The Problem: Epoch Estate Wines had accumulated many memorable and beautiful brand elements over the years, but they were created at different times and didn't quite fit together for consistent branding. Each element had passionate advocates among the shareholders.

The Legacy Complexity: The existing labels were designed by legendary label designer Chuck House, with varietal names inspired by children's drawings he saw at the Armstrong's house during their initial meeting. Every stakeholder loved certain parts of the pre-existing brand elements spread across the product landscape.

The Diplomatic Challenge: Trying to trim and align the updated brand while honoring everyone's emotional connection to different elements required careful navigation of competing preferences and brand history.

The Heritage Opportunity: The brand's connection to York Mountain Winery, once owned by world-famous pianist and Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski, offered authentic historical foundation for unification. However, Epoch had an almost overwhelming richness of history to draw from.

The Strategic Challenge: With so much authentic heritage available, we needed to determine which historical elements should be dominant and which should remain secondary, ensuring the brand story remained focused rather than overwhelming.

Instead of choosing sides in the brand element debate, we found common ground in the vineyard's authentic history. The stencil characters on York Mountain Winery's original harvest crates became the inspiration for a unifying wordmark that honored the deepest heritage.

Why Historic Stencils Worked: With an abundance of rich history to choose from, the harvest crate stencils represented the most authentic working heritage—functional, directly connected to winemaking, and emotionally neutral enough to unify stakeholders around genuine vineyard tradition.

The Hierarchy Strategy: We established the historic stencil-inspired wordmark as the dominant heritage element while positioning other rich historical stories (like the Paderewski connection) as secondary narrative layers that could be activated when appropriate.

The Preservation Strategy: Rather than discarding Chuck House's beloved artwork, we preserved the visual elements that made each label distinctive while simplifying the messaging hierarchy around the new Epoch wordmark.

The Growth Framework: We structured the design system to allow the brand to build on the foundation and grow their offerings in a structured but creative avenue, ensuring future consistency without creative constraints.

Stakeholder Alignment: By grounding decisions in historical authenticity rather than personal preferences, we created a unifying narrative that all shareholders could embrace.

Brand Ecosystem Unity: Transformed a diverse visual landscape into a consistent brand identity that maintains the memorable elements stakeholders loved while enabling structured growth for new varietals and releases.

Historical Authenticity Integration: The new wordmark deepens brand storytelling by linking modern wines to Paso Robles' pioneering roots through authentic century-old winery artifacts, strengthening the narrative of legacy and innovation.

Preserved Artistic Legacy: Chuck House's legendary label artwork remains intact, ensuring the varietal-specific character and emotional connections that made the original designs special.

Scalable Design System: Created a framework that allows creative flexibility for future releases while maintaining brand consistency—solving the original problem of disconnected elements.

Stakeholder Satisfaction: Successfully navigated competing preferences by grounding all decisions in authentic vineyard history rather than subjective design choices.

Strategic Foundation: Established a brand platform that honors Epoch's rich heritage (including the Paderewski connection) while providing clear direction for future growth and market expansion.