The secret to success—if only we could distill and bottle it. But for Denomination, success comes from what you put on the bottle rather than in it. From its first office in Sydney to its new branches in London, New York and San Francisco, the Australian design agency has built a reputation for gold-standard creativity and business excellence around the world.

Founded in 2002, Denomination specializes in branding and packaging for the global drinks industry. Fever Tree, Gallo, Mike’s, Penfolds, Pernod Ricard and Sazerac—some of the world’s best-known beverage brands rely on Denomination not just for its expertise but for its independence of thought and the creative culture the agency brings to the branding process.

“We just wanted to do things differently,” says cofounder and chief executive officer Rowena Curlewis. “We wanted to lead with empathy, and we certainly hadn’t found that in businesses we’d worked in before. We just wanted to delight our clients because if you can delight your clients, you’re going to delight the customers and the end consumers. It’s an easy transition.”

Curlewis, who comes from a client services background, started the agency with creative director Margaret Nolan. They opened their Sydney studio with plans to employ six people and serve the Australian wine industry. Today, there are 45 staff members, their clients are global, and Denomination covers three continents and just about every time zone.

“Every time we open a new office, our clients are like, ‘Ah, here comes World Denomination,’” jokes Curlewis.

However, the journey has been a long and winding one with significant challenges along the way—the current economic climate included. The global drinks business is feeling the effects of tariffs, oversupply, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. As mergers and acquisitions change the landscape, Denomination is holding steady thanks to longstanding relationships with key clients and creative work that stands the test of time.

Nine months after founding the business, Curlewis and Nolan received their first brief from the giant Australian wine maker Penfolds: to redesign its entire portfolio. “For two people working on their own, that’s a big project to work on,” says Curlewis. “It was partly a result of the relationships I’d built, but it was also recognition of Margaret’s abilities.”

A 23-year client-agency partnership would be enviable in any industry, and the relationship between Penfolds and Denomination has become iconic in the drinks sector. Deep understanding built over time leads to work that suits each product line to a tee, evolves the key brands and maintains consistency. For example, Denomination’s 2012 redesign of the Penfolds Bin range remains relevant thirteen years later. It’s by design, not by accident, that Penfolds has been named the world’s most powerful wine brand by the valuation consultancy Brand Finance.

The relationship has also given Denomination access to Penfolds’s parent company Treasury Wine Estates, which owns brands across Australia and in California.

When one big client trusts a small agency, others follow, but size doesn’t matter to Denomination. The agency produces outstanding work for a variety of smaller vineyards and distilleries. The Yabby Lake redesign, which also dates to the early days of the business, put Denomination on the map for its unique design thinking.

“It was a pretty radical design,” says Curlewis, “almost a full wrap label with a 12 mm (about half an inch) gap at the back and one dieline for two varietals: a pinot and a chardonnay. With the way it’s cut and where the graphics sit on the label, when you see the bottles on the shelf, the labels form a beautiful wavy pattern.

“They have not changed that design since we did it 23 years ago, and it still looks as contemporary and sexy as when we first designed it,” she continues. “If you think about the science behind branding, what you’re trying to do is build memorability, trust and stickiness with the consumer. You can’t do that if you’re constantly changing the visual cues. So, if you want to build a brand, you have to be consistent and strong about making sure that you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater in an attempt to reinvigorate sales.”

Great work wins clients, and recognition and awards usually follow. Denomination’s trophy cabinet is extensive. In 2024 alone, the agency won 30 awards from bodies including D&AD, DIELINE, Fab Awards, Global Drinks Intel and Harpers, among others. The brave, innovative and intelligent approach that leads to award-winning work is ingrained in the Denomination culture. This is an agency that champions sustainability, female leadership and emotional intelligence.

“In an ideal world, the whole drinks industry would be using reusable containers,” says Curlewis. “There are different statistics, but the container itself is between 29 and 31 percent of the carbon footprint of a product. The other packaging materials—the label and the capsule—are about 2 percent. If we could reuse the bottle, we would revolutionize the drinks industry and have a massive impact on carbon emissions. Massive.”

