# Label Tutorial Challenge- Joan



## grapeman (Dec 13, 2007)

This is the spot where Joan will present her Tutorial on creating a label from inspiration through complete label. With the holidays on us it may take a while to complete. She will let you know what software she uses so if you need an idea for a Chrismas present......... consider getting yourself her software. Have fun. Thank you Joan for participating and let the fun begin!










So without further ado here it is.


My choice for varietal is _*St. Pepin* _grape. I purposely chose this one so no one would have preconceived notions of what the label should depict.Here is a basic description of the variety and what can be expected from that wine. Just assume ABV of 13%.


Some of the following is from the Appelation America website
<H1>Varietal Character</H1>









</A> St. Pepin
You are all part of a band of native and French-American crosses that could easily be called the ‘Polar Bear Gang’. A lot of you are from Minnesota, and you’ve been bred to be tough and hardy. Many of your parents were imprisoned in labs for so long that they go by their identification numbers, rather than their names. Frontenac, otherwise known as the ‘heavy producer’, is the latest to join your gang. People of the northern states are glad that you now control the flow of wine. In the frigid northern winters, weak-limbed vines all too often never deliver.<BR clear=all>
<DIV ="h1-left2">
<H1>Appellations Growing St. Pepin Grapes</H1>


Appellations producing the most St. Pepin wines:
<UL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5px">
<TABLE id=appellationList style="WIDTH: 540px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 ="smText"><T><T>
<T>
<TR>
<TD style="WIDTH: 50%">
<LI style="COLOR: #808080">Minnesota (State Appellation) </LI></TD>
<TD style="WIDTH: 50%">
<LI style="COLOR: #808080">Hudson River Region (AVA) </LI></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD style="WIDTH: 50%">
<LI style="COLOR: #808080">Quebec (Provincial Appellation) </LI></TD>
<TD style="WIDTH: 50%">
<LI style="COLOR: #808080">Illinois (State Appellation) </LI></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD style="WIDTH: 50%">
<LI style="COLOR: #808080">West Virginia (State Appellation) </LI></TD>
<TD style="WIDTH: 50%">
<LI style="COLOR: #808080">Lake Wisconsin (AVA) </LI></TD></TR></T></T></T></TABLE>[/list]



<DIV ="h1-left2">
<H1>St. Pepin Grape Details</H1>


St. Pepin is a sister seedling of LaCrosse, which was also developed by Elmer Swenson. However, the similarly cold-hardy St. Pepin is a fruitier and earlier-ripening grape, which makes one of the best white wines in Minnesota. It is also used for juice. The grape is being grown experimentally in South Dakota and in other cold winter states.




Excellent wines have been made from St. Pepin as a varietal and also blended with LaCrosse. When well ripened, fruit quality is similar to Reisling. Selected by Elmer Swenson. 
Crisp flavors from adequate acids with a hint of apricot, pineapple, apple, and pear aromas, off-dry with a medium body; similar to Sauvignon Blanc.




Let's use an appropriate fictitious winery for this variety.
*Polar Epress Winery*




So now the challenge is for you to develop a nice label anyone would be proud to display.*Edited by: appleman *


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## Joanie (Dec 13, 2007)

The Polar Express Winery, eh? Hmmm.... Here are some ramblings of things I go thru when I have a label to make. I try and kinda free think for ideas. When I read that Appleman's choice was little known St. Pepin, my first thought was to have some saintly looking guy on the label but I thought some religious folks here might think it a little sacrilegious so I crossed that one off.





The next thought...because it's a northern grown wine, maybe snow might be in order. Then when I saw the winery name we're using, an igloo came to mind...maybe with a couple of big old sleepy bears. Then there's the idea of a train...as in the book The Polar Express...maybe stopped at a train station with wine barrels on the platform. I kinda like that idea. St Pepin stamped on the barrels. Now if I could only draw like Chris Van Allsburg! Who am I kidding? I can't draw at all! LOL

As much as I want to read Ramona's thread (It's killing me!!!), I'm not going to until I'm set on what my label will look like and have it underway. I don't want her wonderful ideas to sway me!! I'm thinking the train thing for now tho...

Ok... those are my thoughts for now. More later...


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## grapeman (Dec 13, 2007)

Did I throw you Joan with the Polar Express Winery? I thought it would be appropriate for a northern wine. I like your "train of thought" Joan. 


I will refrain from comments as we go along but will monitor both your posts to see if there are any more questions.


Here is a post NW did with a little more sescription of the grape. I added a picture I took this year of my St. Pepin grapes a few days before harvest so you can see what they look like.



