DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
MarkaBranka : Feira do Alvarinho is an annual wine party that takes place in Monção, in Portugal, more precisely in the middle of a leafy park nearby the Minho river, close to the Galician border. To communicate the event, we created an ancient and fictional kingdom, unmentioned in the history books. With own name and civilization, The Kingdom of Alvarinho, designated so because Monção is known as the cradle of Alvarinho wine, was inspired in the real history, places, iconic people and legends of Monção.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
MarkaBranka : With the slogan, The Biggest Wine Party in Portugal, our multimedia advertising campaign shows that Feira do Alvarinho is more than just an annual entertainment event with food, wine and music. It is an affirmation of the identity of a territory, rich in resources and with a unique geographical location, that makes itself known by its traditions, customs and places. Here, the production of Alvarinho wine plays an important economic and social role. So, without ever losing the focus on the promotion and commercialization of Alvarinho wine, we decided to create a new kingdom and told its story in a storytelling way.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
MarkaBranka : This project has already fulfilled its objective by promoting the 2019 edition of Feira do Alvarinho, one of the cultural events of the Municipality of Monção. It worked well, and winning the prize is proof of that. From now on, we want to promote it together with all our other projects and creative concept. Showing we can generate unique stories and create exciting projects, make even better advertising campaigns for Feira do Alvarinho - The Biggest Wine Party in Portugal and new projects in the promotion of Monção as a tourism destination.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
MarkaBranka : About 4/5 months, from February to July 2019.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
MarkaBranka : The project was commissioned by the Municipality of Monção. They are already familiar with our work, it is not our first project for them. Even this year we will launch and present Monção’s new graphic identity, the project for which we were invited two years ago.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
MarkaBranka : This project was exclusively designed for being used by the client, Municipality of Monção.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
MarkaBranka : Together with Brand Identity, Graphic design, Illustration and Storytelling are also another of our core focuses, which allow us to explore different advertising tools on multimedia campaigns. In this specific project, we carried out works such as illustrations for the main poster, brochure, magazine/journal ads and outdoor advertising, 3D animated promotional video, merchandising, new website, radio jingle, and even the official mascot. All of them developed to reinforce the Alvarinho condition as a strategic instrument in the economic competitiveness of the region.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
MarkaBranka : People of Monção and visitors alike who like Alvarinho wine, traditional food and music.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
MarkaBranka : The use of character design to reinventing the real history of a territory (Monção) - places, iconic people and legends - without losing its identity.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
MarkaBranka : As we’ve explained above, Feira do Alvarinho is an annual wine party, one of the cultural events of the Municipality of Monção, which had been using “Brindamos Monção” (which means in English “Cheers Monção”) as a slogan in the previous years. After in-depth research and analysis, we decided to empower the uniqueness of this event by performing a multimedia advertising campaign with the slogan “The Biggest Wine Party in Portugal”, that is also a new signature, a new promise and a new commitment. The creation and story of The Kingdom of Alvarinho make it matter.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
MarkaBranka : Mainly Adobe graphics software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
MarkaBranka : The handmade illustration, the character design process of creating The Kingdom of Alvarinho without neglecting or twisting the elements and details of the history, iconic and legendary people, mythological figures, places and rest of civilization. We carried the real story of the territory into character design.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
MarkaBranka : Yes, on the 3D animated promotional video. With Hugo de Azevedo, a Freelance 3D Artist, from Lisbon.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
MarkaBranka : The biggest challenge of this project was to carry the real story of the territory into the character design.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
MarkaBranka : On August 2019, we were cordially invited by A’Award & Competition to send our Good Branding Work, innovative and well designed Graphic Design, Branding, Art Direction, including Packaging, for award consideration. So, we decided to do it, sending them The Advertising Campaign of Feira do Alvarinho. We never thought we would get here. Winning the A' Design Award, the symbol of international design excellence and design quality, is an incredible achievement.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
MarkaBranka : Above all, to learn how to sleep few hours a day. (smiles) During the design process of this work, we realized that this kind of project could be one of our beaches.
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
MarkaBranka : No, thanks.