Design Down Under: Mash

Based out of Adelaide, Mash design boasts some of the most imaginative labels coming out of the wine industry today. After covering heaps of their work, we at The Urban Grocer were joensin’ to have a chat with these clever cats and to sample some of their creative juices for ourselves. Amidst busy schedules and in between flights, we caught up with James Brown, one of the original co-founders and now Creative Director of the award-winning agency.

TUG: When working with wines, what inspires you to do such clever work, to push the envelope of what’s ‘typical’?

Mash: Well firstly thank you for putting us in the clever bracket! I guess to us it doesn’t seem clever but more common sense to not be part of a factory production line or following industry doldrums like a herd of sheep running toward a land of beige! Putting a picture of a winery (a paddock) on a label is just lazy.

The music industry has done it for years, attaching beautiful art to a body of music via record sleeve. It gives you a visual taste and a memory of that body of work. So, why does wine have to miss out, or any industry or package? Wine is art, food is art for the mouth and the senses so like the Romans did we should celebrate it or else we are merely dogs at the trough!

Be it the delivery guy, the sommelier, the chef, the cook, 1 star to 5 star – art is what links us all, be it music, wine, a well crafted meal with the parsley in just the right place. So why not have fun and get people thinking? We are like professional children. Exploration of a child but executed professionally.

TUG: Do you have a standard philosophy or approach when working with vineyards?

Mash: The main thing is to help them explain their story. It’s sitting down with the band and understanding the story behind the magical fruits. If we need to get dirty, then we do. We taste the soil, we understand all the elements…Terrior. I love that word. It is so much more than just the land – terrior best said with southern French accent.

TUG: What is your favorite urban grocer or farmers market?

Mash: There are so many. There is one in San Gil in Colombia, where I tried granadilla for the first time. The best fruit on earth! But I have to say my favorite is Willunga farmers markets, which is located next to the famous wine region McLaren Vale here in South Australia. There is an organic sustainability market down the road from my house, which is also great. It’s part of the ‘transitions’ movement. Mash is really getting into permaculture and has it’s own food forest.