Beats Digging Ditches - My Life as a Professional Graphic Designer

How Much Does a Package Design Cost? – Why Your Package Design Should Cost a Heck of a Lot More Than $80

Clay — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:25:49 +0000

I didn’t make up that number. It was given to me after a potential client sought out my services. He had a line of cosmetics and was looking for some great packaging. After a quick fifteen minute discovery phone call where I got a handle on his brand, his market, his product, his differentiators and technical details regarding bottles, boxes, dielines, and barcodes, I gave him some quotes.

“Hmmm, that’s a lot. I have a guy already in New York who makes my labels for about $80 to $100 each”

“Well then you should go with him. Good luck.”

These types of conversations happen more often than they should. You can look at my portfolio and tell it’s not possible to create that level of work for third world wages. He’s clearly unhappy with his present designer yet wants top quality for the same price. It’s not going to happen.

The potential client’s numbers were so far off it even inspired me to write this label design tutorial so future clients and up and coming designers can see what really goes on behind the scenes.

But sometimes it’s not a mater of understanding but one of simple economics. Some clients simply don’t have the money to spend. It’s not a matter of undervaluing your work, they just don’t have it. If this is the case, the quality of their package design won’t matter much anyway, as their company probably won’t survive even if they had the best branding team in the world. This is not a comment on their character, but a comment on the mathematical realities. If your business is so trapped for cash that you can’t invest a modest amount into building the very thing that generates your revenue, then success is highly unlikely. Not impossible, just very unlikely.

But I think the central problem between a client’s expectations of what they should pay for package design and what it actually does cost, is directly related to how well they understand the process of making a great package design.

More Than Just Pretty Pictures. Package Design is a Complex Process that Starts Well Before You Start Designing.

Packaging matters. The look and feel of the packaging will have a direct impact on how often the customers notices your product. The material you use will effect the production costs as well as shipping and attrition costs.

Glass is heavier and more fragile, so your shipping and breakage costs will be higher than plastic. However, some products must be in glass. The consumer won’t buy it otherwise.

The shelf life of your product can be extended or shortened depending on ingredients, packaging materials and method of sealing.

Some types of packages are shelved individually and some in retail ready cases or POP displays.

Some stay fresh looking through consumer handling and some like tattered and worn rather quickly.

Moisture will destroy some materials while others are impervious.

All of these consideration will add or subtract costs, and cost are important because you can’t always pass it on to the consumer. If all your competitors are wholesaling for $1.25 then you better be hitting that mark, or at least very close. And if not, there better be a damn good reason it isn’t. So if $1.25 is the ceiling for your category then the only way to make more profit is to reduce your costs.

When you start chasing bigger accounts you may find that Costco will require new packaging before they will carry it. Whole Foods is known to reject a great product because its packaging looked cheap. This happens more than you think. Distributors and buyers reject good products because of bad packaging all the time. Many first timers forget that their real audience is the buyer. They are the ones who determine if you product makes it to the shelf or not and they are just as picky, if not more picky, that the end user.

This is the reality out there. Consumer options are expanding in every category. Every year there are more choices, not less, so you need to prepare yourself.

Launching a product is expensive. Even renting a commercial kitchen and delivering small batches to local independent stores is going to cost hundreds each time you do a production run.

If you’re using a co-packer, you may need to have a minimum production run of 50,000 to even get anyone’s attention. If it’s a beverage, especially a canned one, you may be looking at minimum runs of 100,000. No one wants to disturb their production line to hot fill and sleeve 5,000 bottles.

So this means that no matter what, you’ll be laying down a lot of cash just to make anything and sell it anywhere.

The Long and Winding Road

So what does this have to do with designing a package? Everything. A great package design is the END process that BEGINS with narrowing down your technical options, choosing the best solution, developing a compelling brand, and then executing that brand. And most likely you will be working closely with your client in choosing the best solutions and helping guide the entire process to the end. This means you’ll be involved in prototyping, last minute revisions before press time, proofing, and hours of tweaking, talking and testing. And all of this is AFTER the client discovery process, which even in its most brief, is still an intensive process.

So if your client is not interested in addressing these issues, and you aren’t interested in bringing them up, then yes, perhaps your client should only pay $80. Maybe that’s all a pretty picture is worth. But if you and your client are both serious about developing a compelling package design – one that will effectively take sales away from their competitor and will grab the attention of demanding retailers and distributors – then it’s clear that $80 is not going to cut it.

If you need an experienced product package designer who can guide your project from initial conception to delivery of print ready files, call me at 831-566-3046 or try email.

Label Design Tutorial – How To Design a Product Package Label

Clay Butler — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:25:26 +0000

A Behind The Scenes Look at a Typical Product Label Design Project

Most of the time you only see the end result of a package design project. This is fine, but it would be really great to see the process from start to finish as this is where the magic really happens. The design is just the end result.

For this case study I’m going to use Chef Shabazz’s Fish Chili. This project is a good representation of how I design a product package label from the ground up and the typical challenges that pop up as we head towards a finished, print ready design. It covers both the technical side and the philosophical side. Personally, I think the philosophical side is the most important. Technical tips and tricks are a dime a dozen, but without a design credo to guide your way, you’ll be nothing but a hack for hire – rudderless and at the mercy of fickle clients as you just try one design gimmick after another without any real understanding of why.

Most people, including both clients and young designers, tend to think of a product package design as just that – a design. But a package design is really the end result of a branding process. Without understanding the brand, you can’t create an effective package design.

