International design studio Mucho has designed the labels for a new range of olive oils produced by Sicilian brand Miceli & Sensat. The studio’s work also involved creating a new marque for the company formed of two green squares, each made from a series of nine dots and overprinted to evoke a sun symbol. The design also references the coming together of the founders, Sicilian Paolo Miceli and Barcelona-born Sergio Sensat.
According to Mucho, music played a role in the development of both the identity and die-cut label design, with the resulting work echoing the use of sampling and layering techniques in the creation of something new. This approach, says Mucho’s Pablo Juncadella, evokes ‘the layers between the classic and the vernacular that live gracefully in Italian culture’. This concept also influenced the studio’s font choices. The label’s main typeface is a custom font based on the elegant vernacular stencil used in some of Sicily’s villages for street names and numbers. The secondary face is based on the letters used on Italian brass plates.
Juncadella adds that the paper texture – and the way the ink sits on it – became a crucial element of the approach, with offset printing on embossed paper, foil blocking and overprinting techniques. Barcelona-based label specialist Rotas used Manter’s Polar White Ultra WS stock for the demanding task. Taken together, the resulting project captures the intent of Miceli & Sensat and their contemporary take on traditional manufacturing processes.
See ‘Spun silver‘.
