Having lived in Monterey for 12 years now, I have come to love the Peninsula. It is my home, I cherish the people, the views, the food and the wine. I think Monterey County wines are the best in the world, even better than Napa. In fact, it baffles me that people would drive all over Napa, when Carmel Valley has a grip of tasting rooms in one garden draped walkable location. As my friend Mark Anderson from the Monterey County Weekly put it, "Yes, Napa's beautiful … But it's also over-priced, over-hyped, over-boutiqued and often over-booked." Here are some fantastic examples of great design on local wine labels, many with tasting rooms in Carmel Valley.
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And now for a plea for Boëté Winery. 
Please get a label redesign immediately. 

I'm sure that when you created this label in God knows what program (I have a scary suspicion it was MS Paint,) Papyrus seemed like a good idea at the time. I only hope it was 1997, as that would be the only excuse. Anyhow, it's 2012 now, and if my 94 year old grand mother could name that font, it has to go. Your wine is too good for this. I love the fact that you have one of only a few labels with a custom shape, which implies that your wine is so good that it breaks the norm. The choice of Papyrus as a font however, is second only to Comic Sans in the way of terrible choices. Time to invest in a good designer who can take your winery to a professional level in the 21st century.
For more information about Monterey County Wines, see the Weekly's list of tasting rooms, published in last weeks Winter 2012 Food and Wine issue. 
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Here is a round-up of local farm and agriculture logos. Some are large corporations that ship produce worldwide. A couple are smaller organic farms that deliver to Monterey County and/or frequent the farmers' markets. This will start a series of posts featuring logos from different local industries.
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1.   I really love this logo. It's got a barefoot chick strolling along, wind-in-her-hair, with a shovel and a pipe. She has some killer overall's and big boobs. It's sexy. Great graphic that really shows a small farm feel with dedicated people who love what their doing and have a sense of humor about it. I also really like the typography. Very organic hand drawn looking and nicely type-set. 
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2.   What's not to like about this logo. It's fun, colorful, has great phallic energy and is such a throw-back. Reminds me of vintage produce labels. You know those beautiful works of art that people love to collect. My only beef is the kerning in the typography, especially in FARMS.

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3.   Nicely done. Love the colors and the compact look. In .2 seconds I know this is a produce company. I imagine that it is the top of fruit (tomato) that has been weirdly cropped in a angled boxy, not very fruit-like way. Hmmm. Fruit in a box or package? I think I would like it more if it wasn't so generic looking, slightly McDonaldsish.

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4.   For me, this label is all about the type-set Tanimura & Antle. The way it breaks the ellipse, the drop stroke. Beautiful. I also like the two workers illustration. It just works. I think they missed the mark with the small caps on the tagline–I'd have used upper case, and the colors. Especially the blue. I don't like most blue food to begin with, so it would not draw me to the package in the super market. And three different Trade Marks, is that really necessary? If so, then please work out a better more consistent solution for them.

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5.   Very nice graphically. I like the leaf sun and the colors. I get it. Fruit, crops, rolling hills. My issue is that the name gets lost. My eye goes from the sun to the ORGANIC to the Food to live by., then finally to Earthbound Farm. The hierarchy is totally off and the three type-set groups are almost the same size. 
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6.   I don't know where to begin. I look at it and even though it clearly says Farms, all I see is pizza. There is nothing fresh here. It looks heavy, and minus the letter r's in Taylor Farms, I really don't like the fonts. There is the gold banner with the squished in serif. The strokes are inconsistent, the down point of the pizza slice is not centered. Even the Trade Mark seems like it's floating. Pretty much a mess.
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