Patrick Sullivan Brand Guidelines: The Storybook Labels

Patrick Sullivan’s labels are one illustrator’s storybook scenes.

Patrick Sullivan is a lesson in an illustrator as a house style. Farming with his wife Megan in West Gippsland, Victoria (near Ellinbank, in the Strzelecki Ranges), Patrick Sullivan launched his label around 2010 and bought his Gippsland farm mid-decade, working biodynamically and dry-farmed.

Its brand identity is a named-illustrator storybook. The labels are drawn by the Helsinki-based illustrator Eero Lampinen — hand-drawn ink, brush and watercolour, edited digitally into flat, saturated, naïve storybook scenes. Sullivan says he “thinks and tastes in pictures,” and typically names and art-directs a wine only after bottling, so each cuvée gets its own illustrated scene, unified by Lampinen’s hand. The rosé “Pink Pound” — its name a nod to LGBT+ purchasing power — is the piece that started the collaboration.

(Honest notes: the labels are not his kids’ drawings — that’s a common myth; the childlike look is Lampinen’s naïve, comic-and-children’s-book style. He is a Gippsland producer, even though some wines use Yarra Valley fruit. His mentor is Bill Downie. And there’s no official brand hex, so the tones here are an unofficial interpretation.)

Patrick Sullivan lives in a teal-and-coral palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Patrick Sullivan’s identity is bright, playful and storybook — an ink, a teal, a coral, a mustard, and a paper. The palette pairs a storybook teal with a warm coral — the register of flat, saturated, illustrated scenes. It signals warmth and fun rather than formality. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a teal plus a coral signals a playful, illustrated brand. Patrick Sullivan’s world is a shelf of little illustrated stories. For designers, it is a reminder that a teal with a coral and a mustard reads as storybook and warm — right for a naïve-illustration label. The takeaways: build a bright, flat-colour set; keep it warm and playful; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using ink for small text so the palette stays storybook.

The register is a rounded display — warm, friendly, storybook.

Patrick Sullivan’s identity carries a warm, friendly, storybook spirit — a picture for every wine. A rounded display face captures the mood: it is soft and playful, the register of an illustrated, naïve brand. Set in a teal-and-coral palette, the rounded display feels friendly and storybook — exactly the personality Patrick Sullivan carries. It is warm rather than formal, mirroring a flat-colour illustration. (Patrick Sullivan’s real labels and Eero Lampinen’s illustrations are works we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because they are not ours to use, the honest description is “a rounded display spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: warm, friendly and storybook.

Patrick Sullivan stands for a house style built on one illustrator.

Patrick Sullivan is a lesson in making one illustrator the identity. A teal-and-coral palette, a rounded display and one storybook artist make a unified illustrated family — warm, playful, coherent. The illustrator is the differentiator. The differentiator is a naïve, single-artist, storybook identity.

For designers and brand-builders, Patrick Sullivan offers a clear takeaway: a named illustrator can be a house style. The lessons: commit to one artist and credit them (Eero Lampinen); let each cuvée get its own scene within one hand; and let naming and art come together after bottling. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: the labels are Lampinen’s, not children’s drawings; it’s a Gippsland estate; and the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. Patrick Sullivan made one illustrator the brand — proof that a single hand can be the difference.

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