(TDB) - Designers are adept at influencing the perception of things and this extends to wine, too, as Sarah Hyndman explains.

However, aside from changing just perceptions, it can also change how something tastes…

In just over two weeks, designer Sarah Hyndman will be hosting a wine and type tasting evening at the London Design Festival at Laithwaites Arch in the Bankside Design District, where she will explain the breakdown the influence typography has on taste.

It is often said that you eat (or drink) with your eyes first and with wine being a product that is largely controlled by image it is easy to manipulate what the liquid inside the bottle can taste like. Everything from the label, the positioning and price of it on a restaurant menu, the aroma, colour and where it was made are all variables that effect this, with Hyndman saying the words we read will intensify both our anticipation and enjoyment of a flavour, and the way these words look can do the same thing.

However, she explains that if we think a bottle of wine is more expensive then we are likely to enjoy it more than we would if it was a cheap bottle, and the design of the label goes a long way to achieving this.

“Jagged shapes put our brain on alert for potential danger, which could be something sharp or the taste of food that might not be good to eat such as sour or unripe fruit, or bitterness and potentially poisonous,” she says.

“In my opinion it’s a clever manipulation by our own brains to keep us safe.

“However I think that as human beings we like a challenge, we like the sourness of lemons or the bitterness of coffee, and it would be great for us as designers to reflect this more with the typefaces styles we use.”