Labeling Innovations from Weber

Where do I start??

No one ever really thinks about labels (unless you are a label person like me!) Labels exist on products to convey information. Perhaps you have come across labels when shopping that either entice you to buy a product or confuse you about just what it is. Some labels work better than others. It's all in the design.

There isn't one perfect label design that fits everything, but a well-designed label hits several key points:

Clear communication: It effectively conveys the product information, including brand, name, and key features. Think easy-to-read fonts and clear hierarchy in what info is most important.

The primary function of a label is to accurately represent the product it is attached to. It is crucial to clearly convey what the product is, its composition, and the quantity contained within. Imagine the confusion if someone mistook a bottle of blue window cleaner for raspberry fruit punch! It is essential to make it effortless for consumers to identify the product and access any vital information about it.

This becomes even more critical when dealing with chemical or pharmaceutical products. In urgent situations, medical professionals or emergency responders require precise and concise details about the product they are handling.

To address this need, these types of products often utilize specialized extended text labels. These labels provide a comprehensive amount of information readily available alongside the medicine or chemical product.

Visually appealing: Product labels often are used to sell a product from the store shelf. It catches the consumer's eye with a design that reflects the brand personality. This could be bright colors for a playful product or a sleek design for something more sophisticated.

Brands strategically utilize color and design to stand out from their competitors on the store shelf. Consider the iconic associations we make with certain colors and brands - Coca-Cola with red, Tide with orange, and John Deere with green.

Choose a color scheme and style that aligns with your brand identity. Your label can feature vibrant photos or intricate illustrations in a variety of colors. Incorporating innovative label materials like metallic films, fluorescent colors, and tactile laminations can elevate your product's visual appeal and make it unforgettable.

Consumers often make decisions based on visual cues, so make sure your label catches their eye before they commit to a brand.

Choose a font style that is easily legible from afar and incorporate your logo to firmly establish your brand identity. 

Functional: The size and shape of the label have to fit the product and the material has to be appropriate for the environment it will be in (e.g., waterproof for a beverage).

Cutting-edge label materials now encompass freezer-grade media that securely sticks in subzero conditions, specialized laminations resistant to chemicals to preserve label clarity, waterproof BOPP vinyl materials tailored for beverages, and robust durable label materials designed for outdoor or harsh settings.

Here's how these come together:

So now that you have the basics of a label, what else do I need to think about? This is where the artistic design part of the label comes in.

Consider the product: Food carries a distinct emotional resonance compared to, for example, a box of screws. What specific vibe do you aim to evoke with your label's appearance? Should it exude deliciousness or industrial functionality? Will it bring joy or simplify life? How do you want your customers to feel when they see it? Or does their emotional response even matter in the grand scheme of things?

A jar of jam might use a cute, colorful label with a handwritten font, while a bottle of high-end olive oil might have a more minimalist design with a focus on clean lines and earthy tones.Your new beer could embrace a lighthearted and witty persona, while a fresh laundry detergent exudes power and purity.

Think about the target audience: Consider the intended person who will be reading the label: Are you targeting a construction worker who values product reliability and durability, requiring the label to remain intact for an extended period?

Or perhaps a no-nonsense nurse in need of critical dosage information for a new medicine? A label for baby food should be clear, informative, and trustworthy, while a label for a new energy drink might be more edgy and attention-grabbing.

As a typical brewery, you are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to make your products stand out, whether it's in a retail setting or sold from a tap room cooler. A captivating label that distinguishes you from the competition is key to attracting attention and expanding your customer base. Let's face it, more often than not, a consumer's choice is influenced by the label itself.

While there are many ways to create impressive looking labels, like using metallic papers and exotic label materials, they tend to be expensive. And breweries are always looking to keep their label price at the magic <$0.10/label threshold. Right?

Weber Packaging recently started helping breweries use a simple, economical process to make their labels stand out. It might even get your customers to play with your label and show others.

It’s called Cast & Cure. It’s a cost-effective in-line process that creates a shiny reflective area on your label using UV coating and a specialty film. And it doesn’t really add much to your basic label cost.

Paper or plastic?

