Since 2019, the Domaine de Roueïre has been hosting in situ and off-site exhibitions organized as part of the Sud-Hérault cultural season. Starting in 2025, after extensive renovations, Roueïre will now be part of an initiative to bring together historical heritage and contemporary artistic creation in a single location. The Domaine de Roueïre is thus becoming Roueïre, Arts & Heritage Center.

This new space is divided into several areas and activities designed for the public, such as exhibitions, artistic activities, an educational service, a heritage center, and a documentation and consultation center with a library specializing in history, heritage, and art.

The exhibitions are dedicated to contemporary art, whether painting, photography, or installations. They are designed to question the evolution of art and create a link between the past, the present, and the future. They are also accompanied by a program organized by the Sud-Hérault artistic activities department, which includes tours, art workshops, vacation courses, and many other activities.

The heritage division offers a range of projects, including conferences, heritage days with a wide variety of themes (paleontology, natural heritage, biodiversity, etc.), tours, and heritage exhibitions. The main mission of this division is to preserve and promote the region’s heritage.

The story of a name that defines identity

Roueïre is a place name derived from the Occitan word “rovèira,” which originally meant “white oak.” The spelling of Roueïre has changed several times throughout history. The oldest mention found during our research is on Cassini’s map, which dates from 1776-1777 and refers to Rouere. In the 19th century, there were several spellings of the word: Rouyere, Roueyre, and even Roueïre. Today, the spelling is fixed as Roueïre, although spelling errors persist, notably with the reversal of the “e” and “ï” on some road signs. We decided to give this seemingly complex element a positive and distinctive force by playing with its particularities.

Its unique and distinctive pronunciation places this word at the heart of its territory. It is defined as a logotype, in the Greek sense of the word logos, meaning “word” or “speech,” and typos, meaning ‘imprint’ or “form.” It invites those who pronounce it to roll their “R”s and to signify and affirm the identity of the place. A true marker of identity, its diaeresis also gives it a richness of sound and a distinction that no other word can claim.

Writing the history of the place, a bridge between the past and the future

By taking the time to explore the Domaine de Roueïre through its architecture and unique features, it is possible to uncover numerous traces of the past, true witnesses to the history of the place and its many passengers over the years. The traces left deliberately take the form of texts, written words, engravings, and even information painted by hand using stencils.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, stencils became an indispensable tool, particularly in the worlds of craftsmanship and wine. Practical and functional, they allowed winemakers to record essential information such as the capacity of vats, signage for cellars, and the numbering of production batches and tools.

This writing tool has many advantages : it is economical, durable, attractive, easy to make, popular, and above all, easily recognizable by the general public. It allows for a handcrafted, handmade approach, assisted by a plate and various techniques (paint, pencil, pen, chalk, etc.), enabling the creation of words with a unique graphic style, marked by the bridges that punctuate each letter.

By focusing on these traces left by the stencil and adopting a stencil font at the heart of this new visual identity, we wanted to evoke the bridges that it builds in its composition. A bridge between generations, between nature and culture, between past and future, between heritage and art, across the entire region and far beyond.

The use of stencils evokes the estate’s wine-growing past, when wine casks were traditionally marked using stencils. It also echoes the idea of traces, such as those left by the many people who have passed through Roueïre over the course of its long history.

The very shape of the stencil, characterized by bridges that allow the letter to retain its counterform when cut out on a template, gives shape to the links that exist between Roueïre and the territory in which it is located, as well as the relationship it has with other places in southern Hérault.

A visual identity that creates connections

This visual identity conveys different intentions, which are expressed in the form of three concepts.

Firstly, there is a need to “identify” the place by embodying it through its graphic symbols, such as its logo, typography, and sign. Next, there is a desire to “narrate” the place’s past and future history by evoking the stencil, barrels, landscapes, etc. Finally, she wants to “weave” connections by creating links between generations, between nature and culture, between art and heritage, etc. Her ambition is to represent and embody the place in all its diversity and in all its forms.

The bridge between these key concepts also takes shape with the trémaïre, a double circular shape inspired by the diaeresis found in the word “Roueïre,” in which the stenciled text blocks are inscribed. The trémaïre breaks free from constraints and allows for optimal readability, while presenting itself as strong and easily recognizable. Its shape initially evokes the thunderbolts stored in this former estate, but these two circles can be interpreted in a thousand different ways: a pair of eyes for the curious, the wheels of a bicycle for Camin’Art aficionados, planets for those with their heads in the stars, but also the bond that is woven, point by point, between Roueïre and its audience.

