To Jeffrey Caldewey, 5 percent can make all the difference in the world, especially when it comes to printing a wine label.

Caldewey, known as one of the premier wine label designers in the Napa Valley, doesn’t skimp on the details.

Recently, Caldewey carefully studied the color of the clouds on an illustration for a wine label. Too dark? Not dark enough? At a press check just before one of his drawings went into mass production, he turned to TAPP Technologies design liaison Cynthia Kirk and asked her to tone down the gray screen on the illustration by 5 percent. Then he reviewed the label one last time.

“It’s good,” he said, signing his name on an approval sheet.

Afterwards, he explained the effect he was looking for. “We want it to be perfect, but not too perfect,” he said. “It’s important to maintain a feeling of being hand-crafted.”

In his 30 years of packaging design, Caldewey’s become known as a master of his craft. He started out as a publisher of winery books. When a client asked him if he knew anyone who could help design a label, he branched into packaging design. Drawing on his days studying package design at Michigan State University in the 1960s, a new career was born.

Over the years, Caldewey’s worked with a who’s who of wineries designing all aspects of wine packaging, from labels to bottles and boxes to shipping materials. Clients have included Chateau Montelena Winery, Stags’ Leap Winery, Beringer Vineyards, St. Francis Winery, Bounty Hunter, Jordan Winery, J. Lohr Vineyards and Wines and Joseph Phelps. He estimated he’s created 400-500 packaging designs.

“Most people spend their lives walking past things and my job is to make them stop and pay attention,” he said.

Distinctive designs

While the wineries and their leaders are here in the Napa Valley, the artwork for wine labels and products can be made nearly anywhere. Some of the larger operations go to design firms in large metropolitan areas like San Francisco.

But the proliferation of smaller wine producers has helped the independent artists in the valley.

Terry Hall, a spokesman for the Napa Valley Vintners, the trade group of 300 local wineries, noted that half or more of local wineries make 10,000 cases or less annually. Some of them prefer handmade labels or more creative designs.

“As wine labels look for more distinct designs, they are less into big firms and more into individual designers,” said Hall.

Wherever the design work is done, a fair amount of the printing still takes place here.

Dennis Patterson runs Ben Franklin, one of the last family- and locally-owned printers in the valley. He said his business is 100 percent winery related, and 95 percent wine labels.

Working with designers is a “team project,” said Patterson. “We have a lot of experience with wine labels and the products.”

More than a pretty label

When Caldewey started in design, personal computers didn’t exist. He used the old-fashioned cut-and-paste method, using a wax adhesive to place sheets of paper containing his label designs on stiff boards for reproduction on a printing press.

He still designs by hand, but today computers finish the process, adding text and other visual elements. “It’s sort of like building blocks,” he said.

Caldewey works with a local printer such as TAPP Technologies to ensure the completed package design is transferred electronically to a digital printing press, where Caldewey makes his final adjustments.

He spoke of a current project he’s working on for Mumm Napa.

“It’s the most difficult project I’ve ever worked on,” Caldewey said. “The client wants a classic sparkling wine package, but make it leap off the shelves. They want bling. What I’m trying to do is modern classic with glitz.”

The use of iridescent and metallic inks is a change for Caldewey, who describes his style as “understated elegance.”

But each client is different, and Caldewey adapts to the needs of each project.

“There’s always a personality on the other end. That’s what keeps the interest up,” he said. “It’s really about the people.”

A lot of his clients are new to winemaking, but are wine enthusiasts.

“There’s no one more enthusiastic than someone starting a wine brand,” said the designer. “You’re sort of like a psychiatrist. You find out what really makes (a client) tick.”

“These labels aren’t about me, it’s about the client. I’m just trying to translate their vision into something tasteful and successful.”

Caldewey said corporate clients are now more conscious of maintaining a brand image across several products or over several years, giving the consumer a consistent sense of what to expect.

“It’s really only in the past few years people realize how important the label is,” he said. “There’s so much competition for shelf or mind space you want people to have awareness of your brand.”

Other trends are emerging in package design, he said: Bigger labels, more white, bolder colors and more foil printing than ever before.

But, “I try not to be too influenced by current trends. I think all the great design has already been done.”

Caldewey hasn’t completely left the publishing business. In 2003 he and fellow designer Chuck House created their own design compilation; “Icon: Art of the Wine Label.” Today, they’re working on a follow up: “ICON II.” The two collaborate under the business name ICON Design Group.

He credits such partnerships in his success.

“I have had the good fortune to be partners with some genuinely talented designers and artists,” Caldewey wrote in an e-mail.

He mentioned Sebastian Titus, Ralph Colonna and Chuck House, who happens to be his brother-in-law.

Working in a home office on a Mount Veeder hill top, Caldewey admitted he’s not the easiest guy to get hold of. But with average packaging project fees ranging between $35,000 to $75,000, he can afford to be selective. Some projects take a year to complete, he noted, and he completes about 12 packages a year.

He typically works 60 hours a week, beginning around 4 a.m. each day. He has a production office on Lincoln Street near downtown Napa.

Caldewey uses no sub-designers, and does no outsourcing. “I turn down business all the time,” said the artist. “I’m much busier than I ever have been.”

“I’m just a designer but in reality I’m more of a marketing person,” noted Caldewey. “We’re not just making a pretty label. We’re designing a communications piece to position their brand in the marketplace.”