So with my client’s permission, I’ve made a tutorial that takes you through initial client contact to sending finished label file to the printer. I didn’t include all of the emails and comps for every step – to do so would turn into a novel – but I made sure to highlight at least one representative sample of each development milestone.

Step One – Initial Contact

It all starts with a call or an email from a potential client. Of course, the initial contact makes it all sound so simple.

Hello Clay,

Great website. I have a product that we need packaging design for. It’s a 6″ x 8″ plastic retort pouch. If you’ve ever seen a Capri Sun juice then you know what it looks like except ours is clear.

We want a front and back label that we will simply stick on to the pouch. So we’re looking at a design that’s 4″ x 6″.

I have an example Photoshop file of the front and back with the logo for the product we’ve come up with. All of that is subject to change based on what you think though. If you’re interested, please email me back and I’ll send the files over to you so you can take a look. We have a printer so we would just need the design.

Thanks,

Jon Hathaway
Westport Enterprises, LLC.

I respond back.

Yes, please send me the PSD file.

Thanks,

Clay

And now the plot thickens.

Hello Clay,

Here is the design. Please be gentle. :)

Yikes! The "Not Ready for Prime Time" label. However, I've seen worse.

Not one to pussyfoot around I give it to Jon straight.

Hmmm. Well I could definitely improve upon this. It has a pronounced shoestring budget, imported ethnic food vibe about it. Which is fine for the adventurous like myself who regularly purchase odd and semi questionable vegetarian Asian food products in San Jose, but not so good for the general consumer.

So the first question I have is who is the target audience for this? Then we work backwards to create a label that matches the expectations for your market.

Let’s talk this weekend sometime to review your brand and your product.

Thanks.

Jon’s response makes it clear that we will have a great client/designer relation. It’s really important for both parties to be upfront with how they work and how they think. This is how both clients and designers cull the herd. If you’re completely honest as a designer you will attract clients that are best suited to your temperament and world view and will repel the ones that are ill suited. This is best for everyone in the long run.

Hello Clay,

“…odd and semi questionable vegetarian Asian food products in San Jose…” has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard about Fish Chili. Man, I love your frankness. I hope I can afford you! I’ll email you “The Story” tomorrow.

We recently debut in the Long Beach Bayou Festival this past June. Our target audience is 18-45 year old’s (men and women) who love the taste of mildly spicy barbecue without the dangers of Mad Cow disease. They earn their money for a living and demand a wholesome meal for their hard earned dollar. The single mother loves it because she can feed all the children in the time it takes to boil an egg. At the festival the main reply was, “This doesn’t taste like fish!”

Thanks and goodnight.

Jon

Step Two – Client Consultation

Next I needed to tease out all the details and find out what is really going on. Jon agreed to my quote (not included in this tutorial) so now it’s time to figure out what the package dimensions are, what type of package this is going on, the brand story – basically the foundation onto which the package design will be built. The first thing Jon sends me is the brand story which fortunately is already well thought out.

Hello Clay,

I’ve attached the story via .pdf. Enjoy.

The brand story is awesome. Turns out there really is a Chef Shabazz and my client really did encounter his locally famous fish chili by accident. Unfortunately, Shabazz closed his doors and moved to Oklahoma. Jon tracked him down and spend five years trying to convince him to license his recipe and name to the product. So unlike Betty Crocker or Uncle Ben, there really is a Chef Shabazz.

Now making up a character to carry the brand story is fine, and there’s a rich tradition of it from Bartles and Jaymes to Spuds McKenzie, but if it’s real, it’s even better.

Then there is the question on whether Chef Shabazz should be represented as a graphical icon or only in the imaginations of the customer. After weighing several considerations such as brand flexibility, customer appeal across all demographics and available space on the label I eventually opted for textual representation only in the from of a banner. But this decision was actually finalized in the design process, which comes later in this story.

I respond back.

Nice brand story. We should condense this and use it on the package. I’ll call tomorrow.
What are the dimensions of the package again? (I’m referring to the area that could hold a label …no seams)

Jon gets right back

Hello Clay,

The area that can hold a label is 5″ x 6 1/2″.

I want to keep you updated on some recent developments which may help in the design process. First, some possible tag lines;

No Beans. No Beef. Just Good!
Chili Redefined
The New Definition of Chili
No Beans. No Beef. Chili Redefined!

I respond back.

As for the commercial slogans:

No Beans. No Beef. Just Good! (fair but not great)
Chili Redefined (intriguing)
The New Definition of Chili (a bit clumsy)
No Beans. No Beef. Chili Redefined! ( I love the first two lines…the last one doesn’t seem to belong)

How about >>>>>>

No Beef! No Beans! No Way!

No Beef. No Beans. No Bull.

No Beef. No Beans. No Kidding.
Chili Redefined

The World’s Best Chili That Isn’t

Step Three – Setting Up Your Document and Creating the Dieline

So set up your artboard and don’t forget to make it bigger than the final dieline including bleeds and make sure the color space is CMYK. And to make your life easier, make sure under “view” you have chosen “show rulers” , “show guides”, “snap to point” and/or “smart guides”. You can also choose “show grid” and “snap to grid” but sometimes the grid snapping can get annoying. Later you can choose “lock guides” when everything is perfect.

