Labeling Innovations from Weber

Our featured label this month is the series of deli food labels we printed for a local food importer, R&F Imports. These labels were designed by our Graphics manager, Joe Lozano, and printed on a WS6000 HP Indigo digital printing press. 

The Label's Story

The deli counter is a highly competitive area of any grocery store, so if you're a small brand competing for consumer attention, then you need to maximize your packaging with brand storytelling. This is a challenge we often talk about with craft beer labels and other products at small businesses. You have a limited budget, a small shelf space to promote your brand and you're lacking name recognition with consumers.

R&F Imports needed help and decided to rebrand their label with the help of our Graphics manager and marketing team. A beautiful rustic farm scene was designed and printed on a metalized silver label material. To enhance certain parts of the design, Joe Lozano used a matte laminate to soften areas of the design and while allowing other areas to shine. It also gave the overall texture and a soft, high-end feel. 

Weber's Digital Edge Solution 

Initially R&F was looking for an in-house label printing solution. However, the limitations in print quality and material would make for an undesirable finished product. To create the quality labels R&F wanted and at the quantity they needed, they decided to have Weber print these labels using our HP Indigo digital press.

The labels that were printed were for a variety of deli meats and each required a low volume of printed labels (under 10,000). Not only is the digital press able to produce crisp vibrant images but it also doesn't require printing plates, so producing a series of labels with different images is quick and easy. It also means R&F has the flexibility to change their artwork and print new labels without investing in new plates or dies for different shapes and colors.

Gold Ink Award 

Needless to say, the R&F Imports labels were a big hit. We're proud to announce that this series of labels was recognized with a Gold Ink Award in the Commercial Printing category under "Digital Printing, Labels & Flexible Packaging." The label was judged based on the quality and technical difficulty in printing the label.  

In its 28th year, the Gold Ink Awards from Printing Impressions magazine is a celebration of the best in printed products. They receive thousands of entries each year from printers around the world who are looking to be recognized by their customers, prospects and industry peers for their superior craftsmanship.

Congrats to our Marketing, Graphics and Manufacturing teams for putting together a great product. Pictured above (l to r) is Graphics manager Joe Lozano and Label Production manager Todd Peterson.

Want to see them shine in person? Request metalized label samples from Weber. 

There are many instances where a label application requires a more durable material beyond that of a typical product label. These durable labels are used when a product requires UL recognized labels or the product will be stored in a harsher environment with a long shelf life.

For example, think about some of the electric tools in your garage (cordless drill, sander, table saw, etc.) or your furnace and central air conditioner. These products last for years and need important information about the product to be readable for the life of the item. If you look at them closely, you will see warning labels, instructions, rating plates, wiring diagrams,  UL recognized labels or other company information.

We're happy to announce that there is finally a reliable solution for low-volume durable labeling. With the introduction of our Durable Digital material line, you can now order as few of 500 labels printed on our HP digital presses.

The new materials are designed to be resistant to high temperatures, moisture, chemicals and UV exposure. This makes them perfect for warning decals, instruction labels, toy decoration, sporting equipment, tools and more.

Our new Durable Digital label material is designed to be used for printing labels on our HP Indigo WS4500 and WS6000 printing presses. Printing labels digitally means you can get high-resolution, full-color process printed durable labels at low quantities.

Plus, unlike Flexo printing, the HP Indigo digital press can print variable information on your labels. This is a great solution for labels that will have changing serial numbers or even colorful symbols. 

Let's take a look at Weber's new Durable Digital Label materials.

The next deadline for GHS labeling compliance is less than a year away! Starting June 1st, 2015 all manufacturers and distributors of chemicals will be required to comply with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification. 

Since the final ruling was announced by OSHA, we've been researching options for customers because we knew this change would affect everyone from manufacturers to day-to-day chemical users. In fact, we had to make changes to the chemical bottles we use in our plant.

At Weber, we use an EPSON C3500 Inkjet Label Printer to print our GHS labels for small chemical bottles. Because most users will only need to print a few at a time and may require variable printing, our labeling product team introduced solutions for in-house GHS label printing. 

To learn more about GHS Labeling, download our new 13-page eBook that includes the basics you need to know plus some of the best solutions to comply with GHS labeling. 

Download our Guide to GHS Labeling 

A label printer-applicator is an automatic labeling system that has the ability to print variable information onto a pressure-sensitive label, then apply it to a container. Sometimes companies want to use a label that has the same pre-printed information such as a logo, company info, or background color, then add different information to the label depending on the product that it is being applied to. You will find these systems applying shipping labels, product information labels, nutrition labels, barcode labels and more.

If you enjoy fresh juice like I do, then you've probably noticed a lot more options lately. From the crowded shelves at Whole Foods to the new juice bars popping up around town there seem to be new companies with new flavors every day.

The local juice bars are starting to venture into bottling and distribution while established brands are growing beyond their regional Whole Foods locations and becoming available nationally. As the competition grows between juice brands, the question asked is how do you make your product stand above the others? We thought you'd be interested in a few ways to make your juice label stick out in the crowd.

Here are 6 tips for juice labels and packaging.

Share a Coke

The campaign is primarily targeting Millennial consumers who look for personalization in brands. Coca-Cola selected hundreds of the top names of Millenials for their labels. If your friend's name isn't included in this list, don't worry, they also created labels that say "Friend", "Star", and "Bestie" for millions of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero and Diet Coca-Cola bottles. Have you seen your name or a friend's on a label? Search for your name at the Share A Coke website.

HP Indigo Digital Printing Technology

This campaign would not be possible without digital print technology. To complete a project like this, Coca-Cola had the labels printed using several HP Indigo WS6000 digital presses.

Here's why:

On Press Variable Printing

The biggest aspect of this project is printing a large amount of SKUs or label versions. Typically a label project might have a family of a few flavors. That alone can be a challenge to print so imagine over 100 SKUs making up 800 million labels!

No Plates Required

If these were printed in a traditional method a plate would be required for each unique label. And every time the press would need to switch plates additional time, labor and cost would be required to complete the job. The digital press can easily switch from one name to the next without stopping the press.

Color Consistency
Color consistency is crucial for a project of this size. If the red doesn't come out "Coca-Cola red" each time it will be noticeable on the store shelf. We work with many food brands that require consistency for their digital labels and this is easily achieved on our HP Indigo presses.

One Shot Printing

With digital printing the entire image is printed in one shot. This means the label goes through one station to get the entire image rather than run through a long press that includes several ink stations. The HP Indigo process of printing all the colors on a blanket and then printing the image in one shot yields perfect color-to-color registration. No color trapping is required, allowing a clean crisp print job.

More Options

As you can see, using the HP Indigo press gives your company the flexibility to easily print variable data on your labels for personalization or other creative purposes. Coca-Cola used this feature to build brand loyalty with a younger generation of consumers while having a little fun along the way!