You have heard this question in the grocery store. However, what do you do when you need a labeling solution to this adage old question? When it comes to labeling, many factors come into play that you may not have even considered. Paper versus plastic refers to both the substrate (what the label is being applied to) and the actual label material itself (paper versus film face sheet).

In labeling, substrate refers to the surface onto which a label is applied. In printing, substrate refers to the surface that is to be printed, meaning that the face material (and top coatings) of a label may also be referred to as a substrate.

The substrate the label is applied is a great starting point to determine the type of adhesive and material that will perform best in the application. The most common substrates are corrugated cardboard shipping boxes and HDPE containers for many markets such as case/pallet labeling, food, and health & beauty to name a few.

A pressure-sensitive label, or self-adhesive label, is made up of three layers: a face stock, an adhesive and a release liner. We refer to this as the "label sandwich." When a label is manufactured, these three components are sandwiched together to create a label material that can be printed on, laminated, die-cut, and finally peeled off and applied to your product.

The facestock is the main part of the label. The material could be paper or film.The adhesive is what makes the label stick to the surface of the product or packaging. Pressure-sensitive adhesive forms a bond when pressure is applied to marry the adhesive with the substrate. The liner is the paper or film that makes up the backing web material.

Check out more information on what is a pressure sensitive label.

The right facestock material must be used to match the application to ensure good adhesion, weather resistance and legibility. Each facestock features certain characteristics for superior performance in specific work environments.

Here are some basic questions you will have to consider for selecting the proper face stock and adhesive combination for the best fit of your label application. 

• What is the substrate the label will be applied to?
• What is the labeling environment?
• What is the temperature range for the product?

Paper The most common and economical type of facestock, paper is used for many simple indoor applications. Paper labels are made of paper. The color, thicknesses, and coatings of paper substrates can vary, but the base layer is still composed of the same raw material.Think short-term labeling.

Plastics BOPP films, PET films and vinyl films that provide greater strength, stiffness, transparency, and resistance to tearing. The flexibility and durability of film label materials allows them to conform and fit about the shape of your product container. Film labels are made from films (like plastic), making them a more durable and flexible material than paper. Designed for longer-lasting applications.

Our world is filled with many complex and complicated products, some of which can be dangerous if handled incorrectly.

And there are times when a product has to have emergency information available to users and first-responders.

This is where a label called an Extended Text Label comes into play. Extended Content Labels (ECLs) are a family of labels designed to increase packaging space to convey in-depth information. If you've ever seen a bottle or a package with a label that folds or pops out, then you've seen at least one type of Extended Content Label.

ECLs are labels made up of multiple panels attached directly to the package that either unfold or unroll to reveal necessary information, such as regulatory requirements, multi-lingual text, promotions, cautionary messages, and much more.

While traditional labels are printed on one side of a piece of material, ECLs will give you more space for product information like ingredients and instructions and can free space up on the front of your label for branding and essential product information.

These labels are usually produced with a hinged format that opens to reveal additional panels that can even fold out additional pages. When you have a lot to say, these pages can contain all your information relevant to your product or business.

ECLs are perfect for communicating data in multiple languages or meet the needs of specific industry requirements like health warnings, application instructions, or warranty information.These types of labels appear in retail packaging, software product labeling, drug facts information, MSDS information, on personal care products or supplements, and food or beverage nutritional fact information.

Also known as multi-ply labels, peel-back or resealable labels, booklet labels and fold-out labels, they combine a Pressure Sensitive Label and a folded or bound outsert that resembles a printed booklet. There is usually a thin strip of clear laminate that has a removable adhesive that allows the booklet to be held closed when applied, opened when needed, and re-closed when done.

Here is a quick video of an extended text label being printed at Weber packaging Solutions.

Watching the video you can see the printed information, usually printed by an offset printer, is fed into the label press where it is sandwiched between the label of label material and the protective laminate covering. It is then die-cut and wound on rolls for use on a label applicator at the manufacturer's facility.

