Wine52 is a UK-based wine discovery club focused on independent winemakers and curated wine experiences from around the world. Through themed monthly selections, the platform combines wine culture, storytelling, and editorial content, building a strong visual identity around exploration, taste, and contemporary interpretations of tradition.

For one of their Italian-themed wine labels, I was commissioned to create an illustration representing the idea of “Classic Italy”. Rather than relying on postcard imagery or nostalgic stereotypes, I drew inspiration from one of the most deeply rooted narratives in Italian collective imagination: Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.

The concept focused on two of the story’s most iconic figures — the Cat and the Fox — characters that embody temptation, deception, and indulgence, themes that also resonate with the ritual and mythology surrounding wine culture. Visually, the project was inspired by the rough, popular aesthetic of old Italian cinema and in particular by the 1972 television adaptation of Pinocchio, whose low-budget yet deeply authentic atmosphere perfectly captured the fragile and poetic world described by Collodi.

The label, titled Truciolo, was designed to evoke a raw and unmistakably Italian visual language, balancing irony, folklore, and a sense of popular tradition through expressive illustration and character-driven storytelling.