Back to the roots

Rita Rivotti has a passion for storytelling – she has been working in the world of branding and packaging across wines, spirits, olive oils and gourmet products for the past twenty years. After graduating with a degree in agronomic engineering, Rivotti decided to change her career path to graphic design following the birth of her three daughters and in 2004 founded RitaRivotti, her Lisbon-based studio.

The ethos of the studio is about ‘building authentic identities rooted in the stories and people behind each product – from concept to final label’. This was instilled in their package design for the D’Eyras extra virgin olive oil and Vira Lobos arbutus craft spirit, also known as ‘medronho’, a traditional beverage in Portugal made from the berries of the strawberry tree (known as ‘arbutus unedo’ or ‘medronheiro’ in Portuguese).

RitaRivotti approached the branding and packaging of both olive oil and arbutus fruit spirit with the same vision – ‘to honour the family’s origins and their connection to the land where they’ve lived for more than eight generations’.

The D’Eyras family has carried out a commitment to respect the land and its flora. Both the olive tree and strawberry tree are native to Portugal. Due to their dense structures, both have fire-resistant properties and an ability to create natural firebreaks, useful in the region’s dry, hot summers.

The RitaRivotti team created illustrations of olives and arbutus fruits in the same style for each label to maintain cohesion throughout the brand. They aimed to evoke the tradition and artisanal care of the small-batch distillery and olive oil manufacturing, which led to the choice of delicate, pharmacy-style bottles. VOX, a printing house based in Vila Nova de Gaia with extensive knowledge of label production, printed the labels.