Each studio proprietor is aware of the drill. Draft the deck, chase the transient, watch for the procurement staff to get again to you. It is sluggish, it is costly to pitch for, and, most of the time, the shopper you truly need by no means sees your identify.
Lithuanian studio andstudio has determined to skip that complete course of completely, not less than for one nook of its enterprise. Its new initiative, Wine Design Alternate, asks nothing extra of purchasers than a airplane ticket, a spare mattress and some respectable dinners; the studio’s payment, basically, is the journey, the desk and the wine that comes with it.
The premise is straightforward. Yearly, andstudio will decide a vineyard anyplace on the earth, transfer in for per week, work the harvest, sit by means of the tastings and get to know the individuals behind the label. From that immersion comes a full rebrand: technique, positioning, identification, packaging, the lot. There is not any company payment; the vineyard covers journey, lodging and meals, and that is it.
It sounds nearly naive in an trade constructed on retainers and scope creep, however there is a sharper business logic beneath it. Household-owned wineries are struggling: youthful drinkers are consuming much less, the market’s fragmenting and, in line with andstudio’s personal analysis, 85% of shoppers select a bottle based mostly on the label alone.
If that statistic is even roughly true, most unbiased wineries are dropping the argument earlier than anybody’s tasted a drop. andstudio has noticed a real enterprise drawback and constructed a enterprise improvement mannequin to resolve it on the similar time.
Free work is not actually free
The plain query is why a studio that is simply topped the 2025 ADCE Design Agency rankings would give away its most dear service for little greater than a flight, a mattress and a full desk. The reply, in line with accomplice and inventive director Augustinas Paukštė, is belief. “We all know the probabilities of an Italian vineyard discovering a branding studio from Lithuania are fairly small,” he says. “We needed to take away that barrier utterly and create a suggestion that feels irresistible.”
That is a well mannered approach of describing what’s, in truth, a really deliberate piece of selling. andstudio is not giving something away; it is investing in entry. Per week embedded with a winemaker generates a case examine no chilly pitch might match, a relationship that is stickier than a typical shopper contract and a narrative that mainstream press will truly cowl, this text being a working example.
The wineries get a rebrand; andstudio will get uncooked materials for its personal popularity, plus, presumably, some excellent meals and bottles to take dwelling. Neither aspect is being naive right here, and there is a lesson in that for any studio questioning the way to get in entrance of purchasers who’d in any other case by no means return an electronic mail.
How they obtained the thought
The concept traces again to a pre-pandemic studio trade in Florence, when andstudio’s staff spent a month working alongside an Italian design studio and spent many evenings in wine bars, lengthy dinners, and on terraces. “That was the primary time we skilled wine by means of the individuals who make and drink it on daily basis,” Augustinas recollects. “The conversations felt extremely acquainted. Folks spoke about wine with the identical ardour we discuss design.”
It is a helpful reminder that a number of the finest business concepts come from noticing an unrelated trade that shares your studio’s values moderately than from a technique workshop. Winemaking and design have extra in widespread than they could first seem: each are craft-led, each reside or die on storytelling, and each undergo when the individuals doing the making are too shut to clarify what makes their work distinctive.
Augustinas places it bluntly: “Many wineries are extremely modern within the winery and cellar however surprisingly conservative with regards to communication. There’s nonetheless a perception that nice wine sells itself. We predict nice wine deserves an amazing story too.”
By the way in which, andstudio is not chasing probably the most photogenic château or the largest export numbers. Wineries are chosen on the energy of their story, the challenges they’re up in opposition to, their urge for food for change, and their willingness to be really collaborative, moderately than simply handing over a short and disappearing. Location, measurement and present model maturity do not consider.
Key takeaways
I reckon there are two predominant takeaways right here. First, that immersion produces higher briefs than briefing paperwork ever will. Per week spent among the many vines, and across the desk, will floor positioning insights no stakeholder interview might match, and that is as true for a fintech shopper as it’s for a household winery.
Second, that reciprocity issues. andstudio is not working totally free out of charity. As an alternative, it is buying and selling its personal time and journey prices for unrestricted artistic entry and a narrative it controls. That is a foreign money arguably value greater than a modest challenge payment.
It might be straightforward to dismiss Wine Design Alternate as an elaborate junket, all lengthy lunches and Instagrammable pictures. However Augustinas is eager to move that off.
“This is not a artistic stunt or a working vacation,” he insists. “It is merely our approach of doing the work correctly.” Given the studio’s pedigree and the seriousness of the transient (a four- to six-month course of overlaying technique, positioning and a sensible implementation roadmap), I consider that declare holds up. The wine, the meals and the journey are the perk, not the purpose.
Whether or not different studios might pull off the identical mannequin is dependent upon nerve and money circulate: it solely works should you can take up months of unpaid strategic work in trade for a case examine and a relationship.
However the underlying thought—that the easiest way to win troublesome, sceptical purchasers is to show up, do the unglamorous work alongside them and let the connection do the promoting—is one value stealing no matter your sector… or your tolerance for lengthy lunches.