The logo exists in two versions: the first is purely typographical and can be used when there are constraints in terms of medium or size, and the second, which is the main version, where the typographical block is split and appears inside the circles of the trémaïre. Both versions have an alternative with the words “Sud-Hérault” under the baseline.

Colors that reflect the region

The deliberately intense color palette is bright and references the context in which Roueïre is located. It creates a link with the history of the place, its occupants, but also the culture of the vineyard and the surrounding landscapes. The colors are designed to work in pairs to emphasize, like the trémaïre, the polarity of the place on many themes.

Orange embodies the warmth of encounters and sharing, reflecting the human interactions experienced at the estate. Pink evokes childhood and imagination, reinforcing the estate’s connection and educational role, while recalling the vineyards and Roueïre’s former wine-growing function. Green and sky blue evoke the natural colors of the region, reflecting its landscape and nature, which are essential elements of the place.

Communication can be approached with a design that primarily uses images. This iconography can be deployed using black-and-white photographs that have been processed with a color filter and a graphic halftone effect. The aim is to enhance the media, emphasize the importance of the dialogue between text and image in communication, and create easily identifiable iconography.

Leave your mark

A series of illustrations depicting heritage sites and attractions in southern Hérault (such as churches, castles, etc.) was designed for use in cartography, particularly for European Heritage Days, using the stencil concept and maintaining stylistic consistency with the “Halvar Stencil” typeface.

In addition to its importance in the deployment of visual identity, the stencil can also be seen as a genuine graphic and sharing tool whose use can be extended, in particular, in the context of workshops organized by the Roueïre team.

The tool thus allows the public to reclaim their identity, and through it, the place and its history, by offering them the opportunity to create their own message that can be easily reproduced on a medium of their choice : floor, wall, cardboard, fabric, etc.

All roads lead to Roueïre

The visual identity also takes shape through the creation of a signage and visitor guidance system. This system is also based on “Halvar Stencil” and the “stencil” tool, which can be applied either by hand (paint) or using the latest technologies (adhesive and printing). The stencil, used here as a signage tool, gives meaning to the discovery of the place.

A central element of visual identity, the stencil becomes a graphic object, an image in its own right to be composed in the design of communication media. The stencil serves as a support for typography, which can be cut out of it. It is both a decorative graphic element and an object that conveys information, thus serving a dual function.

The pictograms, designed specifically for Roueïre, aim to define a graphic style that is in harmony with the other graphic symbols in use, namely the “stencil” and the use of “bridges” that punctuate each graphic object. The pictograms are drawn in outline form, with or without a circle defining the area of application. One of the two versions can be chosen depending on the constraints imposed by the medium, in particular legibility.

In line with the stencils created for the public, we decided to design a normograph, this time for staff use. Containing all the letters of the alphabet in “Halvar Stencil” font, along with accents and punctuation marks, it allows the Roueïre team to write the Arts & Heritage Center’s program on a whiteboard provided for this purpose using a marker pen.

Write, trace, and share

A graphic and layout system has been designed to address various communication challenges. The aim is not to impose rigid uniformity on each medium, but rather to bring the visual identity to life in a consistent manner.

Thus, the stencil principle is retained on communication media and can be used in two ways, depending on requirements: a colored banner with adjustable height always appears at the bottom of the page and can interact either with a text block written in “Halvar Stencil” directly on the iconography used as a background, or with a layer that acts as a stencil and is placed over the iconography and the banner (on which the message also appears in stencil). Most often, the text block is managed with justified paragraphs, with only the dates aligned to the left and then to the right at the line break to echo the alignment of the logo’s baseline, which “links” the margins of the medium.

This graphic system allows you to create multiple layout templates with great flexibility, avoiding monotonous repetition in your communications.

The edition takes this graphic system to its logical conclusion by offering the possibility of cutting out the letters in stencil form, inviting users to reclaim the object by using it as a real writing tool.

A bond that is woven, stitch by stitch

To illustrate the complexity of such a mission, we have created a map that summarizes the project through the links that are forged between the various fundamental concepts explored throughout the research and creation process.