Spin the Bottle: Altos de Chavón’s Fine Arts/Illustration students redesign the bottle for Yellow Tail Australian wine – by Stephen Kaplan

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One of our goals in working with our students at the Altos de Chavón School of Design is to give them as much preparation for real-world design projects as possible. So whenever we get the chance for students to solve a problem that comes in from industry, we snap it up. In the past our students have designed jumpsuits for Shell Gasoline Station attendants, logos for all sorts of businesses and nonprofits, and even patterns for ceramic floor tiles that actually went into production. On Saturday evening December the 8th 2012, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design hosted a celebration to mark the successful completion of a project by a group of it’s students – “The Power of Illustration Bu$ine$$” taught by María Batlle. Maria Battle is the publicist for several high-profile products in the Dominican Republic. She has an off-beat image and a contemporary take on product promotion, and her imaginative style has won her work with some of the country’s coolest companies. She works with the luxury automobile agency promoting the Mini Cooper and the popular energy drink Red Bull. One of Maria’s clients is El Catador, a large importer and retailer of fine wines with two locations in Santo Domingo. Maria provided our students with the challenge of redesigning the bottle for Yellow Tail, the Australian wine trademarked with a kangaroo, while preserving the product’s existing identity. The resulting bottle designs were displayed at La Cantina Restaurant in Altos de Chavón and the Casa de Campo community were invited to admire the students work.

Admiring the designs at La Cantina in Altos de Chavón

Chavón’s Fine Arts/Illustration faculty members Jonathan Schmidt (also a graduate of our school) and Raúl Miyar were thrilled with the students’ work. All the students and spectators remarked on the highly professional results elicited under their watchful eye, and Maria’s. Enchanted, the folks at El Catador chose five of the prototype bottles to put on permanent display in their Santo Domingo flagship store. The students whose works were chosen were Frank Lara, Antony Alonso, Jovanny Silberberg, Tatiana Gatón and Elsa Cáceres. The designs were imaginative, fanciful, colorful, and unexpected; playful, sophisticated, elegant, and iconoclastic. But no adjectives can come close to telling this successful visual story; the photos tell it best.

The 5 chosen designs

“I love teaching this course because it brings the students close to the real business world and how it is to work with clients. The process was beautiful and the students worked really hard.

The client (El Catador) was thrilled to see how every bottle painted in this course now represents the spirit of their brand Yellow Tail – which is why they have decided to sponsor the wine toast at the 2013 Fashion Show @Altos de Chavón and also donate a 50% scholarship to the school. We will be doing another course with El Catador during 2013.”

— María Batlle, teacher of this course and artist in residence at the Altos de Chavón School of Art of Design

The following photos contributed by Raul Miyar,Chair of Fine Arts at the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design and show the student’s creative process working with their teacher Maria at the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design: 

Article contributed by Stephen Kaplan – Thank you Stephen! Stephen Kaplan is the Rector of the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design

About the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design A component of The Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design has been graduating students from its two-year associate-degree program, affiliated with New York City’s prestigious Parsons “The New School For Design” since 1983. Three majors are offered: Graphic Design, Fashion Design, and Fine Arts/Illustration. In addition, The School has developed a state-of-the-art Certificate Program in Digital Design. Click here for more articles, photos and info about the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design!