<TABLE =tableBorder style="TABLE-LAYOUT: fixed" cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 align=center>
<T>
<TR>
<TD =msgableRow vAlign=top></TD></TR>
<TR =msgableRow>
<TD =msgLineDevider vAlign=top height=150>
<DIV =msg style=": left; OVERFLOW: auto">Guess St. Pepin needs many women to propagate... 



<TABLE width=400><T><T><T><T>
<T>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top ="main">*ST. PEPIN:*
Patented Elmer Swenson propagated variety claimed as cold hardy to -20 deg. F. (ca -29 C.). Is close American hybrid sibling to La Crosse variety. Suitable for making fruity white wine claimed to have Riesling/Muscat character, or as a good tablegrape. Ripens early in season. It must be planted near other grape varieties, eg. Swenson (Red) or its sibling (above), or other varieties that flower in the same period because it is a female pollinate and so requires cross-pollination. The consensus ratio of pollinator/pollinatee is about 1 male to 8 female vines. Some trials are currently underway in S. Dakota and other moderately cold-winter States. </TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top>



</TD></TR></T></T></T></T></T></TABLE>




Edited By Appleman: I added this picture from my grapes this fall to compare to NW's post.
Pepin is also a town in Wisconcin as is La Crosse......where Elmer Swenson lived and bred his grapes.

</TD></TR></T></TABLE>*Edited by: appleman *


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## Joanie (Dec 14, 2007)

I've been looking for pics to use. For me the easiest is to go to Google images and type in what I need. I typed "Polar Express" and found some interesting ones. Did you ever think there would be dogs, sheep, and cows named Polar Express? Allposters.com has all kind of categories to search. Or Google "free posters" and a bunch of good websites will come up.

I like using my own photographs and I have some that are possibilities for this label but right now my brain is hung up on a train. I don't happen to have any of my own train photos.


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## grapeman (Dec 14, 2007)

Oh boy- train pictures. If I was a brave man and was closer to my sister in Watertown, I would ask her husband for some photos of trains. The man lives and breathes trains. He has pictures of more trains than you can imagine. I will see over the weekend if I can borrow a booklet my mother has from a trip to Ohio this fall to Amish country. One of the visits they made was to a gettleman's museum. He has spent his life carving trains and has them all on display in a museum setting in a house. Beautiful trains and great pictures. Not sure if they would be useable for this though, but I will check. *Edited by: appleman *


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## NorthernWinos (Dec 14, 2007)

Around here the weatherman calls the quick moving storms that come down from the northern Hudson Bay a...Polar Express....Strong cold north winds...the storms don't last too long....but are brutal.


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## grapeman (Dec 14, 2007)

Joan, Ramona asked about changing the Winery name to better suit what she has in mind. If you need to also that would be OK, but I think you are going in a good direction already.


NW- our weathermen call those Alberta Clippers.


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## Joanie (Dec 14, 2007)

I'm on a roll, Appleman! No need to change names or for photos. I have what I need. I'm working on the tutorial part now.


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## grapeman (Dec 14, 2007)

I'm looking forward to seeing your ideas unfold Joan!


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## jobe05 (Dec 14, 2007)

I'm waiting patiently with baited breath to see and hear what Joan has o say and what she is coming up with. The Gal is amazing, she'll come it with something good, I know it!. However, I also need to say that BOTH GALS are amazing at label making.


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## Waldo (Dec 15, 2007)

What the hell is "baited" breath jobe...what are you trying too catch man !! A cold !!!






I too am anticipating the "process" these ladies use in making their great labels


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

When I decided to go with the train theme, I went looking for images to
use at Google Images. I downloaded as many as I thought were the
slightest bit good. I don't like to dismiss any possibilities until I
can look at them all in one place. There are usually pluses and minuses
to every one. 

I am always looking for content but I'm also looking
for the resolution and size of a picture. Every picture is made up of
pixels--teeny tiny little squares of color. The more
pixels per inch, the higher the resolution/the crisper/clearer the
picture. Also the higher the resolution,the more you can stretch the
picture before those teeny tiny pixels become obvious. Here's an
example using Jobe's front porch swing he sent me where the resolution
was low and the picture was small.






I didn't want the white around the picture so I cropped it which made it even smaller. Because of the look and feel of the original picture, I could basically fake it out by using filters on it then increasing the resolution of 96 to 150 then (keeping it in proportion) could make it bigger and not have it look pixelated.