This kind of label becomes important when packaging profiles are small and there is not enough room on labels for your message. Extended Content Labels provide space for more graphics and copy through the use of multiple pages. They are all engineered to do the same thing — increase the amount of space available for text and graphics. Expanded content labels contain more space for information than ordinary labels.

Extended content labels allow the outer label to be decorative and market the product and brand, while the internal layers contain vital information to comply with regulations and inform the consumer about necessary product details.

The most common applications are for pharmaceutical products, clinical trials, nutraceuticals, chemicals, pesticides, weed control products, lubricants, cosmetics and more!

This label offers endless options for customization and meets multi-lingual, regulatory, and marketing objectives. Manufacturing will love it too, there is no adjustment to application equipment required to run this label. The transition is seamless.

Prime decorative labels play a major role in selling your product. The design, the materials and print quality are reflective of your brand and, as they sit on a crowded store shelf, they are quickly being compared to the competition's packaging. To print the highest quality labels, flexographic label converters are moving to HD Flexo printing to produce the boldest and sharpest label images possible on a flexo press.

When you hear HD quality you're probably thinking high-definition television. Much like high-def TV technology increased the clarity of our TV picture, HD Flexo plates are vastly improving print quality in labels. 

What is HD Flexo?

Using Esko's plate making software, the plate making process essentially creates flexographic printing plates that print at the same quality as gravure and offset printing. You'll get more vibrant colors, stronger solids and smoother vignettes. The labels will print sharper images and text with better definition of the screening dots.

We've see the biggest benefit of this type of printing with cosmetic and health & beauty labels because they usually include human faces which can be difficult to print with flexo plates.  It also makes a big difference in image quality for food designs and other labels that contain detailed artwork.

Let's take a look at the difference between the old flexo process and the new HD system below. Notice the smooth edges on the letters and the rounder and clearer dots on the HD Flexo? 

 Here's an example of the difference you'll see with artwork that shows faces. 

So you want to know, "What is a pressure sensitive label?" Are they stickers, product identifiers, labels or a component of brand packaging? Yes!  Pressure-sensitive labels are used everywhere from toys, food containers, durable products, medical devices, and corrugated boxes, to craft beer can and bottles, cannabis containers, plastic pouches and so much more.

But what are they?

Let's break it down...

A pressure-sensitive label, or self-adhesive label, is made up of three layers: a face stock, an adhesive and a release liner. We refer to this as the "label sandwich." When a label is manufactured, these three components are sandwiched together to create a label material that can be printed on, laminated, die-cut, and finally peeled off and applied to your product.

Facestock

The facestock is the main part of the label. The material could be paper, film, or metallic foil. This is the layer where the ink is applied on press. For specific applications, a topcoat or laminate may be applied to protect the label artwork or enhance certain areas of the design.

Adhesive

The adhesive is what makes the label stick to the surface of the product or packaging. For glue-applied (cut & stack) labels, this process happens as the label is being applied. A pressure-sensitive label is manufactured to have the adhesive already applied to the face stock when you receive your roll or sheet of labels.

The adhesive type will depend on your application and environment in which the label will be used. Many different types of adhesive are available including versions that stick under cold and wet conditions, some that release easily, some that stick permanently and others that are resealable.

For example, a label that is applied to a durable good, like an air conditioner, will require an adhesive that sticks to metal in an outdoor environment and can last for years. A rubber-based adhesive is aggressive and best for long-life applications.

If the label is only going to be used once, say for a shipping carton label, a strong adhesive isn't necessary. These adhesives are usually acrylic-based and stick more aggressively as they dry, usually over hours or days.

You might even want to select an adhesive that is re-positionable for a peel and redeem coupon.

Liner

The liner is the paper or film that makes up the backing web material. There are options that range from semi-bleached paper or craft paper, to a stronger clear film liner. The liner is coated with a special material that makes it possible to remove the label no matter how strong the adhesive you select.

Paper-based liners are strong yet easily perforated or torn if needed. Film liners are much strong, though slightly more expensive, and work well when there is tension on the label roll when applying the labels.

And there you have it - our label sandwich explained! If you have more questions or want to get more details about label construction, contact us to talk to one of our label experts. They can supply you with samples, quotes or do label testing for your application.