Moruba was founded by Spanish designers Daniel Morales and Javier Euba. Their passion for design truly blossoms when they are able to work with the complete confidence of their clients, often elevating the work beyond the initial objectives. Moruba has been recognized by national and international awards, and published in books and magazines.
Your portfolio features a lot of handmade and organic design elements (and a lot of liquor clients), but this one is one of a few that use hand lettering. What factors made you decide to create this by hand?
javier euba: With this project, a handmade solution was necessary to faithfully reproduce the aesthetics of bar windows. It is not a question of trends or tastes; the project needed this solution for conceptual reasons.
The design is based on traditional menu and sign lettering, correct? Can you talk about that tradition a bit? What makes the style distinctly Spanish? And how did you adapt this style to make it feel contemporary?
Painting on glass is very Spanish. I don’t know the origin, but it gives the bars personality, and even if the writing isn’t very clear, or the drawings are rather rough, they suggest authenticity.
Removing it from its native environment, I think, is what makes it contemporary; decontextualizing a source makes it interesting. In this case, I feel what is contemporary is the image the wine transmits—it tells a story, and more and more, this is what it is all about: telling stories in an interesting way.
This wine is targeted at the Asian market. Is that also addressed in your design choices? If so, describe.
When we create a design for the Asian market, it is important to understand the idea of the product, its origins, and its goals; you can’t sell a Spanish wine in China using an Asian aesthetic. And so, for this project, we have examined the icons that clearly identify Spain in the eyes of an Asian consumer—perhaps “tapas” and “fiestas.” That is Bienbebido.
Your sketches show multiple drafts of each word. Do you pick one or composite your favorite letters into a new whole?
Each draft is done in a different way: the octopus bottle has the same elements as the chicken one, but everything else is redrawn in each of them. That was part of the concept, to make each bottle genuinely different from the next. Each of them is drawn, scanned, and then silk-screened on the bottle.
product: Bienbebido
client: Vintae
design firm: Moruba
creative directors/designers/hand letterers/illustrators: Daniel Morales and Javier Euba
medium: Silk screen
country: Spain
Traditional Spanish menu signs were one of the inspirations for the packaging for this wine, which was created for the Asian market. Designing for this demographic required the use of familiar Spanish icons.
Bienbebido’s style is derived in part from lettering found on the windows of Spanish bars. Moruba’s sketches depict playful, simple illustrations and a variety of lettering that reflects its local sources.