A word about proportions...I'm not sure what programs people use to make their labels, but they will look better if you keep things in proportion to the original file. Many times that means adjusting size by selecting the picture and only dragging it by the corners. In Photoshop if you select the picture, hold down the Shift key and drag any corner, it will remain in perspective. You can cheat a little but try not to make it obvious.

Hopefully that made a little bit of sense.


*Edited by: Joan *


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Here's what the filtered and enlarged file looked like. If it hadn't already
looked like a water color, it wouldn't have worked at all...lucky for
YOU, Jobe!


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Now a little (or maybe a lot) about Photoshop. Yes, there are days when
I don't use it but they are rare! I use it at work and I use it at
home. I love the program but I didn't always! It can be incredibly
frustrating unless you know how to use the tools and what they can do for you. Early on I tried using the Slice tool (used when you are building websites) but I didn't know what it was supposed to do. I couldn't get rid of it!! I couldn't deselect it(I didn't know how!) and I couldn't get it to stop putting slices everywhere so I closed what I was working on, opened a new file, only to have it back again!! I was skert, I tell ya!! I thought I'd ruined the program! (Once I closed the program and reopened, it was gone!) My mother told me to not play with knives and she was right! I swear in the 4 years or so I've used Photoshop, I've never touched the slice tool again! I tell kids at work not to mess with it or baaaad things will happen! 

If anyone wants me to talk about the tools and what they do, I'd be more than happy to.


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Here are some of the images I found. I won't post them all but I'll give you my thoughts on a few.






This is a poster from the movie and I thought it looked a little too ominous.






I like this one but the file is only an inch by .8 and the resolution is only 72.






I like this one too as it shows a bit more of the train.






This may be the one I go with as the size is good altho the restitution is at 72.

I'm not sure about any of the planters...they may have to go.



*Edited by: Joan *


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

I wanted to have barrels of wine sitting by the train with St. Pepin on them so went looking. There are lots of places that sell them so went looking for images. I found good ones but thought this one was perfect!





I didn't want the barrels in the background or the darker barrel on top (where did that come from??) so I erased them all using the eraser tool which left me with a white background.






I don't know if you can see the little dotted lines around the cart (They're called "running ants" as they run around what you've selected and look a little like ants.) but I selected the white background with the selection tool</font> or Magic Wand</font> as it looks like one, selected the inverse which gives me just the cart so I can then copy and paste it into the train file.

*Edited by: Joan *


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## grapeman (Dec 15, 2007)

I like that last tip Joan. I would never have thought to do that. I usually try to use the lasso tool and always end up getting unwanted junk that I need to clean up later. Had no idea you could select by color.


Great stuff here. Keep it coming.


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Here's the cart...a bit big, eh? I want to flip it horizontally so it's facing into the picture. It also doesn't match colorwise to the train and it does not have the same feel to it so it will need some serious adjusting. I also need to add snow to it and label the
barrels.





*Edited by: Joan *


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Notice on the right hand side that the cart appeared on a new layer...it's one of the beauties and sometimes an annoyance of Photoshop. It's wonderful when you want to manipulate a layer like I need to with the cart as no other part of the project will be affected. Anytime you paste into what you're working on it will come up on a new layer as will all text layers. It can be frustrating when you're trying to do something on a layer and nothing seems to be happening. It's 99% of the time because you have the wrong layer selected and it's easily done. I still do it!


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

appleman said:


> I like that last tip Joan. I would never have thought to do that. I usually try to use the lasso tool and always end up getting unwanted junk that I need to clean up later. Had no idea you could select by color.
> 
> 
> Great stuff here. Keep it coming.



Appleman, the Magic Wand tool works great if you need to remove a solid background that's a different color than what you want to extract. You can adjust the tolerance level along the top tool bar depending on how similar the color is. When I erased the barrels behind the cart, I purposely used white so I could select it easily. I could have used purple too!


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## jobe05 (Dec 15, 2007)

Waldo said:


> What the hell is "baited" breath jobe...what are you trying too catch man !! A cold !!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...





[Q]</span> _From Steve Gearhart_: “Where does the term _baited breath_ come from, as in: ‘I am waiting with baited breath for your answer’?”



[A]</span> The correct spelling is actually _bated breath_ but it’s so common these days to see it written as _baited breath_
that there’s every chance it will soon become the usual form, to the
disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary
writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one
appeared in the _Daily Mirror_ on 12 April 2003: “She hasn’t responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breath”.