After your artboard is set up it’s time to make your dieline. Here’s how I created the dieline for the Fish Chili label. It’s super basic and even a newbie should have no problem following this tutorial. Originally, I didn’t have the arch at the top, but after going though several comps it became apparent that I needed to break the border at the top to make room for my Chef Shabazz banner. It was a good choice and increased the perceived value of the product because it was so stylish.

My favorite method for making dielines is to build the dieline out of shapes, then combine them and make the stroke red and the inside clear.

Step Four – Research

How much research you do depends on your familiarity with the subject and the marketing landscape. For this project I needed to get up to speed on the main ingredient which is whiting fish. Turns out whiting fish is a species and looks a lot like a cod. They are found all over the world and have a distinct fin shape though their scale patterns vary. They aren’t the most attractive fish, but I know that a product called fish chili had to have a fish on it.

But why does the label need a fish on it? Because this is a shelf stable product – meaning it doesn’t need refrigeration – so it could be shelved anywhere. Could be near the canned soups or stocked next to the pasta sauce. It’s anyone’s guess because there is no such thing as a shelf stable ready to eat fish chili isle in a grocery store. So to not make it crystal clear with a simple glance, that yes, this is a fish product of some sort, would be risky.

To find guidance and inspiration for my fish mascot, I visited many sites and saved the best images. Then I reviewed the images and decided it would be best to create a composite whiting fish using the best features from all the varieties. And then taking some artistic liberties, made an idealized whiting fish.

I also knew right away that the sustainable fisheries and wild caught distinctions were a key differentiator. I already knew quite a bit about the sustainable fisheries movement, but after doing research I discovered that, unlike the USDA Organic or the Kosher “U”, there really is no standard graphic to use to identify your product as a sustainable fishery product. There is also no nationally recognized body to go to to have your product certified as sustainable and wild caught. The field is still wide open and there are many small players all trying to establish some kind of standard. So that meant I would have to create my own.

Step Five – Designing the Label

Now that I know the brand story inside and out, and I have created the dieline, and I have done the necessary research, it’s time to start designing. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of doing all these steps first. No brand story – no design. No finalized dieline – no design. No research – no design. You have to earn the right to design. To just think you can wing it without doing your homework is pure hubris and a disservice to your client.

When it comes to designing I have a distinct method to my madness. After I set up the artboard and dielines, I type out the key words of the label’s typography (usually the name, tagline, and body copy) and then cruise through my 1000 plus favorite fonts and test some out. Since I already understand the brand, I have a pretty clear idea of what types of fonts I’m looking for.

For this project it was clear that Chef Shabazz’s Fish Chili needed more organic looking fonts. Something that looked natural and homemade, but not too homemade. Something that was both contemporary, but rooted in the past. I know those sound like contradictions – and they are somewhat – but there really is such a look as contemporary classic. It’s elusive, but when you see it, you know it.

I keep applying the fonts that seem like good choices. If I like the way it looks, I save it, copy it, paste it, and then see if any other fonts work. I don’t bother with any effects at this point – just straight up black lettering. After an hour of so I have a good collection of fonts that are in the ballpark. Then I sort these into groups and see how they look. I may sort them by italic and non italic, or condensed and wide, or even fancy or plain – every project is different. But I always sort them by use which is usually name, tagline and body copy. These three groups need to play well together. So your choice of name font will effect what’s appropriate for the tagline, which then effects what will work for the body copy. Don’t think of these things as separate choices. This is a group decision.

Next I toss the clear losers and keep the winners. Sometime I also make a sub group for “maybes”. Then it’s time to start designing.

I use Adobe Illustrator the way a painter uses their color pallet. I create my artboard and set up my guides for bleed and safe areas and then create my dieline. I use the area outside the artboard to experiment and test different ideas.

I use my artboard the way a painter uses a pallet or an illustrator uses a drafting board. I keep the dieline area clean and free of clutter but spread my stuff all over the place. I want to be able to see all my options at once. Things that I like I set side. Things that are clearly failures, I delete. All the stuff in between I keep around but put it farther off to the side.

This creates a hierarchy of choices. The best stuff is near the top and close to the artboard. The less successful options are farther down or off to the side.

I’m a chronic cut and paste guy. Anything I like I save to the side and then make a copy. I then continue to tweak the copy. This leaves a nice evolutionary trail of choices and options. Anything that will be ruined forever – like expanding the arch effect on a banner – is always copied first and set aside for later editing. I never want to create a situation where I have something that is 99% perfect but I no longer have an edible version to work with.

My client was using whiting fish that was both wild caught and from a sustainable fishery. Now this is a very important differentiator. You can’t go to a quality sushi restaurant or a upscale seafood counter without seeing signs and literature about sustainable fisheries. As our oceans continue to degrade and fisheries continue to collapse, where your fish comes from is going to become central to the decision process for both buyers and end consumers. Now as I mentioned earlier, there is no national or international certification body for identifying and labeling products from sustainable fisheries. But since this was a major differentiator, especially for Whole Foods which was our first customer, this fact needed to be integrated into the package and the brand story. I also though that the best way to convey this differentiator was in the form a a “seal of authenticity”, which is my shorthand for describing any sort of badge, decal, or icon that carries of message of quality. Since they wasn’t a ready made seal available, I made my own.

I get my first comps to the level that I think are worthy of show and tell with my client, Jon. I don’t waist my time cranking out a bunch of comps just to prove I’m busy. I only show designs that I think are serious contenders – be it one or half a dozen. Not only does this not waste anyone’s time, it also emphasizes my value position. The number of comps is irrelevant and arbitrary. Five designs of crap is of no value, while even one excellent design is priceless. The number of comps that are generated should never be a factor in judging the quality of a designer or on weather a client is getting their “money’s worth”. This is why I never promise a specific number of comps. It’s a meaningless yardstick because the number of comps you generate has nothing to do with finding the prefect solution.

