Gatto Grosso is a full-bodied Italian red wine from Tuscany. Communal Brands reached out to Mel to create a label that would pop on store shelves, deliver a sense of delight, and most importantly highlight the wine’s unusual liter sized bottle. The client’s main callout was that the wine was called Gatto Grosso - Fat Cat.
Mel worked with the team at Communal to define what it meant to be a Fat Cat - was it an actual cat, a hipster, a particularly bacchanalian gent? From there she developed several illustrative options eventually landing on one that really spoke to the size of the bottle as well as the attitude of the wine. Hand-drawn typography is cheekily disrupted by our curious feline friend.
Read more about Mel’s design process, as featured on Eater.
Partnering with photographer Tawni Bannister, Mel commissioned a series of images to document the project speaking to the wine’s big personality and flavor.
Over time several more Gattos were added and all adhere to an overarching visual system of lettering and illustration. For each new wine an element is added to the cat or taken away - usually relating to his expressive eyeballs.
Creative Direction and Illustration: Mel Barat Bours Photography: Tawni Bannister