Domaine Les Tuileries — Hand-Drawn Wine Label Design for the US Market

From Gard to the United States

A local French wine identity designed for an international market

Domaine de Coursac is based in Carnas in the Gard, within the wider wine landscape between the Cévennes and the Pic Saint-Loup area. For the Domaine Les Tuileries range, the brief had an international dimension from the start: the wines were being developed for the American market.

The labels needed to communicate something recognizably French without becoming generic “French wine” packaging. The identity had to feel rooted in place, but also immediate and memorable to someone encountering the bottle thousands of miles away.

The solution was not to hide the French character, but to give it an authored voice through drawing, humor and lettering.

01 · The Concept

A French wine label, knowingly French

The name Les Tuileries suggested rooftops and tiles, so I developed a scene around two birds sharing a bottle on a tiled roof: a sociable rooster in a beret and striped shirt, his smaller companion, wine glasses, a baguette and a round of cheese.

The ingredients are deliberately familiar, but the intention was not postcard France. I was interested in something closer to the gently observed visual comedy of older French cinema, where posture, props and small social rituals carry the humor.

The label needed charm without becoming novelty packaging: recognizably French, but still credible as a wine brand.

02 · Hand-Drawn Identity

Dip pen, India ink and lettering drawn as illustration

The visual identity was developed through dip pen, India ink, black-and-white linework and hand-drawn lettering. The Domaine Les Tuileries name was not typeset from an existing font; it was drawn as part of the illustration.

That allows the logo, linework and characters to share the same temperament. The irregularities are intentional: the lettering belongs to the same hand as the birds, roof tiles, glasses and other details.

03 · The Range

One identity across three IGP Cévennes wines

The same core illustration and hand-drawn identity were carried across three wines, while a restrained color system gives each varietal its own recognition: violet for Pinot Noir, green for Chardonnay and red for Cabernet Sauvignon. The range therefore reads immediately as one family without making the individual bottles interchangeable.

Metallic gold foil was added to the varietal names and selected details in the produced labels, giving the bottles a material accent while keeping the illustration itself light and graphic.

04 · Packaging in Practice

From ink drawing to produced bottle

A wine label ultimately has to survive contact with the bottle. The logo must remain legible, the linework must hold at label scale, the characters must still read clearly and the print finish has to support rather than overwhelm the drawing.

Domaine Les Tuileries retained the looseness of the original pen work while functioning as a practical three-wine packaging system. The finished identity was designed to remain recognizable beyond the label itself — whether encountered on a shelf, on a restaurant table or in the informal social settings suggested by the characters and humor of the original drawing.

The result is a coordinated range in which illustration, lettering, bottle format and print detail all contribute to the same visual personality.

Illustration as Brand Character

A label system built around personality rather than convention

The central illustration gives the range an immediate narrative before a bottle is even opened. The rooster, his companion and their rooftop ritual create a small world around the brand, while the loose ink line keeps the tone personal rather than polished into generic luxury packaging.

That character also gives the packaging room to live naturally in convivial settings. The bottles remain clearly part of one family while the individual wines retain their own color, proportions and presence.

Wine, Place & Illustration

Two wine-label projects, two very different visual languages

Domaine Les Tuileries is one example of how illustration can give a wine its own voice: humorous, character-led and intentionally French, developed for an international audience.

A very different approach can be seen in my work for Roc de Couder for Mas de Figuier in the Pic Saint-Loup — a French-language project rooted directly in the local wine landscape.

Project Details

Domaine Les Tuileries