For this project I settled on one layout that was a clear winner and then presented five variations on that theme.

This is typical of how I work. I try a lot of things in the beginning but I’m not going to send crap, so I wait until I’ve narrowed it down to something that I can be proud of. I also don’t sketch out concepts first. I start directly in Illustrator and comp in print ready final form. I know that’s not how you’re “supposed” to do it, but besides the quick doodles I make while I’m hashing out ideas with my client over the phone, sketching would be a waste of time.

I can design this way for two reasons. One, my visualization skills are very strong. I see completed labels in my head and once I see it in my mind it stays there. It’s like a little sketchbook of ideas that’s visible only to myself.

Secondly, there’s the problem of converting hand sketches to the real world. You can pencil out all sorts of stuff that looks awesome in sketch form but falls apart when you actually have to execute it in final print ready form. This is because in a sketch you make all sorts of assumptions and use gestures to imply specific form. So a pencil sketch leaves a lot to the imagination and the dynamics of the strokes can hide some major flaws in your thinking.

Now, DON’T interpret this to mean that you shouldn’t sketch. This is a very designer centric choice. So for me, as someone who’s been working professionally as an illustrator since high school (1984), who’s been a staff political cartoonist for three newspapers, who’s done storyboard work for the Discovery Channel, Intel and Disney, I’ve discovered that investing a lot of time in pencil sketches is not the best use of my time when designing a product package. And since I don’t have an art director hovering over me and no staff meetings I need to prepare for, I can afford that luxury. As long as I can see it my head, that’s all that matters. If you can do that as well, then good for you. Don’t be hindered by the naysayers who says that it’s wrong.

Now back to the initial comps.

I email them to Jon.

Wanted to show you these before I start on the back.

I think they’ll move product, especially in a high end environment like Whole Foods.

On a couple of these I included a “wild caught sustainable harvest” decal I made. I think that’s important for a fish product.

Clay

The first comps I sent to my client. I don't send anything that doesn't look spectacular. I went though many versions before I settled on these. They look very similar but the subtle font changes between the designs makes a difference.

Jon gets back to me a few days later.

Hello Clay,

We’ve reviewed the comps and have come to like V1 overall. The colors you have chosen certainly “Pop” off the page. One concern is if they will print just as brilliantly? The “Chef Shabazz’s” font and banner are great. The “Original” font and presentation is great. We like the “Fish Chili” font in this version also (Version 1). We like the modern font you have “Chili Redefined” in with the “R” lip hanging down.

The red border around the outside edge works with the brushed, thicker inner border giving it that “fisherman on the docks” feel. Also, everyone loved the “Wild Caught” stamp. Is that trademarked or will we be able to use it? The subtle sunburst in the back is always a nice touch.

Here are our changes and concerns:

Please add the swirls from the other versions that were in back of the fish to this one.

Please make the fish more “Appealing to Eat.” This item was hotly debated so this is what specifically got me…the yellow streaks on top of the fish suggest “spoiled” or “rotten” fish. I know they’re highlights but nobody wants “yellow” in their fish. It’s subtle, but in our eye test we found that the eye goes to “Fish Chili” first and the actual fish second, so making the fish mouth watering is important.

We’re furiously trying to figure out that last punch line in the “No Beef, No Beans” banner. We’re not going to keep “No Kidding” and have a tentative replacement of “No Fishy Taste”. So, could you place “No Fishy Taste!” in there so we can see how that works?

We’ll want to be able to change the “Net WT” amount back and forth from 8 oz to 16 oz depending on how much we put in the package. This will effect the nutrition label as well.

Will you be providing us with all vector fonts, colors, and drawings included in the final design so we can make a cohesive marketing statement throughout our campaign?

All in all, we’re looking forward to seeing the changes and what the back looks like. Let me know when we can expect to see that. Thanks.

Jon

I get right back to him.

I’ll make the changes after I eat lunch.

That red border is the dieline. That’s where the die will cut the sticker leaving everything in the middle. Consider the red line the edge of the sticker. It won’t actually be printed.

Oh, and the colors will print very close. Of course, nothing is as vivid as a monitor, but these will really pop when printed.

After lunch I send Jon the updates.

New version.

Trademark is not an issue with Wild Caught. There are several trademarks filed for “wild caught” but all are disclaiming the right to the word “wild caught” itself when not used with their specific logo.

There doesn’t seam to be any industry wide certification either. Everyone’s kind of doing their own in-house wild caught/sustainable logo.

So we’re totally clear. In fact, you may want to trademark your Wild Caught logo at some point.

Updated version 1 with new background and no yellow highlights on fish.

Jon is pleased with the changes.

Hello Clay,

Well, that was the shortest review we’ve had in a while. It’s funny how the simple removal of some highlights changes ones perception of a thing.

The front is approved. We’re gonna’ have to work on that last catch line. Oh, I don’t think you answered our last question in the “changes and concerns” in a previous email. That will help us be able to simply change that last phrase without disturbing the design.

Please proceed to the back design sir. Thank you.

Jon

So now that the front is approved it’s time to do the back. I rewrote his brand story (to make it fit in such a limited space) and I also came up with a clever alternative to the usual “contact us” stuff on the back that capitalized on “the truth” theme in the brand story.

