Martian Ranch & Vineyard is a young, biodynamically-farmed vineyard on famed Alisos Canyon Road in the Santa Ynez Valley. Proprietor Nan Helgeland named the winery after her two sons, Martin and Ian. The name quickly gave a connotation of the obvious, the extraterrestrial.
Martian approached Geyrhalter with nothing but a great name, backed by an exceptional vineyard and wine maker, in the spring of 2009 and was quick to choose them as the agency responsible to handle the brand launch as it was about to dive into an over saturated, and highly critical market place in the midst of a recession in California.
After the first meeting it was determined by the client that there was a need for a 'Martian' to appear as part of the brand as well as having ochre as a color of choice on the wish list. So Geyrhalter & Co set out to define who and what Martian is.
"Our solution to have the Bacchus-esque Martian be the insider's secret came after more blunt variations on the theme," said Fabian Geyrhalter, principal and creative director of Geyrhalter & Company. "The more time you spend with the brand, the more opportunities you have to uncover the element of surprise. Martians are rarely seen after all, and might diminish the value of their suite of varietals that range from a Rose Grenache to a classic SoCal Pinot Noir."
The brand identity was based on an existing serif typeface, yet re-drawn by hand to lend an authentic and organic feel to it. As a secondary brand element, Geyrhalter introduced a hand drawn wine glass and bottle that are tilted towards each other. Everyone on the agency team agreed that a sense of relationship and personal values should come through the branding effort. Geyrhalter & Company focused on the relationship that revolves around the one a consumer has with the wine, as well as the relationship that grows between two people sharing a bottle. This relationship is represented visually by the whimsical image of the bottle on the front labels, while once the consumer starts spending more time with the wine, an illustration of a full glass becomes the highlighted element. The same visual cue is presented on the unique three layered business cards, which showcase the glass on the back side as a representation of getting to know the other individual. Die-cuts are used to highlight these elements, so one can see the actual wine (or in the case of the business card, a red high-gloss paper stock) through the bottle, and respectively the glass.
The agency's branding efforts ranged from a strong identity design, print collateral and all online brand components to more rare endeavors such as a custom painted truck, unique match boxes and a Highway sign. The Martian only appears on a few of them and therefore becomes a sighting in itself. When users view the web site for a little while, they might see him stumble across, sharing words of semi-wisdom with us. Once a consumer opens a Martian bottle, Martians are dancing around the cork, utilizing the brand glass/bottle configuration to keep each other intoxicated. Custom match boxes hide the Martian on the inside, and the truck shows him handling a gas can on the gas cap. Keeping the mixture of wit and fun, Geyrhalter could not help themselves from designing custom wine spitting cups that feature the Martian falling into the cup; it only seemed appropriate given the celebratory mood of the target audience at wine tastings.
"Our concept to keep the Martian hidden in plain sight, yet to keep the brand sophisticated (but not sober) works to tell the story of a winery that consistently turns out beautiful bottles of wine yet knows how to have a good time. After all, that's what wine is all about," Geyrhalter added.