Australian design house Studio Guild has been awarded a Black Mark – the highest honour in the 2025-26 World Brand Design Society awards – for its packaging and brand design work on Half Sister Wines.
The Black Mark represents the pinnacle of creative excellence in global brand and packaging design and is one of just four awarded worldwide from thousands of international entries. In addition to the Black Mark, Studio Guild also received a Gold award for the Half Sister project, placing the work among the strongest brand executions recognised in this year’s competition.
The Half Sister range centres on a 375ml half-bottle format, designed to respond to changing wine consumption habits – favouring moderation, flexibility, and quality over volume. Studio Guild’s design approach reflects this shift through a restrained yet confident visual language.
The identity is built around a minimalist graphic form that subtly references the silhouette of a wine glass, paired with a deep green colour palette that signals balance and premium positioning. The execution avoids overt embellishment, instead relying on clarity, proportion, and material presence to communicate quality at shelf.
The smaller bottle format is intended to sit comfortably across multiple channels, from at-home consumption through to hospitality, travel, and curated gifting – contexts where a full-size bottle may not always be practical or desirable.
Studio Guild led the project from the ground up, developing the name, brand positioning, and visual identity as a cohesive system. The result is a design that supports the product proposition without overpowering it, allowing the format and intent to speak clearly to contemporary wine consumers.
“Half bottle wines prove that seriousness isn’t measured by volume: they carry the same craft, ambition, and soul as their full-sized counterparts, while meeting a modern drinker who values moderation without compromise,” said Trish Dunstone, director at Studio Guild.
Beyond the Half Sister win, Studio Guild retained its fourth-place global ranking in the 2025–26 World Brand Design Society awards for the second consecutive year, with multiple projects recognised across categories, including one Black, one Gold, four Silver and two Bronze awards.
The other three recipients of the Black Mark were Boundless Brand Design, Van Heertum Design VHD, and fellow Australian company, Disegno.
