It is a vector graphics editor bundled with a bitmap editor. I started using Corel Draw 9 when it first came out, for making labels or Christmas cards, envelopes and pictures. I've used it for so long that I know everything about it and how it works. I've tried GIMP and other newer graphics editors, but they seem way too complex for my needs. Cropping, color, graphic text, geometric shapes, vector and bitmap editing, that's all I need.

A lot of my ideas for layout come from searching the internet for wine labels. Google Images can produce a lot of great examples quickly, giving ideas for picture placement, arrangement, and color combinations, for example. I like to pick a theme for each label I make. Some folks use a common "winery" label for all their wines, simply changing the text to match the batch. That's fine, but I enjoy making each one unique. The theme of the Mitten Estates label was my friend Brig, who gave me the blackberries for this batch. He was at my house and was very interested in my labels, marvelling at their creativity. I decided to make him his own label.

When he dropped off the berries, he had his dog, Beamer, with him; a beatuful German Shorthaired Pointer. They were very close, so I chose to use Beamer's breed for the center-piece of this label. I found a picture I liked---with the dog and a small farm in the background (Brig's place is more a little farm than an estate, but "estate" makes it sound grand!). I easily cropped out the part of the picture I liked, and gave it a shadowed border to give it some depth. The best labels containing pictures or images, in my opinion, incorporate color schemes taken from the pictures they contain. The picture, in this case, has elements of Earth tones like green and brown, red, yellow and even some blue (from the sky), so any of those I chose to use in the label background and/or text color would help to bring the label together. I also took into account the shrink caps I plan to use---purple---and the color of the fruit employed---purple---thus the text color. I faded the gryphon and the wreath, and placed them in the background to give the label that "regal" feel. These are both textual elements, meaning they came from font sets, as did the corner elements, making them easy to resize, stylize, and place. Simple vector lines bring the border together without drawing too much attention. Then it was a matter of trying out different fonts for my text, and arranging the text to bring balanced and appeal. You get an eye for this kind of thing over time, and---like I said---by studying other label layouts (both commercial and amateur). Simple or complex, colorful or greyscale, a label you like is the important outcome. After all, it's your wine.

Then you run it by your peeps and see how many "likes" you get.

 

[midnightsolace]

I dig it, Dave. =)

 

[LoneStarLori]

I was wondering where the labels themselves come from? Do most people here print their own or send the graphics to a printer?

 

[dangerdave]

I print a nice perfect copy out on my ink-jet printer, then take it to the copy shop for some color laser prints on plain paper. At 39 cents a sheet, I usually get six labels per page = 6.5 cents per label. I affix them to the bottles with a cheap Elmer's gluestick.

 

[LoneStarLori]

So it doesn' t have to be a coated paper? I would think if refrigerated the label would wrinkle. The color laser copier is a great idea. They are amazingly sharp. I think the paper they use has a slight coat to it.
Had to Google that one. Yep, you can get it glossy. Not sure if the local print shop uses it as a standard.


http://www.officemax.com/office-supplies/paper/laser-paper/product-prod2040515

 

[JetJockey]

LoneStar,
I use the Avery Labels #22826. They are arched labels with a matte finish. They are made for Laserjets, but I print with an inkjet. There are free templates for the Avery labels that allow you to make your label in various programs, i.e. MS Word, Photoshop, etc. The templates can be found at www.avery.com/print. they also have an online designer program for their labels.

 

[geek]

LoneStar,
I use the Avery Labels #22826. They are arched labels with a matte finish. They are made for Laserjets, but I print with an inkjet. There are free templates for the Avery labels that allow you to make your label in various programs, i.e. MS Word, Photoshop, etc. The templates can be found at www.avery.com/print. they also have an online designer program for their labels.

weird, I have Avery Design Pro and that 22826 template is not there.....I checked for updates and there's no update to download,

 

[JetJockey]

Varis,
I just went to the www.avery.com/print link above and there are lots of templates after putting in the product number 22826 to design on-line. If you want templates for your design software (Word, Photoshop, Illustrator, Apple Pages, etc.) then go to this link to download - http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Search/?dimsearch=false&N=0&Ntk=SoftwareAndTemplate&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=0&Nr=AND%28SITESCHANNELS%3AAvery.com%2COR%28ContentType%3AAVERY-SOFTWARE%2CAND%28ContentType%3AAVERY-TEMPLATE%29%29%29&Ns=Rank|0&Ntt=22826&x=0&y=0. I'm not sure why their own Avery Software doesn't have that template. Maybe an email/call to support would tell you where to get it.

 

[JetJockey]

weird, I have Avery Design Pro and that 22826 template is not there.....I checked for updates and there's no update to download,

Varis,
Here is what I found on Avery's Website in response to someone's question about why a template wasn't available in Avery Design Pro.

"There are no further updates being made to DesignPro at this time. We recommend using Avery Design & Print Online at www.Avery.com/Print. This online software takes you step by step through the process of selecting a template (all product templates are available here), customizing it and printing out your finished project. Plus you can open your DesignPro files using Avery Design & Print Online. Just use the "Open Project" link when you sign in. Projects can then be saved either online to your MyAvery account or directly to your computer. To learn more about it, here is a link to view the software demo: http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/De....

Sorry that doesn't help you much unless you want to use their Design & Print Online!

 

[jamesngalveston]

thats the arched one...i never could get it adjusted to suit me..always printed weird for some reason.

 

[geek]

Thanks Bob, yeah I tried the online version long time ago and then been using the design pro. Will give it a try again.