I send his my first attempt.

Here you go.

Jon gets right back to me.

Hello Clay,

I got my team moving at light speed this morning ahead of schedule. Here’s the revisions. Please…

Change the banner to “What is the Story of”
Change the story to what is below. I applaud you on your attempt, but to play on our theme here…That’s not the Truth. :)

No Beef. No Beans. The Truth.

The problem with regular chili is that it contains animal meat from who knows where and beans that give you gas leaving you feeling uncomfortable. Who wants that?

What’s amazing about Chef Shabazz’s Original Fish Chili is that there is no chicken, beef or beans. This redefines the definition of what you thought Chili was. We took everything out of Chili that was bad and replaced it with Wild Caught Whiting Fish, garden fresh vegetables, herbs and spices…Oh My God!

Never heard of Fish Chili before you say? Neither did I until I walked into Chef Shabazz’s restaurant and decided to try his praised Fish Chili. The only words that came from my mouth were, “The Truth!” Chef Shabazz has closed his doors since that day but the “Truth” still remains.

I couldn’t believe that there was actually fish in there! And that’s what the truth does…It redefines the false definitions you have in life. Redefine your definition of chili today!

3. Play with the “No Beef. No Beans. The Truth” in different fonts than the base text to see how that looks. We’re also considering how that will look if just placed in front of the first paragraph and design the first letter to look fancy, so let us see that as well.

4. Make the “Nutrition Facts” vertical on the left hand side and place the text for the story on the right so we can see how that layout looks. We want to get a feel of both types of layouts. Keep the fish but place it where you think it should go on the vertical layout.

5. We have two ways in which we will package this. One way is as a “Shelf Stable” product and another is as a “Keep Refrigerated” product. Make a spot on the label where we can place these and change them from one to another.

6. We have instructions we wish to include which will allow the customer to boil the product in the package itself. Please make the instructions below fit in with the other text designs as you see fit.

Boil in bag

1. Bring water to boil

2. Place bag in water for 5 minutes

3. Tear off top and Enjoy!

7. Please fade out the background swirls to where they do not compete with the message.

8. Also, I hope the calories from fat on the nutrition label isn’t “850″ or we will not be living long as a product. :)

9. We like the “Can’t Find The Truth?” and contact info you placed.

In conclusion, we like this version but would like to see the changes so we can compare this version to the new version and make a decision. Thanks.

Jon

I send him the comp with the new updates. I wrestled with the vertical format for a while before I figured out how to make it work.

First version updated plus side panel version. Worked some magic to get it to work.

Ignore the actual grams on the label. Just a quick placeholder.

I don’t hate this vertical version anymore. I think the other one is better though.

The updated horizontal version.

And the new vertical format option.

Jon gets back to me.

Hello Clay,

Man I like the way you design. Revision V2 looks much better. Version 3 looks good as well. We debated about the question mark before and I just forgot to tell you not to put it there. The reasoning is that we don’t want a question mark next to Fish Chili because it subtly puts doubts in the customer’s head. We agree with you that it makes it look weak.

Adjustments to V3:

Bump the whole right title banner up to break the top border like you did on V2. This will give an asymmetrical feel to the label which will cause the eye to go there first instead of the nutrition facts.

Once that’s done, you should have enough room to place the fish in the bottom right similar to the way you did on V2 replacing the wild caught stamp. Everybody loves that fish and were quite distraught over it leaving V3.

The bolding of the word “Problem” has been hotly debated too. This type of marketing has a “problem-solution” based theme. People are more attracted to problems than solutions, so I think bolding it works. When we raise the problem before the customer we can control and guide them to the solution…which is…buy Fish Chili. So we’ll keep it for now.

So, let us see those quick changes to V3 and we should have our decision after comparing V2 against it. Thanks

Jon

I send Jon some more updates.

How about this?

Heading out now to spend the day with my daughter.

Jon gets right back to me.

Hello Clay,

We’re going to go with Version 2 for the back. Here are the final revisions:

1. Delete the question mark next to Fish Chili
2. Delete the word “animal” from the first paragraph
3. Bold “Redefine your definition of fish chili today!” in the last paragraph
4. Replace the Shelf Stable section with the words, “Keep Refrigerated”, for now
5. Add bubbles to fish please. Everybody loves those bubbles!
6. Fade the swirls in the background so we can see the “800″ number and website better
7. Please place in the proper Nutrition Facts

Additionally, we would like to add those terrific bubbles to the front design and change the “No Fishy Taste” to “The Truth.” We’re getting the 800 number and barcode number this week so please start pricing the printing. We need a label capable of withstanding boiling temperatures (some kind of thermographic film I think). See if you can get quotes for a run of 2000, 5000, and 10,000.

Thanks.

I send him another version with the changes.

Here you go. The nutritionals were already accurate. It was only the vertical panel that was a placeholder.

I think I’m only missing the real UPC.

On Saturday a guy lost control of his longboard and the wave picked it up and threw it full force into my hip while I was riding past him. We all thought it was broken. But X-rays show NO fracture. Yeah!

I had to be towed in by a group of surfers and then they carried me up the cliff. They had to cut me out of my wetsuit and then the paramedics took me to the emergency room in an ambulance. Anyway, I’m going to be ok eventually and I can stand up, shuffle a bit right now. Sitting or laying down is easy. (final masters both)

So I’ll be bit less productive for a while but not out of commission.

