The Blufftop at Rocheport visual identity

In the 300-strong community of Rocheport on the banks of the Missouri lies the Les Bourgeois Winery. It is the third largest winery in Missouri, USA and was one of the first clients of the Hoot Design Company, which is located in neighbouring Columbia.

The winery has a distillery, bistro, restaurant and accommodation, which were all brought together under the new umbrella brand The Blufftop at Rocheport with the help of Hoot in early 2022.

Some of the brands were already established, while others were new with the relaunch. “To ensure that The Blufftop at Rocheport and its nine sub-brands are cohesive, we created ten visual identities that work seamlessly together. With a broad color palette inspired by Missouri’s natural landscape, custom illustrations and a variety of different type families, we developed a visual system that is both distinctive and consistent,” said the founder of Hoot, Kristen Brown. One of the type families that they used is Fontwerk’s West, which Brown considered to be “the perfect complement to our sweeping wordmarks” and according to her, “formed the basis on which we could unite the nine brands under one roof.”

The emotional backbone of the Blufftop brand is formed by the calligraphic Esmeralda from Sudtipos and the graceful serif Sometimes Times from BoulevardLAB; the modernist Alternate forms of Korolev from Device is used as the headline typeface, and Victoria Rushton’s Gautreaux serves for the occasional article or preposition. Together, the font quintet defines a heterogeneous brand family that is both easily accessible and appealing.