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Packaging: How to achieve elegant looks for less |
Everyone likes to look rich, but
no one likes to waste money.
Giving your packaging an “upscale” look
doesn’t have to break your budget. Here
are a dozen hints to look like you’ve
spent a lot on packaging without actually
doing so.
1. Less is more. From the pyramids to
Bauhaus architecture, minimalism has been
associated with affluence. “The more
upscale you try to be, the less you do, because simple equals elegant,”
says packaging designer Robert Wilkes. An uncluttered design
with a lot of blank space conveys the
message that you don’t have to shout about
how good your product is.
2. Soften it. Soft-focus photography,
where the product is in sharp focus but the
surrounding elements are blurred, looks
sophisticated and keeps the consumer’s attention,
well, focused. “And the budget aspect
of that is, you’re probably going to have
to do photography anyway, so if you
spend a little extra time focusing on the technique,
you can get that luxury look within
your budget,” says Lee Sucharda, president of
Design North.
3. Show your mettle with metal. Foil-
or hot-stamping is one of the most common ways to give packaging an upscale
look. A good way to achieve that effect without
paying through the nose is to ask your
printer to throw in a process tint — an ink
that supplements the standard four
colors — with a metallic hue.
4. All for one, and one for all. If
your product comes in multiple flavors, using
a common package and varying the label
establishes brand identity, exudes confidence
and saves money. “If you have truffles
that are in a tray, and the tray itself is
common, so your maple-flavored truffles
and your fudge-flavored truffles are all
in the same tray, but you print a
sleeve that wraps around that tray that indicates
your flavor, you can even reduce the
number of plates you use to print that sleeve
by just having the flavor reverse out
of one color,” Sucharda says.
5. Know your printing options. Digital
printing is often a good alternative for
regional or seasonal packaging. It
often turns out more vivid than standard four-color
flexo printing and can save money on
short runs. Conversely, if you have many long
printing runs, look into
direct-to-plate technology as a way to slash preprint costs.
6. Use Hexachrome printing. Hexachrome
is a six-color process, developed (and trademarked)
by Pantone, that adds vivid orange and
green to the standard four printing colors
(black, blue, yellow and red). “If you
print Hexachrome, and your package [contained],
let’s say, fruits and vegetables, you’d
have very vivid greens, very bright reds
and oranges,” says Gwen Granzow, vice
president and creative director at Design
North.
7. Use a specialty substrate. Part of
saving money on a project is spending it judiciously.
If you choose packaging with an
appealing surface, that’s half the battle for an
elegant look. Holographic substrates,
for example, are expensive but carry a lot
of impact for the dollar. It’s not even
necessary in some cases to spend a lot to
get a specialty substrate. Kraft paper,
for example, can impart a wholesome, “natural”
look at very little cost.
8. Use a specialty label. In a
180-degree reversal of the previous tip, using a
stock container and concentrating your
budget on the label can give maximum shelf
impact for minimal expenditure. It’s
not even necessary to spend a lot on the label
to do something unique with it.
Rosemont Wines, for example, tips its labels at
a 45-degree angle for an eye-catching
graphic presentation. “You can get cartons
that are almost any shape and size, and
a lot of different paper stocks as well,
and then just print a very small,
simple label — have it run over the top or something
— kind of like a stamp — so you can
save money by not having to print the outer
carton at all,” Granzow says.
9. Make things clear. Clear film labels
are a good, inexpensive way to mimic more
expensive techniques like foil-stamp or
silk-screen container decoration. They work
especially well when the product is an
appealing color. “That one’s pretty much a no-brainer,” Granzow says. “With
any category, you name it, it’s there.” It’s
especially developed for beverages.
10. Play the match game. Another way to
exploit an appealing or vivid color is to
match it with label graphics. For
example, a ruby shade the same tint as cranberry
juice can give the impression of
expensive die-cut labeling.
11. Subtlety gets attention. Many
premium products use tone-on-tone color schemes,
such as robin, sky and navy blue. This
establishes brand identity and stands out
on shelves crowded with multicolor
graphics. Judicious use of specialty finishes
like mattes or varnishes can be a great
way to get attention, too.
12. Use “fresh” colors. Consumers
associate certain colors with freshness. “We’re
talking about starting with white as
the background and then using bright accent
colors like orange, lime green, bright
blues,” Granzow says. She cited Nestlé’s
Lean Cuisine Spa Meals frozen dinners,
which feature white backgrounds, turquoise
borders and bright colors, good
example.
- Pan Demetrakakes
Source:http://www.bevindustry.com/Articles/Feature_Articles
/BNP_GUI D_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000365061
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