I’m 20 feet from my computer but I only work on it in short spurts. Best to call if you need my attention right away.

The accident was really bad. But here’s the deal- as long as you keep your client in the loop they are usually fine with whatever problems pop up. They just need to know what’s going on.

I know he’s a pretty relaxed guy, and we have a very casual client/designer relationship, so I send him my bruise timeline (not for the squeamish). Ouch.

Step Six- Final Proofing, Printing Quotes and Choosing the Best Label Materials

So as you read earlier, my client decided to make the product a ready to eat boiler pouch. This meant we needed a label that could withstand boiling temperatures for five minutes without falling apart. So I called up a few film manufactures and soon discovered that they either didn’t have a material that would work, or they don’t sell their material to printing houses. So then I called a few of my favorite digital printers (Collotype and Labeltronix) and presented them the with the problem. Both of them has several films that they think would work as they were rated for temperatures that were close to the boiling point. They also both has printed samples on hand from a previous client. So I had them send a sample packet to my client so we could test them out.

My client then attached them to some sample bags and boiled them. They all did fairly well but one cracked and another peeled a little bit. However, there was one standout that didn’t crack or peel at all. And much to our surprise it was a matte finish label. So we went with that.

Hello Clay,

We received the sample labels. After 5 minutes…

Labeltronix Glossy: kept its glossy look but the adhesvie peeled a little bit at the corners.

Collotype Whte BOPP-S2001 Adhesvie-Gloss Varnish: cracked throughout the design but kept its adhesive back.

Collotype Whte BOPP-S2001 Adhesvie-Matte Varnish: kept the design and adhesive back.

Conclusion: We’re going to go with the Collotype Matte. Please provide a quote for 1,000 Front and 1,000 Back 4′x6′ labels. Thank you.

Jon

After a couple weeks of acting as an intermediary between Jon and the printers we get a final quote from Collotype. I’ll always shepherd my client’s projects as far as they need me to, but at this point it made no sense for me to stay in between Jon and Collotype while they work out payments.

So I send Jon and email.

You should just work with Collotype directly now that you’ve been introduced. I’ll handle all the file prep, but it’s much more efficient if you work directly with them on quotes.

So Jon handled payment, shipping and proofing and I just made sure the files were perfect. And yes, they did “pop” as I promised.

These labels were going to be hand applied so one continuous roll with alternating fronts and backs would be just fine.

If you need an experienced product package designer to make sure your product grabs the consumers attention with eye-popping graphics, call me at 831-566-3046 or try email.

Create a Dieline From a Flattened Box Scan – How To Save a Bad Dieline

Clay Butler — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:59:29 +0000

How I Saved My Client From A Bad Box Dieline and Why I’ll Never Trust Anyone’s Dieline Again… Not Even My Own…and Especially Not One from China.

Material for This Tutorial: Download the Layered Illustrator Edible PDF of this Box Dieline to see how it’s done. I embedded the scanned box image so the file is 26mb – so be patient. The plus side is that you can open it in Illustrator and all the components are guaranteed to be there.

My client was importing mandarin oranges from China. The boxes they came in would also be printed and manufactured in China. The trouble was, the manufacturer refused to release the dieline so I could design the box. Their reasoning was that they were afraid someone would “steal” the dieline. Besides being absurd, their desire to protect the dieline from “theft” made it impossible to complete the design work.

To anyone used to U.S. standards of workmanship, customer service and professional expectations, this stance was quite a shock. However, I have enough experience with manufacturing in China to know this situation is not unusual.

In China, because their industrial revolution is so young, and their society has always been ruled by a series of dictators, they are still working out their cultural definitions of what professional means. So you’ll have one factory making top of line electronics for Apple and Nokia in modern clean rooms indistinguishable to what you’d find in Silicon Valley, and another that looks like a turn of the century sweatshop. Some have the latest and greatest equipment and software and are highly automated, and some are doing everything by hand with what ever dated equipment they can scrounge up. Some will send out defective products and tainted food and drugs without a second thought while others are aligned with US and European safety standards. Some won’t hesitate to steal all your intellectual property and compete against you a with cheap knock-off, and some protect their client’s IP as if it were their own.

This is what makes it so hard from a designer’s standpoint. I never know what I’m going to get and my client’s have the same anxiety.

So back to the box company. After much feet dragging, and with the threat of losing the account entirely, they did release the dieline.

Below is the dieline they sent me.

Dieline Received From Chinese Box Manufacturer

The dieline looked a bit off but I figured I just wasn’t seeing it the right way and it would actually come together when assembled. So I started designing on top of the Illustrator file they sent me.

Bad Dieline From Chinese Box Manufacturer

After I completed the design and sent a proof to my client, he also agreed the deiline looked a bit off. So I printed out a miniature and folded it together. It then became apparent why it looked off as the box could not be assembled. The front panel was shorter than the back which made the top close at a slant. Plus the two side panels were at least 20% too wide so they completely eclipsed the front panel. It was a total disaster. What made this even more baffling was someone had apprently already used this dieline for a box before. How could they not know that this dieline was completely unworkable except for a cubist painter or perhaps MC Escher?

Bad Dieline Prototype From Chinese Box Manufacturer

It was now apparent that the printing company, besides being paranoid about having their dielines “stolen”, couldn’t even make a correct dieline to begin with.

So we went to plan “B” which was to have my client email me a full 300 dpi resolution scan of a flattened orange box that he had bought at the supermarket. This would guarantee that our new box would work. The box was really big so he took it to a Kinkos type place and had them scan it in two pieces. I then combined the two scans in Photoshop.

