The overall mood was created manually using wood, painting techniques, and a generous dose of creativity, allowing us to achieve a neutral yet balanced atmosphere which, combined with lighting techniques and aesthetic sensitivity, resulted in unique images — true works of art.
The “100 Grandes Vinhos de Portugal” edition — a selection by wine journalist and critic Maria João de Almeida — was a long and demanding project that, over the course of eight months, involved the agency’s Design and Photography team.
Literally immersed in the creative spirit, photo by photo, the edition gradually came to life, and thus a work of art was born.
In the studio, chaos took over during the construction of the photographic mood. Two wooden pieces were created and coated with putty compounds and painted with wall paint.
The base supporting the bottles and objects, built in VIROC and manually treated with an unusual mixture of soil, red wine, and coffee, made it possible to create a unique abstract color palette.
The final composition of the images reflects unique moments — unrepeatable fractions of a second — carefully created with the visual balance of the objects in mind. Detailed and contrasting lighting brought each bottle to life and placed it in the foreground.
The images created have a highly relevant technical detail: they contain no post-production intervention whatsoever, making them a faithful reproduction of the shot that was selected.
We created 100 works of art, truly unique.
No less important was the enormous task of finding the right objects for each image in order to reinforce the storytelling of every wine and producer. Nothing was left to chance, and each piece has its own meaning, directly connected to the story of the brand. In fact, this required visits to antique shops, support from producers, trips to the Feira da Ladra market, research and purchases on OLX, and even the help of friends and members of the agency’s team.
The Editorial and Creative Design culminated in a minimalist layout that places the emphasis on photography.
The book cover, developed with the disruptive signature of M&A CREATIVE AGENCY, follows the principle of “Less is More”: made from 4 mm French oak wood and featuring a bronze metal plate engraved with the title, edition number, and of course the author’s name.
A special thanks to Maria João de Almeida and publisher ZestBooks for the challenge and the opportunity for M&A CREATIVE AGENCY to showcase other capabilities within its broad range of services.
©2021 M&A CREATIVE AGENCY. Copying, altering, reproducing, displaying, disseminating, distributing, transmitting, or using these photographs in any form or for any purpose is strictly prohibited without the prior express authorization of M&A CREATIVE AGENCY, as the author of the content and holder of the intellectual property rights.