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.