Fresh from winning an Irish Design Institute award for its packaging design work for the non-alcoholic craft beer ‘Fierce Mild’, The Public House has created a new brand identity and positioning for Ah Wines, the newest venture by actress and writer Amy Huberman.
According to the agency, The Public House won the pitch to work with Amy Huberman and her team in 2024 and between them they have “identified an opportunity to bring a breath of fresh air to the wine category, a wine that tastes great but throws out the stuffy pretentious norms of the wine world for a more fun, personality driven experience.”
“Ah’ is a hugely versatile phrase used to express pleasure, pain, surprise, understanding, or a eureka moment. It also neatly happens to represent Amy’s initials, it says.
According to the agency, “the design team at The Public House created the label in a way that brings consumers in and allows them to collaborate on the label – inviting people to ‘grab a pen and make this label yours’, with an ‘Ah… congrats’ or an ‘Ah…feck it hard luck’ or an ‘Ah…good luck with the inlaws’. This label is the public’s for the taking, which makes every single bottle unique and personal and a part of everyone’s own story.”
“We were delighted to work with Amy and her team on this project,” said Eimear O’Sullivan, creative director & head of design at The Public House.
“Firstly as brand designers but also as wine lovers! We were so passionate about where we landed with the brand positioning and let this drive and inform the design approach. For this simplicity was key, no fussy serif fonts, no fancy embellishments or intricate coat of arms, we were stripping this one right back,” she says.
“The idea of leaving the label open to fill in was an invitation to our consumers to interact with the bottle and make it their own. It’s unusual as designers to be asking a client not to add any more detail or to pull back on special finishes, but the team were really on board with the label concept and backed us all the way,” O’Sullivan says.
