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Wine Label Printing: The ultimate guide to wine labels in Cape Town, South Africa

The true elegance of wine is always characterised by its taste, age and the farm on which it was produced.

Avid wine consumers are always looking for prestige and a good story behind a wine label.

Popular wine brands that are able to convey their story effectively through their wine labels are able to command the market.

In order to do this effectively, it is important to understand how to maximise the impact through the wine label printing and finishing processes.

Lebone Paarl Labels is an established high quality label printers in Cape Town.

Designing Wine Labels

To design your unique wine label, you first need to understand your niche and who are your target customers. After gathering this information, you’d then be able to select a brand name for your product, the graphic design and production of the packaging.

Consumers tend to be drawn in by the visual design on the printed wine label, so quirky, unconventional and prestige labels will help your wine to stand out on the shelves.

A study done by an American research company Nielsen concluded that people chose more bright-coloured wine labels, such as red, orange and white over other dull and unimaginative designs.

Another important statistic found that Millennials were drawn to more fun, bold and colourful wine labels. Printing your wine label with quality papers and finishes can also increase the shelf appeal of your wine label.

SABS Pressure Sensitive Food Labels
SABS Certified Pressure Sensitive Food Labels
Mellow Colour Pressure Sensitive Food Labels

Current wine Label design trends to follow

Modern wine labels include an element of design, colour and visual prowess.

They tend to be more modern and vibey in order to attract different audiences.

Below we will highlight some of the latest trends and where each design stacks up against the next.

Modern Wine Label Designs

These designs aim to grab customer attention with different shape designs and images. The use of Geometric Patterns to display information on wine bottles in unconventional areas is still a very new practice within the industry but is set to become a design trend that is here to stay. Barista Wines have adopted this design to their wine labels and have become an increasingly recognisable brand over the past few years. Lebone Paarl Labels’ specialised facilities offer an array of options leaving you spoilt for choice.

Typographic wine label designs

Using a typographic wine label design can be simple, beautiful and crafty. Winemakers commonly use typographic wine label designs to create a range of different products in their brand, in order to keep it's consistency. The Trizanne Signature Wines TSW Syrah, labelled as one of South Africa's best Shiraz wine's in 2016 uses the typographic wine label design method to showcase their information in a simple and concise manner.

minimalistic wine label designs

This appears to be one the strongest wine label design trends around. Minimalism itself is defined as using simple combinations of shapes and designs to create art and expression. Winemakers will use simple designs and graphics like these to make minimalist wine labels designs in order to display less text but more brand enhancement. The visual below from Ataraxia Chardonnay shows the winemaker only added the name of the wine and it's logo. Showing that even though the design is minimalistic, it is still able to display the brand fully.

HP Mosaic Pressure Sensitive Labels

Winemakers have started to use images and illustrations to distinguish between wine styles or to introduce variety within their range. Wine brands like Thistle and Weed have used this wine label design method to boost their online presence and create a following. Lebone Paarl Labels uses Smartstream Mosaic Software to print individually unique, customised wine labels. 

Wine label printing options

After designing your wine label, you then have to decide on the printing method suitable for your price range, finishing requirements and production volume. 

There are two main wine label printing and finishing options, digital printing, and UV flexo printing.

Digitally Printed Wine Labels

Digital printing uses electromagnets to pull the ink onto paper, without ever making a plate. This makes low volume production of wine labels more affordable, which is perfect for the printing of craft labels and personalised wine labels.

Lebone Paarl Label’s digital wine label printing is ideally suited but not limited to smaller wine label print runs as this allows for the variable printing of unique elements such as text, images, barcodes, numbers and security features, plus the creation of individually unique wine labels for maximum impact. Making Lebone Paarl Labels one of the most reliable label printers in the Western Cape.

UV Flexo Printing Wine Labels

Lebone Paarl Labels offer UV flexo printing services with inline finishing that efficiently delivers high quality wine labels. Flexo printing uses rotary printing to create flexible relief plates affixed to cylinders, which are inked by a roll using rapid-drying ultra-violet (UV) curable inks to add the finishing touch to perfectly match your product and marketing designs.