300 DPI Scan of Client's Flattened Orange Box

300 DPI Scan of Client's Flattened Orange Box with New Dieline

Then I opened up a new document in Illustrator and placed the new dieline image and began to make my dieline. Now the boxes are stamped out on big machines and then folded, filled with oranges, and then shipped overseas, so the box was off a bit here and there. I could tell where the off-ness was due to a bad cut or distortion caused by shipping and compensated for that. If five out of six sides were straight with a rounded corner, and one side was at a slight angle and not as rounded, I just assumed that was an anomaly and made that one match the others.

Finshed Orange Box with Dieline

When I finished the dieline I printed it out to make sure it worked, which it did, which was no suprise as it was a tracing of a box that we knew worked.

I then completed the design, proofed it with my client, and then sent that on to China.

This is precisely why I never trust anyone’s dieline, not even my own, and especially not one from China. Always print and assemble first. It’s the only true way to know for sure if you have a good dieline or a bad one.

Looking for a Package Designer?

If you need someone to design your product packaging give me a call at 866-477-9029 or email me.

File Under: How to Create a Dieline by Scanning a Flattened Box and Then Tracing in Adobe Illustrator – How to Fix a Bad or Inaccurate Dieline – Fixing Dieline Problems Wrong Dimensions

Ultimate Digital Ink and Color Tutorial for Adobe Illustrator CS5

Clay Butler — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:06:02 +0000

Learn My Secret to the Fastest, Simplest, Down and Dirty Comic Style Inking and Coloring Technique for Adobe Illustrator

There are a lot of really good tutorials on the web for digital inking and coloring. The trouble is that most of them assume you have six to eight hours to finish a drawing that is budgeted for two. Back when I was young and unattached and I didn’t need a lot of money, I didn’t particularly care how long something took. But at age 45, and supporting a family in one of the least affordable places in the country, time has become very important.

This method is not the most sophisticated but it gets the job done quick and it looks great. I also discovered one of its key components by accident.

It’s great for poster art, cartoon characters, comic book art or any place you need a classic ink and color look.

I’m also providing two versions – a couple of videos for people who like those things, and a text one for people like me who don’t like video tutorials. Call me a Luddite, but I think it’s easier to learn from text and stills that a tiny video capture of someone’s computer.

Illustrator Inking and Coloring Video Tutorials

First the videos. Unlike those speed drawing tutorials that blow your mind but teach you nothing, this one is a true speed drawing tutorial as it’s in real time. No cuts and no sped up sections to hide the true time it takes. This first one is a brisk 8 minutes and it walk you through a drawing from beginning to end and clearly explains all the steps necessary

There are a lot of excellent ink and color tutorials on the web, so what is different about this tutorial?

1. Real time. Unlike those speed drawing tutorials that blow your mind but teach you nothing, this one is a true speed drawing tutorial as it’s in real time. No cuts and no sped up sections to hide the true time it takes.

2. Learn a practical but unorthodox technique for speeding up your inking and coloring in Illustrator.

3. Vector. In the print industry vector rules the roost so those Photoshop inking tutorials aren’t very helpful for someone who’s primary concern is clean reproduction in all mediums including brochures, t-shirts, posters, tradeshow booths, video and packaging.

Illustrator Inking and Coloring Video Video #1 (Shorter Version)

This video is the 8 minute shorter version and just focuses on the basic principles as quickly as possible.

Download the Illustrator editable PDF that was used in the video so you can see for yourself how it was done or follow along. The brush I used is embedded in the file.

The brush I used is this Hair Brush by ChewedKandi. You’ll need a DeviantArt account to download it.

Illustrator Inking and Coloring Video #2 (Longer Version)

This next one is more detailed and is 15 minutes long. It doesn’t necessarily have more information, it’s just more detail oriented. While the first video is like a sprint, this one is more like a stroll.

Download the Illustrator editable PDF that was used in the video so you can see for yourself how it was done or follow along. The brush I used is embedded in the file.

The brush I used is this Hair Brush by ChewedKandi. You’ll need a DeviantArt account to download it.

Text and Stills Version

If you don’t like video or don’t want to keep pausing and playing, use this text and still version of my digital ink and color tutorial. This drawing was done for Grit Dog.

First place your scanned sketch and call the layer "sketch". Add some transparency to the layer so you can just barely see it. Then lock the layer and create another on top called "finished art". Note: The names you pick for your layers is irrelevant as long as you know what it means.

Then either pick a brush from your presents or make your own. In this example I'm using the Shaz Hair Brush by Sharon Milne. It's a pretty sweet brush and comes close to mimicking how I ink in the real world.

Now, start inking with the brush tool. Go ahead and overshoot the lines (see red circles). We will easily delete those later and leave you with a nice clean drawing. Overshooting the lines not only looks better when it's done it, also frees you to be more expressive and dramatically increases you inking speed.

Now that we are done, select the entire drawing.

And then group it.

And then make a COPY and set it aside off the art board. This will be your raw, unexpanded, unconverted back up. If you should happen to mess up, change your mind, or you client changes theirs, you could easily edit your backup copy and save yourself a lot of time.

Now, go to Object > Expand Appearance and expand your brush stokes. This will make them uneditable as a native brushstroke. That's why we made a copy.

Then go to Object > Live Paint > Make. This will convert it to a Live Paint object. But wait. NEXT IS THE SECRET!