This is a bold statement for a packaging design company to make. Bottles and cans are Denomination’s creative canvas, crafted to be beautiful and distinctive—on a bespoke basis—for each brand and product line. Moving to reusables could well jeopardize some of its creative freedom.

However, Curlewis and her creative teams are thinking ahead. The change won’t come soon, but when it does, Denomination will be ahead of its competitors. The company has invested heavily in sustainability research and training, and every brief covers the sustainability of the design.

“What can designers do to make meaningful change?” asks Curlewis. “My answer is to understand the lifecycle assessment of the brand. Where is your bottle coming from? How heavy is it? Can it be recycled? Is your paper stock from an FSC supplier? What’s your energy efficiency if you’re manufacturing? What’s your waste-reduction strategy? Are you promoting circular design solutions such as reuse? What’s your pollution footprint? All these things make up a life-cycle assessment (LCA); I think that if designers don’t understand LCAs or aren’t mindful of them, then whatever solutions they’re doing are just lip service.”

Some say sustainability is out of fashion, but there has been no change in client attitudes. All the drinks makers Denomination works with rely on agriculture for grapes or grain. All are affected by and want to do something about climate change. “I don’t know any clients that are climate-change deniers because they can see it happening in their fields and their vineyards,” says Curlewis.

Long-term considerations are key to Curlewis’s leadership style. The company’s executive leadership team of eight includes six women. While female leadership is not unique, this ratio certainly is—within both the drinks and design industries.

Curlewis believes diversity—gender, sexuality, ethnicity—is an advantage that drives better creativity, better thinking and higher levels of engagement among staff. Female leadership is one factor within diversity, and through it, the company champions emotional intelligence and empathy.

“As a female leader, empathy is a strategic tool,” explains Curlewis. “Fostering empathy leads to more nuanced and more human-centric brand work. If you’re in an industry where emotional connection is going to drive purchasing, then having empathy as part of your toolkit is really useful.”

With the London office opening in 2014, San Francisco in 2018 and New York in 2024, the company has expanded rapidly over the last decade. Finding the right talent and leadership, winning clients, and paying the bills have all been challenges, but Curlewis’s leadership style and Nolan’s creative talents have given Denomination resilience.

While each office is a registered business, the company is highly integrated across locations with little hierarchy. The US, UK and Australian outfits each have a managing director and an executive creative director. A global head of strategy is located in London, with a chief operations officer and global growth officer in Sydney.

In 2023, Margaret Nolan stepped back from the business but remains on the board. Now, Curlewis relies on the three executive creative directors to uphold and advance Denomination’s design thinking. They include Hamish Campbell in the United States, Graeme Offord in Australia and Bronwyn Westrip in the United Kingdom.

“Margaret has a rare ability to stand on the beach of a creative challenge and immediately spot the one grain of sand that brings clarity to the entire problem,” says Offord. “That kind of creative clarity is something I’ll likely spend the rest of my career trying to emulate.”

On every project and in every matter, the three executive creative directors join forces. When Denomination receives a brief, creative and strategy teams are assembled based on expertise from across the design firm’s global talent pool. The client benefits by having the best people every time; the challenge for Denomination is in maintaining its processes, communication and culture across time zones.

“It takes conscious dedication to make sure we connect,” says Westrip. “It’s easy to let that slide, and as a soft side of the business, it’s easy to push out for client demands. But, it has proved to be our lifeline to a truly connected global agency force. Whenever somebody in the business attends an event or something culturally relevant, we always share that learning across the business, not just the creatives. It’s very popular.”

“I’ve worked at several global agencies where collaboration and international integration are often spoken about, but the reality behind the scenes can tell a different story,” says Campbell. “By contrast, the team that Rowena has built across all Denomination studios is genuinely connected, collaborative and refreshingly ego free.”

The newest of the company’s creative leaders, Campbell is exuberant about the next 23 years. “What excites me is that we’re not clinging to the past; we’re building something new,” he says. “There’s an incredibly strong foundation and heritage here, but we’re far from finished. In fact, it feels like we’re just getting started, and being part of shaping what’s to come is a brilliant place to be.” ca