Lightning Labels Blog

Another Retail Product With Custom Labels

In a previous post I talked about the new custom label program from Heinz. You can order Heinz ketchup with your own message on it, and they will deliver your custom labeled ketchup to you in 4-6 weeks. I just received my bottle this week, after about a five week wait. Why it takes that long is anyone's guess, but we all know that big bureaucracies tend to move slowly.

Johnnie Walker scotch have a different twist on the same idea. When you register on the Johnnie Walker web site you can order a custom label with your own message (up to 3 lines). But instead of sending you a bottle of their product like Heinz do, Johnnie Walker will send you just the label, so you can apply it to a bottle you have purchased at the liquor store. Best of all, they are giving these labels away free of charge, up to 5 labels per person.

I think this is a smart move. With all the regulatory information regarding sales of hard alcohol, they couldn't really do what Heinz has done. But they are enhancing their brand by allowing people to create their own personalized labels to use as gifts. And we all know the Holiday Season is just around the corner.

Old Style Packaging Designs

I stumbled across this fascinating web site recently featuring over 100 packages from the early decades of the 20th Century. The American Packaging Museum displays the private collection of retail products from yesteryear of Ian House, the museum's curator and founder.

There are so many iconic packages from the 20th century. You have old examples of Coke, Pepsi, Wrigley's Gum, Kleenex, Tootsie Rolls, and many more. What was fascinating to me is to see the many products whose packaging has evolved only slightly in more than 50 years. Tide Detergent and Heinz Ketchup are examples of products that have kept a very similar look and feel for decades. Others such as Wheaties and Dr. Pepper are barely recognizeable.

If you are having trouble coming up with a unique custom label or package design for your products, you can take a look here for some completely different ideas. By taking some of the elements of these retro designs, you could create a very unique look for your product.

What Does "Full Bleed" Mean?

Understanding the concept of a "full bleed" is important if you want the color on your labels to go right up to the very edge. This is best explained by an example. Look closely at the label above - this is a 3" x 5" label from our custom label sample pack. To create a 3" x 5" full color label like this, we actually use artwork that is slightly bigger than our finished label. For most instances the size of the finished art that we use to print the label is 1/16" larger on all sides. So, the box that we created in this instance is actually 3.125" x 5.125".

Why do we need this extra space? It has to do with the way a label is created. When labels are created they are first printed on the label material and then they are cut into the shape you want. This cutting is a mechanical process and the material can drift ever so slightly (up to 1/32") during the die cutting. If you just had color without a full bleed then when the material shifted slightly you would notice a white area at the edge of your label. By adding 1/16" of color to all sides of your label you will ensure you will get a finished product that looks good and has color all the way to the very edge of your label.

New Blogsmith Column Launched

I am delighted to be a new columnist for Label and Narrow Web magazine, a leading trade publication for the label industry. My new column is titled The Blogsmith, and with a title like that not surprisingly I will be writing about blogs. My main focus will be blogs that are of interest to people in the label industry - from a technical and management perspective.

In my first column I introduce the readers to blogs, featuring a couple of excellent blogs where you can learn about this new media tool. There is also a feature on the excellent RFID Weblog. You can read the first column here.

Learning About Labels at LabelExpo

The biannual show, LabelExpo, happened this week in Chicago. Steve Smith (president of Lightning Labels) and I went along to see what was new in the world of labels. Here is a summary of what I consider to be the most interesting parts of the show:

1. The famous designer Karim Rashid gave the Tuesday keynote on the importance of good packaging design in today's marketplace. With his designs he is moving towards more simple branding, with lots of blank space on the label. So many labels today on retail shelves are packed with information that a well-designed minimalist approach works very well.

2. We attended a seminar on digital label printing where HP presented information showing the growth of digital printing in the label industry. There are now 450 digital label presses installed worldwide (Lightning Labels has two of these), and that number has grown 67% in the last two years. What was more interesting is that the volume of labels printed with these digital presses has risen 185% in the last two years, as more people see the benefits of digital label printing.

3. There was a seminar on sustainable packaging - there have been a number of new developments in this area. Just in the last 12 months, Plastic Suppliers has developed their EarthFirst PLA label material which is made from corn instead of petroleum products. Here at Lightning Labels we are going to begin testing this material shortly and hope to have it available in the coming months. 

4. There is a push towards the use of Environmentally Benign Adhesive (EBA) on paper labels. The main reason is that when labels with regular adhesive enter the paper recycling stream the adhesive builds up on the pulping machines and cause expensive breakdowns. All postage stamps now come with EBA, so they can enter the recycling stream and be processed easily like regular paper.

5. There were several examples of the latest in label printing and die cutting technology. We saw the new press from HP (the WS4500) as well as a couple of laser die cutting machines. While we decided there was no new technology compelling enough for us to purchase at the show, we will certainly be keeping an eye on these new developments.

A Variety of Wine Labels

Deerfield Ranch is an award winning winery located in the heart of Sonoma Valley in California. They specialize in small lots of handmade wine - currently they work with 17 vineyards and make as many as 40 separate lots of wine for these vineyards. They also do some private label wine for clients who want wine with their own label design.

We have done a variety of labels for Deerfield Ranch, above is a photo of four different wine labels we have recently printed. The two wine labels on the left use our Estate #9 material, a material that was created specifically for the wine industry. It features a textured look and feel on a cream colored paper, and a permanent adhesive that allows for the label to be easily removed in hot water. The two labels on the right are printed on our standard white BOPP material.

The designs on these wine labels are all unique and striking. I particularly like how they perfectly matched up the color of the foil seal with the labels. It makes for an impressive looking wine bottle.

Lightning Labels Blog Featured

Wendy Maynard, the marketing maven and author of the Kinetic Ideas blog featured us on her blog yesterday. I answer some questions about blogging - why I do it and how it helps business.

Kinetic Ideas is an excellent blog for anyone interested in small business marketing. Wendy provides lots of practical ideas that are often easy to implement and inexpensive, and can take you beyond traditional marketing.

Using Variable Data Labels

One of the biggest advantages of digital label printing is the ability for every label to be unique. Whether you are printing serial number labels, barcode tracking labels, parking decals or product labels with lot and date coding - all these applications can be handled with ease with a digital label printer. Best of all with the advanced technology these days, all components of your variable data label can be printed in full color.

There are two ways to create your variable data labels. First, you can have a digital label printer print the entire project - this is the easiest and simplest way to go. You provide the label printer with your art and details of the variable component of the job and the label printer will take care of the rest. The other alternative is to overprint label shells yourself with a thermal transfer printer - these days thermal transfer printers are inexpensive (less than $1,000) and you can overprint the variable data component of your labels as you need them.

There are some things to keep in mind when considering variable data labels:
1. Be sure to get a physical label proof from your label printer with your variable information so you can see exactly what you labels will look like when printed.
2. If you are printing your variable data on your own thermal transfer printer make sure you get a sample of the material first and ask your printer to print your label shells with a thermal transfer varnish or laminate.
3. Find out how your label printer handles mistakes on a variable data print run. If there is an issue halfway through the run that shouldn't be your problem. Because each label is unique you want to make sure your printer provides you with exactly what you are requesting.

With today's digital label printing technology variable data labels are relatively easy to produce if you know what you are doing. Here at Lightning Labels we are experts in variable data - digital labels are all that we do. We would be happy to give you advice on any variable data label project.