ENTRY #4
Feeling & Form
THE MUSIC
Somewhere between the flights and the quiet moments in between, the song started to come into focus.
I took a trip to play Seabreeze Jazz Fest last week, and somewhere between the flights and the quiet moments in between, I started working on the final lyrics to “The Beginning.” I walked the beach, sat with ice cream and a notebook, and spent hours on the plane just thinking. I knew I wanted to tell our story—but finding the right words without slipping into something too sentimental isn’t easy.
There were a few moments where I got a little teary writing the lyrics. It’s a powerful thing to look back and realize we actually wrote down our dreams… and now we’re living them, at a level that still feels almost impossible to believe. I needed a few days of that solitude to really sort it out in my head—to find the words that captured what “the beginning” meant for us. I think I found them.
Now it shifts from words to music. The next step is building the demo and shaping the parts for each instrument—and that’s going to be a defining moment. The strings, especially… that’s where this thing is really going to come alive. I’ve already recorded my piano part, but I’ve decided that I’m going to bring in a great player to elevate my parts further. That feels like the right move.
I’m excited about where this song is headed. I don’t know what genre it ends up living in—and honestly, that’s not my job. My job is to create something true. A song that captures us… at the very beginning.
Mindi 🎶
THE WINE
Starting with a blank canvas… the brand led the way, and my job was to reveal its form.
The Whiteboard label came together the same way everything meaningful does for us—by staying true to that direction and refining it until it felt exact. Before a single line was finalized or a color was committed, I sat with the identity of the wine and let it define the boundaries. Elegant, understated, strong, and quietly confident—more presence than statement. I was thinking Daniel Craig in a white tuxedo, where nothing needs to be said because everything is already understood when he entered a room.
From there, the name set the discipline. Whiteboard demanded restraint—an all-white palette, precise spacing, and a composition that relies on control rather than decoration. It’s a level of simplicity that only works when every detail is resolved, where what’s left out carries as much weight as what remains.
The material became an extension of that philosophy. We chose a 70# bright white felt stock drawn from the world of fine stationery and traditional letterpress—papers reserved for pieces meant to be kept. Its surface is formed through a specialized pressing process that leaves a soft, almost textile-like impression, giving the label a presence that reveals itself the moment it’s touched. It doesn’t shine—it holds light, creating a quiet depth that feels composed, deliberate, and unmistakably elevated.
I always feel there needs to be a single point of focus. The name of the release—and its connection to Mindi’s song, “The Beginning”—became that moment. Set precisely at the center, I wanted to create it in a restrained red foil. It reveals itself only as the bottle moves—a controlled glint, not a shine… just enough to catch your eye and draw you in.
I believe that the moment someone reaches for the bottle—when it moves from being seen to being held—the relationship changes. It becomes personal. That’s my intention—that the red and the statement catch your eye, draw you in, and lead you to pick it up, experience it in your hands, and connect with it on a deeper level.
The brand set the direction, and from there every element is pursued with exacting discipline—design intentional, materials meticulously selected, finishes refined to their highest expression—until everything comes into perfect alignment.
Then, it went off to the printers.
Eric 🍷
