USB-tastic

I found this over at Dieline.com, everyone’s favorite package design blog, and had to share it with you guys.

The premise behind this design stemmed from the recent TTB/Cola
regulatory changes, protecting Portugal’s geographic indication which
inhibits any winery who was not "grandfathered" in before this law was
passed, from using the term "Port" on their packaging. Our client
(Peltier Station Winery) was eager to find a clever way to play off the
word "Port" without actually using the word itself. That’s how "USB"
was born. The imagery screenprinted on the front label shows an old
vine built out of binary code that translates as "Peltier Station", and
has roots that form the recognized USB computer symbol. The back label
leaves it to the viewer to fill in the letters "port" in underlined
slots (i.e. im____ant for "important") The back label took three months
of TTB/Cola deliberation before they finally approved it – not without
telling our Client they had never encountered someone going so far out
of their way to prove a point.

Kudos to 6 west and the folks at Peltier Station for an awesome job sticking it to the "man" through such a clever idea and an awesome design.

–sdotg–