remember me?

I want to send a christmas card to FLB (where I had my summer internship) so I thought I would use their logo in my design. Below are two testers I have done to try and decide which to use. I prefer the plain christmas pud, but think using the logo is a clever little twist. I also think the white writing works better.
Left design it is?

mock-ups

In this post I have included photographs of my initial mock-ups for one of my final designs.
First off I experimented with how long the wine label should be. From left to right the labels are 12cm, 10cm and 8cm high. From photographing these labels I have decided the first one has the most colour on it, however I can still get rid of more colour. So, the final label size is going to probably end up around 11cm cutting off the white at the top.
Side view of the height experiment.
After deciding the height I then wanted to work out where the gold band should sit. The left bottle shows the band near the top, this was to stop the colour from going in the upper half of the label. However, I thought it was too hard to read the writing as the colour is paler as you go higher. Therefore, I moved the gold band down (right image), and the title is much clearer. I also think there is a better balance when the band is sat lower.

Unsure about the gold band around the neck. Don't know whether it makes the piece look more uppercase or not.
Side view of the bands at different heights.
More images of the two versions to compare. For me the lower band definitely stands out more.

I have also decided to try and include the Napa Valley brand at the top of the label as there is room when the band is low. I may gold foil this to make it more subtle.

after initial research...

After brainstorming a number of initial ideas I have now selected a few I want to develop. Below is an alphabet I have created using stencils and wine. I am pleased with the overall look and feel it is interesting and appropriate.

I developed the initial stencils on photoshop and below is the final alphabet.

branding development...

Over the last week I have developing my branding for sucka4sweets.com

Before is where I am up to now. I have used a bold font along with vibrant, striking colours for impact. I am quite pleased with the branding at the moment, however, I think it still needs a bit of developing.

For the packaging of the sweets the branding is going to be on a long band as I want it to cover the top of the bag to protect the sweets from falling out. Below are the 4 final colour ways I am picking from.

Next two images show variates of my label design for the sweet packaging.

Initial colour way research....