Is boxed wine becoming cool? Wedge sustainably shows us how

The future of wine is here and it’s boxed. A pattern of 10 alluring half moons decorate each and every box of wine by Ami Ami, that branding agency Wedge has designed to highlight the number of glasses yielded by each carton.

Montreal and Los Angeles based – Wedge is an independent brand and design agency for distinct character, joining forces with their clients to elevate their unique signature across the globe. 

“Our holistic approach harmoniously blends strategic narratives and æsthetics, where design is a tool to communicate a point of view!” shares Wedge.

​​Contrary to popular belief, wine doesn’t have to be packaged in glass bottles to have the best-tasting notes, the crispest acidity or a hearty aroma. Did you know that shipping beautiful French wine in a box (versus traditional bottles) makes 50% less carbon impact? Yes, it’s true. 

Ami Ami is a California-based company that literally thinks outside the bottle – to pour, pass and enjoy one very special red and white, that makes doing a little bit of good as easy as drinking fantastic French wine.

“We joined Ami Ami’s co-founders Woody Hambrecht and Ross Dawkins to build the brand vision from the ground up and define a signature that invites one into a world of wine without rules, at every touchpoint. Unfussy and friendly. Made to enjoy how one wants to. Eye-catching on shelf, online and on the table. Making the box a thing of desire!” they add.

This brand’s eclectic but one-of-a-kind identity seamlessly combines a restrained tonal color palette with geometric figures that pay homage to the Campari characters created by Italian futurist Fortunato Depero in the 1920’s and 30’s.

“Boxed wine never had a brand, it just had a poor connotation. In America, boxed wine is associated with frat parties – you can put two and two together – or the poorest of poor quality!” says Justin Lortie, Founder Wedge.

With this, the studio innovatively set out to craft packaging that would be ‘worthy of the MoMA store’ and one that users would happily display in their homes like a piece of design rather than simply hiding it away.

At first, the initial step was to choose a small 1.5 liter box – around half the size of traditional boxed wine – which would make the product easy to carry along to picnics or parties.

The studio created every surface of this little box, rather than just the front, embellishing it with a pattern of semi-circles that resemble the bowl of a coupe glass. Each box was designed with 10 of these shapes, equivalent to the number of glasses that can be poured from each carton and in total amounting to around two bottles of wine.

Additionally, this same half-moon shape was utilized to dot the ‘I’ and form the hollow of the ‘A’ inside the Ami Ami wordmark, which takes over an entire side of the box.

In an attempt to communicate the quality of the wine within – the remaining typography was made to effortlessly resemble that of the Vin de France designation found on French wine crates.

Further adding a playful element to the branding are two little geometric characters, rendered entirely in black in a nod to the seminal illustrations created by the artist Depero for Italian liqueur company Campari.

“Depero represents a moment where art became integrated with commerce, especially in the world of spirits. The choice is a nod to this moment, a familiarity that gives a layer of enduring time and a gesture that brings a delightful European warmth, modernized for today!” Lortie adds.

In many of Ami Ami’s graphics – these two characters are shown clinking glasses or playfully glugging straight from the box.

On the packaging itself, the studio serves to draw attention to the company’s sustainability claims “namely that the cardboard box is completely recyclable and that shipping the wine in boxes rather than glass bottles generates 50% fewer carbon emissions!” concludes Wedge.