It’s easy to mock, but there’s a real problem here. _Bated_ and _baited_ sound the same and we no longer use _bated_ (let alone the verb _to bate_), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. _Bated_ here is a contraction of _abated_ through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called _aphesis_); it has the meaning “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So _bated breath_ refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety.



Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in _The Merchant of Venice_:
“Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and
whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this ...”. Nearly three centuries later,
Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: “Every eye fixed itself upon him;
with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words,
taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale”.



For those who know the older spelling or who stop to consider the matter, _baited breath_ evokes an incongruous image, which Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured in verse in his poem _Cruel Clever Cat_:
<blockquote>
Sally, having swallowed cheese,

Directs down holes the scented breeze,

Enticing thus with baited breath

Nice mice to an untimely death.
</blockquote>


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Here's the adjusted cart. I resized, filtered using a soft "grain" filter, added a shadow under it, added snow, adjusted the brightness and contrast, toned down the color and added text. It's still not quite right so I will leave it alone for a while and come back to it with a fresh eye and attempt to get it to blend better. I have a bunch more layers now.


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Here's with the background and border in place.






*Edited by: Joan *


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

I wanted to clean up around the train pic so added a border above and below by selecting copying, and pasting then applied a "grain" filter to the background and all the borders to make it meld.






Next will be the text.


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## Waldo (Dec 15, 2007)

What program are you using Joan?


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## grapeman (Dec 15, 2007)

As Frank from "Everybody Loves Raymond always says", "Holy Crap!" You are amazing! I would swear all those components started in the same piture. Looking good.


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

I use Photoshop, Waldo.


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Here's the finished product with a few more tweaks.

Edited to say: I guess I should actually POST the finished product, eh?












*Edited by: Joan *


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## Wade E (Dec 15, 2007)

Great job Joan and thanx for sharing and helping!


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## jobe05 (Dec 15, 2007)

Holy Crap!

What a great job Joan. You are fantastic with adding thing into a picture and make them look like they were always there. I have tried that in the past and it doesn't look right with all te rough edges, wrong colors and sizes. 

Great Job!


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## Joanie (Dec 15, 2007)

Thank you!

If you have questions, let 'em rip!


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## rgecaprock (Dec 15, 2007)

Joan, 
I can't do the adding of other elements to my labels. It's only limited by your imagination....and you have a great one!!!!


Great Label!!!


Ramona


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## jobe05 (Dec 16, 2007)

Joan:

One of the things that I like to do is use the cloning tool. It allows me to download labels that are already filled in and I can cover the words up with the background texture/color or I can eliminate things in a picture that I don't want.

Is this the better tool to use for this, if it is, can you give a quick demo on the proper method of using it, I don't think I am.

If it's not the proper tool, how would you do it?


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## Joanie (Dec 16, 2007)

I like the clone tool too, Jobe! It is great to use as you are using it. If you have just a little bit of clear background to work with it's great! I used it a little on the label to copy the shadow color from the train pic to use under the cart with the barrels.

Another great tool to use if you have a bigger clear area is the Marquee tool--it's the box with the dotted lines around it. It will also do other shapes. If you select an area you want to use, copy it --control C, the paste it, Control V and it will put that onto a new layer. Grab your move tool and place it where you want it. If you need it more, just keep using Control V and it will paste the same sample putting each in a new layer. It's slick too! 

Once you get those layers the way you want them you can Merge Down and they will become one layer so you don't have to worry about accidentally moving them around if you end up on the wrong layer.


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## s.arkvinomaker (Dec 17, 2007)

Great job Joan. This has been very helpful. My buddy whom I make wine with just bought this same program you used to design this great looking label. Youdid a good job of demonstrating how to layer. I use a different program which doesn't have near the capabilities of the one you have used here. I have already forwarded this post to my friend and we both agree we will be refering to this example. It would be nice if you can give another example of your next wine going thru the steps of the program to achieve your final results. Its nice to be able to see what the possibilities are. I hope you enter another one of your label designs another labeling contest. The one you entered looked very professional.


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## Joanie (Dec 17, 2007)

Thank you, David. I'd be happy to walk you thru the next label. I'm thinking about one for my MM Pinot Grigio.


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## Jack on Rainy (Dec 19, 2007)

Thanks Joan.

This is amazing stuff! But it will take me longer to learn this than
learning to make the wine! I will definitely want to review this post
while I try it, though.


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## Joanie (Dec 19, 2007)

How about I walk you thru a simple label...black and white plus text? Okay...maybe with a splash of color.


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## Jack on Rainy (Dec 19, 2007)

I appreciate the offer. Will ask when I get to it. Need to get software and time first



!


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