Field Recordings Brand Guidelines: A Catalog of Places

Field Recordings is a winemaker’s catalog of vineyards.

Field Recordings is a lesson in a job that became a brand. Founded in 2007 by Andrew Jones in Paso Robles, California, it grew out of his day job as a grapevine-nursery fieldman — planting vineyards all over California, he came to know countless small, obscure sites and their growers, and “Field Recordings” is his documentary catalog of the people and places he values.

Its brand identity is playful, graphic and un-pretentious — modern, pop-culture-savvy, story-driven labels that reject wine “mystique.” It was an early mover in canned wine, and its lines include the flagship “Fiction” blends, the “Skins” orange wine, and “Salad Days” pét-nat.

(Honest notes: its canned spin-off Alloy Wine Works was a separate brand, sold off around 2019 — not a current Field Recordings line. “Skins” is a bottled orange wine, not a can. Its website design is credited to Solasta Studio, but the bottle labels’ designer isn’t documented. And there’s no official brand hex, so the tones here are an unofficial interpretation.)

Field Recordings lives in a cobalt-and-coral palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Field Recordings’ identity is bright, graphic and fun — an ink, a cobalt, a coral, a sun, and a snow. The palette pairs a bold cobalt with a warm coral — the register of playful, modern, pop packaging. It signals approachability and fun rather than heritage or prestige. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a bold cobalt plus a coral signals a playful, modern brand. Field Recordings’ world is a shelf of fun, collectible bottles and cans. For designers, it is a reminder that a cobalt with a coral reads as graphic and approachable — right for an un-pretentious natural-wine label. The takeaways: lead with a bold colour; add a warm accent; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using ink for small text so the palette stays graphic.

The register is a friendly display — modern and approachable.

Field Recordings’ identity carries a playful, modern, approachable spirit — pop energy and no mystique. A friendly display face captures the mood: it is warm and confident, the register of an un-pretentious, contemporary brand. Set in a cobalt-and-coral palette, the friendly display feels modern and approachable — exactly the personality Field Recordings carries. It is fun rather than formal, mirroring pop packaging. (Field Recordings’ real labels are works we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typefaces are not ours to use.) Because the labels are not ours to use, the honest description is “a friendly display spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: playful, modern and approachable.

Field Recordings stands for approachable, place-driven wine.

Field Recordings is a lesson in making approachability the identity. A cobalt-and-coral palette, playful labels and a “no mystique” ethos make un-pretentiousness the whole brand — modern, graphic, fun. The approachability is the differentiator. The differentiator is a playful, place-driven, un-pretentious identity.

For designers and brand-builders, Field Recordings offers a clear takeaway: friendliness can be a brand. The lessons: turn your real story into the name (a nursery-fieldman’s catalog of places); look approachable (bright, graphic, collectible); and innovate on format (an early canned-wine mover). It is also a reminder to stay accurate: it was founded in 2007 (not 2012), Alloy was a separate, sold-off brand, and the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. Field Recordings made approachability the brand — proof that friendliness can be the difference.

Keep Field Recordings’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.