Near the beginning of my Computer Graphic Technology major I was tasked as a group leader of five people set out to create designs for canned wine labels. The brand of the wine was determined by a small group of senior marketing majors. We were tasked with the Cozy Wine Co brand which marketed more so towards Gen-Z women. The primary problems were collaborating and designing for a client based on their already defined brand and target audience. In addition we had to follow through a consistent schedule in order to complete all deliverables within just a few weeks.
Milanote board we communicated through
In order to organize workflow and show the design process I got everybody into using Milanote, a collaborative creative workspace. Milanote made organizing work both individually and as a group significantly easier due to everyone getting their own space one click away from the group discussion area. As a team leader there was complete clarity on what individual members were outputting. Keeping in heavy communication through text I hosted zoom meetings about every other day for the two week sprint so we can share ideas and make decisions on final designs.
By using the guidelines of the brand and keeping open contact with the brand team we designed several sketches of what they envisioned. Focusing on more feminine designs geared towards light social activities and low alcoholic knowledge we came down to several sketches over a few days.
Final sketches/rough designs
The designs at their core were directed towards being very pastel and simple designs. We tried very hard to avoid chaos and clutter as it would take away from the cozy atmosphere of what is essentially a stay at home wine. These were shown in early sketches where people and detailed objects like a house didn’t convey the theme of the brand accurately. With a combination of multiple of our sketches we created the final Cozy Rozy and Cozy Dolce wines.
Throughout this project I learned a lot about what it means to be a great team leader. Although my awkward conversational skills were not the greatest, it was important to set out expectations for everyone to follow. Even though I was the team lead it didn’t excuse myself from any work as it was a group collaboration. Keeping everyone up to date when challenges arose and managing a constant flowing schedule were key to success. As an introverted individual I was able to not only grow as a designer, but showed that I was capable of leading a small group to success.
Final group designs