Perfect colour is a non-negotiable for high quality labels. Lebone Paarl Labels’ designated colour champion focuses on continuous improvement through the measurement and analysis of colour to ensure consistent, accurate colour appearance. Ensuring that the design of your wine labels and aesthetic all match can be a time consuming process but if done correctly, will yield massive results. Lebone Paarl Labels is one of the most reliable label printers in Cape Town.

Self-adhesive label substrates

Lebone Paarl Labels specialise in self-adhesive wine label printing. Also known as pressure sensitive labels, this label is printed and die-cut from pressure-sensitive paper that sticks when the adhesive comes in contact with almost any surface and pressure is applied. No activation by water, solvent or heat is required.

  • Conventional self-adhesive papers in cast coated, semi-gloss and uncoated formats
  • Polypropylene and polyethene in clear, white and metallic formats
  • Metallic papers, unsupported films and plastics
  • Speciality wine label papers including Superkote with unrivalled ice bucket properties, opacity and application qualities
  • “Tree free” paper, made from sugar cane fibre, a 100% renewable source, which offers everything expected from a premium quality wine label whilst being environmentally friendly
  • Digital printing on a wide range of substrates from pressure-sensitive label stock, paperboard, and unsupported films with thickness from 12 to 450 microns.

Frequently asked questions about wine label printing and design

We realise we get asked a lot of the same questions about how to design and print wine labels and since we’ve been doing this

for almost fifteen years we thought we’d take a moment to answer the most commonly asked questions below.

This is one of our most frequently asked questions. At Lebone Paarl Labels, we work closely with clients and graphic designers to create beautiful labels that spotlight their brand.  Our team offers exceptional advice on the application of our modern UV flexo and digital self-adhesive printing and finishing technologies to enhance the designs to deliver innovative creative, marketing and security applications.

This is one of our most frequently asked questions. The average person doesn’t have the time or the creative ability to come up with their own wine label design, so we recommend using Lebone Paarl Label’s specialised production technology. Our technology is 100% in house, we practice modern UV flexo and digital self-adhesive printing technologies and use specialised finishes for creative, marketing and security applications.

We use SmartStream Mosaic Software that allows us to create individually unique labels, each with their own combination of images, text and designs for maximum impact and customer interactivity. It automatically generates hundreds, thousands and even millions of unique designs from a limited number of base designs.

Perfect colour is non-negotiable for high quality labels. Our designated Colour Champion focuses on continuous improvement through the measurement and analysis of colour to ensure consistent, accurate colour appearance. We use D50 lighting in colour critical areas for viewing prints and proofs. Our printing equipment and consumables have been optimised to meet your desired targets.

Yes. Lebone Paarl Labels uses printing on the adhesives on the underside of the bottle for easy removal. Our self-adhesive labels add the finishing touch to perfectly match your product and marketing designs.

To find out more about the current wine label designs trends, get in touch with one our Lebone Paarl Labels specialists from our contact page.

You can also visit LPL Instagram page for some awesome design inspirations.

Finding a wine label printer in Cape Town, Western Cape

Located in Paarl, Lebone Paarl Labels is perfectly situated to print and supply wine labels throughout the Western Cape. Since the majority of South African wine production takes place in the Cape, it makes sense to print wine labels nearby. Paarl is historically known as one of South Africa’s most renowned wine regions, and is centrally located in the Cape Winelands. Lebone Paarl Labels is, therefore, able to print wine labels for brands in the surrounding areas of Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Breedekloof, Robertson, Darling, Worcester, Tulbagh and Durbanville.

Finding a wine label printer in Johannesburg and Pretoria

Lebone Paarl Labels is a trusted wine label printer that services areas including Johannesburg and Pretoria. OR Thambo airport is one of the main departure points for wine export in South Africa. As the centre of commerce, Johannesburg has the largest market for packaging and distribution of wine in South Africa.