Designer braves the blizzards to clinch branding deal with winery

The Harrogate branding and packaging design firm, which is just about to end its first year in business, was asked to reconfigure the branding and develop new labelling for Israeli winery Rimon, which is known for its pomegranate wine, desert wine and port.

Robot-food said it won the commission because of its previous work for wine-sellers. Last year it was commissioned to produce labels for a series of upmarket Argentinian wines, from Mendoza, to be sold in the US by San Francisco's Tony Scott Wines.

The Rimon winery, whose products are sold in Waitrose and specialist wine shops as well as online, is the first of its kind to produce pomegranate wines in quantity, after developing a very sweet variety of the fruit.

Simon Forster, one of the directors of Robot-food, said: "It's great to get involved in a project with such scope. The essence of the brand is 'Unashamedly Different', which allows for some really bold, creative work as the bottles must stand out."

Mr Forster said their bid has also been helped by his willingness to travel to the winery at the height of the recent snowfall after Rimon had expressed an interest in Robot-food's approach.

"I went to London when there was really heavy snow and I think they were impressed that I had got there."

The current range will be extended to six products including new semi-dry, ros and sparkling wines. The full line-up with the new design will be launched in May at the London International Wine Fair.

Mr Forster, a former brand manager in the sports fashion industry, and Mike Shaw, started the branding and packaging design agency in January.

Mr Shaw, an experienced designer, has worked on packaging projects for companies such as Unilever, Diageo, the maker of Guinness, and Asda.

In September, Robot-food became the first agency in more than four years to work with the design team at chocolatier Thorntons.

Mr Forster said that Robot-food will turn over 70,000 in its first 12 months and hopes to increase this to 150,000 in year two.