Pointer Wine Glass becomes Pointer
Over the past year, we evolved from a product centred brand into Pointer, a unique Wine Experiences and Products platform. We dreamt to explore new horizons and all of it became reality with the support of our friends, family, clients and collaborators.
How we got here
8 years ago I was working as assistant designer in an architecture office in Amsterdam. My income was very low but I was keen on managing on my own without parents help. I remember everything being so expensive, not affording dinner and not even being able to dream of having a wine glass in a wine bar. My only luxurious moment was to bring beautiful wine glasses from my rental flat to the park and drink homemade wine from my family just like that, in the grass. That didn’t cost me anything…
Designing Pointer Wine Glass in one of those lonely spring afternoons in the park made me realise luxury is something you can create for yourself no matter the situation or the resources. It made me realise that for me, having a glass of wine in nature, be it in the city or outside of it, with or without company, is such a simple luxury that I deserve and that it is priceless.
Wine making had always been part of our family and I really enjoyed both making it and drinking it. On top of that, I was now designing and selling wine glasses so it became pretty clear that I needed to deep dive in the topic. I did WSET 1 and WSET 2 Levels in Berlin, in parallel with the jobs I had at the time. I went for wine tastings in all the wine regions I travelled through in Europe and kept a curious taste bud active for new varieties.
I enjoyed so much talking about wine, choosing them for dinners, gifts and my friends and family seemed to enjoy my tips and actually ask for them. It came so naturally that one day I woke up and told to myself: I need to sell wine next to my glasses and I want to make people try them before they buy them. I want people to try new wines from countries they never even travelled to, from grapes they have never hear of and I want them to feel relaxed and enjoy every moment rather than sitting at a stiff wine tasting where the sommelier uses way too many complicated words and makes you feel like a complete idiot. Yes, these were my first thoughts when I envisioned the wine tasting events.
In October 2021 I quit my job and decided it is time to fully focus on my own business and make it work, now or never. Or fail. Both ok. It took me quite some time to rethink it all, to understand that what I am going to do from now on can no longer be called Pointer Wine Glass but something else encompassing all these new ideas and plans.
Team Effort
John Nill joined forces from the first week of "unemployment". We came up with a plan to make the website visible, use keywords, rethink product structure. We didn't know yet how many new product will be there in 12 months, but we set up the SEO structure and changed the theme in order to accommodate all these big dreams I had.
In March 2022 I was really lucky to get Veronica Ambrosetti on board for 3 months of business and brand development deep dive. Together we developed a brand and product strategy and for the first time I allowed myself to actually dream bigger. We organised together the first ever Pointer Wine Tasting.
Iulia Circei joined in July 2022 for art direction, styling and imagery. We spent the summer shooting products and experiences, indoor and outdoor, with and without people. Together we transferred the emotions behind this brand and products into images and our plans for the future are now available in images and videos and not just in my dreams.
I contracted SUNDAY BROTHERS also during the summer for our amazing new logo and visual identity. The brainstormings with them led to big inner confrontations, but the struggle only pushed me further. Our new symbol represents the metal shape defining Pointer Wine Glass, the easy going luxury product we started our wine journey with. The new logo uses 33% less ink than standard fonts.
Laura Chiriac joined us just recently and she is already rocking our socials. We are a match made in (wine) heaven, as she is also a young Romanian entrepreneur producing wine glasses. We are now present on LinkedIN, Tiktok and since last week even on Youtube.
Iulian Ivan came to help when my 3D modelling skills had no priority. We have been tirelessly looking for solutions to improve our packaging and production costs, but also working on the design of new products. I am very excited to share more details about that, but you will have to wait just a little bit longer.
Our Product Categories
Business growth went hand in hand with my own growth and I am so happy to fully stand behind the things I do every day and feel that all my professional dreams and goals are finally aligned with my personal ones. We are proud to introduce to you to our new product categories: glasses, gifts, wine, events and accessories.
- Existing: Pointer Glass will continue to offer the simple and elegant outdoor moments you deserve. Our signature product stays as it is and we are currently working on the 2.0 version;
- New: Pointer Gifts brings all our products together in tailor made boxes suitable for any gifting occasion. The gift boxes come in different sizes and colours and they can be topped up with both value vouchers and wine tasting experiences;
- New: Pointer Events represents our transition from product-centred brand to services. We are now offering wine tastings, both public and private, for corporate, individuals and small groups, indoors and outdoors, in pop-up locations, in your office space or in the intimacy of your own home, with or without catering;
- New: Pointer Wine is a collection of wines made from lesser know grape varieties and coming from rather unknown wine regions. Small production, responsible wine making process and the people behind the labels are essential criteria for our product selection;
- New: Pointer Accessories is a curated selection of unique products related to wine and picnic, responsibly made in Europe by creators whom we admire and are aligned to our principles.