CREATIVE DESIGN MANAGER
FETZER VINEYARDS, HOPLAND CA
At Fetzer Vineyards, Aaron Woolsey leads the winery’s inhouse creative team, responsible for print and package design across a diverse portfolio encompassing dozens of wine brands. Aaron’s passion for people, coupled with his ability to discover and champion new creative talent, has enabled him to build a gifted, artistic and award-winning creative team at Fetzer Vineyards. Since graduating from Brooks Institute with a BA in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Aaron has gained a decade of design experience at a wide variety of CPG companies. Throughout his professional career, he has brought creativity, innovation and expertise to a broad range of projects, from organic blueberry packaging to cycling apparel to luxury wines. A leader in alcohol beverage design, Aaron is frequently solicited for creative advice and vendor recommendations, not only from his Fetzer Vineyards colleagues, but also from suppliers and peers who view him as a “go-to” creative professional in the wine industry. He has a keen ability to bring a concept from ideation to the hands of the consumer in a cost-effective, innovative manner, harnessing best practices in graphic design and print technology to enhance brand equity and successfully usher new products to market.
Has the pandemic changed your workplace and your workflow? Do you expect to return to pre-pandemic ways of working or will any changes become the ‘new normal’?
As creatives, we are asked to be flexible and nimble every day. The pandemic has pushed us to be even more resourceful, especially for print/package design. I expect remote work and virtual meetings to continue in the future, which means we’ll need to find even more meaningful ways to connect and collaborate with colleagues and clients to get that muchneeded human interaction.
What do you expect 2021 to hold for graphic designers and the design business? Have the challenges of 2020 changed the way you think about your job and career or the role of design?
My team and I have been very fortunate to stay busy throughout the pandemic. I know this is not necessarily the case for all of our peers at the moment, but I believe there will always be a place for creative design. The state of the world encourages us to think and design more holistically, taking others into account. Is this communicating the right message? Are we being socially sensitive? Thinking more broadly about how our design might impact individual people should be at the forefront of our approach, whether it’s a bottle of wine or a social media post.
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