We cannot even take our eyes off them: expressive labels, bottles that tell stories

Andrássy Kúria & Spa, BalatonBike365, European rowing championship in Szeged, LUA Resort, Pátzay Wine Estate, Spice of Europe, Tokaj Gin, WOW Hungary - this is just a fraction of the projects completed or having been in progress in one of the country's best-known brand and communication design studios. The Graphasel Design Studio is proud of many prestigious awards, from the domestic RGB Creative Design Award to the Red Dot Design Award. "The Red Dot Design Award is one of the highest design qualifications recognized by the industry worldwide. Initially, it was the most important for us to enter this competition - we wanted to see where and how we are in the international field," says László Ördögh. "Nowadays, however, our clients also want to have one of our works measured - which is also their work at the same time, and the possible prize is shared as a matter of course. It is now clear to many people that when developing a product, you have to consider not only the content, but also the appearance, and they do it with their whole heart. In my opinion, this kind of pretentiousness moves the world forward. The Hungarian professional awards also become more and more prestigious, and their agio is growing. Returning to the Red Dot Design Award: we were awarded in several categories, for example for an illustration we undertook as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) and in the packaging category: in 2024, for example, the appearance of the products of the Pátzay Wine House in Badacsony and of the coffee roaster HERZ New York Coffee Roasters in Tatabánya as well as the lush label of the first Hungarian vermouth of the new millennium, the Moena Wermut by Balázs Molnár and Zoltán Nagy, caught the jury's attention. We won our first Red Dot award in the communication design category with the Dubicz label family completed under the artistic direction of Dávid, back in 2018 and almost every year after that we managed to win some, as our work is regularly recognized with several German Design Awards, Italian A' Design Awards and numerous Dutch awards.

"Our experience is that a self-identified brand can authentically tell its own story, both verbally and visually," says Dávid Drozsnyik. "To put the story together, we talk a lot with our customers. We map out what their mission is, what is the distinguishing power of their product. We also look at competitors and benchmarks. Our goal is that the customer ultimately sees what they want." - he adds. "This process is sometimes longer, sometimes shorter - and it perhaps most closely resembles an interactive board game. In the case of HERZ, for example, I honestly could not say whether it was them or us who finally came up with the use of the ominous orange amid so many disputes - the point is that this powerful colour has since become iconic. It happens that the winning direction is clearly defined right from the start," adds László Ördögh, citing a winery as an example.

"With the label designs for the lightest wines of the Villa Gyetvai Wine Estate in Füred, we tried to capture the atmosphere of being at Lake Balaton. The owner of the wine estate, Zsolt Gyetvai, is originally an architect – a person who believes in concrete and has a strong attraction to the Bauhaus. He said that he is sentimentally attached to Lake Balaton, and in fact it is not even in summer that he likes it best. So we did not approach it from the trivial side either. On their base wines, a clean, geometric spiral transition brings the foggy Balaton atmosphere, which labels were primarily made for restaurants and wine shops, in this case it was not the goal to have a loud shelf image, since the guest can mostly see the bottles in the hands of a sommelier. In the case of their latest light wines, the starting point was the culture of postcards closely associated with Lake Balaton for a long time, but not the "picture side", but the back cover containing personal messages, hence the well-known wavy line motif. The most important visual element of the labels became a monochrome photograph. For these, we were looking for spontaneous mood photos that can be taken by anyone who spends time at Lake Balaton. Although they may not seem special then and there, these are the photos that we will look back on decades later with a smile on our faces. All this is complemented by a "blur" effect, as well as some geometric imagery: sometimes the sun, sometimes a bunch of grapes appear as shapes, in a contemporary formulation."

According to the two art directors, the process of creating a new brand is particularly exciting. "In this case, we put emotions and associations on the operating table, so to speak." says László Ördögh. "We start researching what values ​​the future image represents, who it speaks to and in what tone, or what, for example, Jungian archetypes can be assigned to it - so sooner or later an abstract brand personality comes together." Dávid Drozsnyik adds: "It is important to create an identity endowed with lovable qualities. In the past shaping of the national tourism image - in which case it was easy to strike emotional chords through traditions and belonging to the community - it was especially important to find what was lovable, without getting carried away and expressing ourselves in extremes." László Ördögh notes: Many of us are full of stereotypes - this is usually brought up as a negative. But I believe that stereotypes can be useful as well. For example, when planning visitor management and navigation, you can and should rely on them: you must provide clear guidelines that are understandable for everyone. It is not good for anyone to wander the corridors of a hotel because they cannot interpret an "overthought" pictogram.

Dávid Drozsnyik reveals that when they were asked to design the complete image of the Andrássy Kúria & Spa, of which navigation was just as much a part as dreaming up the business cards of the hotel employees or the design of the menus, they drew inspiration from the blazon of the Andrássy family. "The trinity in it, which appears in the form of crowns, was an excellent visual connection with the lotus motif, which includes wellness and spa services. The style of the LUA Resort is completely different from this, where the image concept is a fusion of seemingly contradictory clean naturalness and hedonistic luxury. In this case we worked with fine graphic solutions, sandblasting illustration elements, and the use of natural materials."

At the Graphasel, 20 people, plus usually two interns coming through the Erasmus programme, work hard - mostly in a framework similar to a university workshop. "What we do is applied art in the classical sense," comments László Ördögh. “Although it is strange to say it this way, we have to show a certain coolness towards our customers – I mean, we cannot be offended if they do not like what they see in the first sketch. In the first place, we cannot even afford to present them with only one type of plan. It is important for them to feel that they have a choice, which is why several people's different styles and points of view come together for one job. At the same time, we have already observed over time: sooner or later we start to become attached to the brands we have worked with. We can say that we are brand loyal." - he adds with a laugh, while his co-owner adds: "It is good to see that it is the other way around: in addition to Opera Gin, which is also domestic and won the Red Dot Design award, Seven Hills Distillery, for example, steadfastly returns to us when it launches a new distillate.

We "dressed up" their Tokaj Gin, and their vodka made from grapes - for both, based on a tactile experience: in addition to the fact that the illustration was applied to the bottles by screening, the lens effect was also brought into focus during the design - the bottles filled with liquid excitingly distort the small details that you immediately want to hold in your hands: to turn, to touch, to examine the variety of matt and glossy surfaces. We call this the retina reward. This approach is at least as progressive as the idea that gin and vodka can be made in Tokaj-Hegyalja, the land of aszú wines - and now also whiskey: Graphasel is extremely proud of the bottle of their latest product! 

PHOTOES: portrait: Attila Balázs, HERZ: Kata Balogh, Gyetvai: Villa Gyetvai, LUA: Attila Balázs, Tokaj Gin: Attila Balázs, Sevenhills Whisky: A Borfotos