We are NOT going to paint yet. So choose Object > Live Paint > Expand. This essentially locks in your Live Paint effects and converts it back to a normal abject. But why convert and the un-convert?

So here's where the magic happens. By converting to Live Paint and then expanding, all of your overshot lines are now sliced up perfectly. So now you can zoom in and and start selecting them while holding down the shift key. Get as many as you want and then...

Delete them! Presto. Instant cleaned up artwork.

There, now we have a super clean finished digital ink piece. And it's in vector too, so it's resolution independent and easily editable.

We can compare our raw back up and the expanded cleaned up version and easily see now what it's smart to have a raw backup.

Now we're going to convert it to Live Paint again, but this time we will actually paint in color.

With the Live Paint Bucket Tool areas that can have color dropped in show a red trap line when you hover over. If you have large gaps in your ink lines and the paint spreads out into the surrounding area, either change you gap settings (Object > Live Paint > Gap Option) or just go with it and we can easily cut out or change the spill color later.

There, that was easy. Don't worry if the color isn't perfect. This is all about filling in EVERY area with come kind of color. You can easily change it later. For the karate uniform, the eyes and the teeth I just painted it with white.

All done! That took about five minutes.

Now we are going to expand our Live Paint effects. You can freely go back and forth between Live Paint and non-Live Paint mode as many times as you want. It won't hurt anything.

Now, this is the SECOND SECRET to the method. Using the Direct Selection Tool, select areas of color that you want to improve with shadows, highlight or gradients.

Then select the Knife Tool and slice it up.

And then select the part you want to change. In this case we created a nice shadow by darkening the left slice by adjusting the color sliders.

Repeat this where ever you want something more that just single blocks of color. You could also use gradients instead.

All done! This took about a half and hour from first ink to finished art and it still has a really clean professional comic book poster art look. And best of all, it's all vector, so you can easily change shapes and colors and effects or cut, combine, and scale, without any loss of quality.

File Under: How to Quickly Digitally Ink and Color a Drawing In Adobe Illustrator CS5 – The Fastest, Easiest Method for Inking and Adding Color in Adobe Illustrator – Fast Cartooning in Illustrator – Comic Inking – Comic Coloring

How to Make a Faux Finish Stone Wall Dungeon Backdrop

Clay Butler — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:01:21 +0000

Make a Faux Finish Hanging Dungeon Wall Backdrop Using a Painters Drop Cloth, House Paint, Brushes, Paint Rollers, and Painters Masking Tape…In Just One Day!

In January of 2010, a new client approached me with a nearly impossible task – to completely brand an entire company in time for a trade show in two months. This meant everything, including a website, business cards, product catalog, hand tags, stickers, sell sheets and a trade show booth. Of course, there is printing lead time on almost all of this so the design time was closer to five weeks.

One of the more unusual things required was a custom hanging backdrop. Now, normally you’d just do a slick full color 10 x 10 pop up display. However, this was for a new Halloween mask company and the trade show was exclusively for suppliers to the Halloween and haunted attraction industry. If you showed up with your standard corporate popper you would be ridiculed mercilessly. It’s just not done. You either show up with bare black steel grids or some dungeoeny, haunted housey looking structure.

Money was tight, time was short and it needed to ship easily. So I suggested we paint one, roll it up and ship it.

My client was skeptical but I assured him it would look great, especially at the typical viewing distance of six to eight feet. Fortunately my client’s wife had the foresight to document the entire day which made this tutorial possible.

Even though this was for a grey stone dungeon wall, the same principle apply for any type of faux finish back drop.

Most of what I used: Blue painters tape, 9 x 12 foot heavy weight painters drop cloth, a textured pain roller for creating a speckly finish, and three shades of grey, plus a black for the grout and a red for the blood.

First, cover your area with plastic and then pin down the corners of the drop cloth so it's tight and flat. Making a gesture like you're holding a magical orb is strictly optional.

Following the creased pattern in the drop cloth, start painting in your grout/mortar lines. Use plenty of paint and dab it in forcefully into the cloth.

The cloth absorbs a lot of paint so be generous. It's not only OK to overshoot the lines, it's desirable. The extra paint makes sure you get complete coverage for your mortar lines and provides a subtle undertone shading affect around the edges of the stones when all the coats are done.

Start from the top and work your way down row by row. This makes sure you don't screw up your pattern.

After it's dry, it's time to use painters tape to mask out the mortar lines. You could even use a stickier tape, like masking, because the paint is embedded so deeply into the cloth that there's no way you can pull it off.

It goes much quicker with two people. Make sure you rub down the edges of the tape. You don't want any bleeding. It's more efficient to spend extra time at this point that to spend the extra time fixing up the areas that bled under the tape.

Now it's time for your base coat. This will be your lightest color. Get it nice and solid. Expect to use the full gallon.

After the base coat use a sponge or cloth to add the next coat. This will be your first texture layer, and will be darker than your base coat. I choose to build up around the edges of the stones.

Finish up with the darkest color using a textured roller. This gives a nice overall stucco like speckle pattern with minimum effort. The reason I wore socks is I wanted a little protection on my feet, but nothing that would damage the canvas. It also had to be disposable as whatever you wear will be ruined. The bonus is it saves me the trouble of scrubbing my feet clean latter. Just take off the socks and throw them away.

After it's completely dry, peel up the tape. This will be your first ah-ha moment where you start to get excited. Up to this point, it just felt like you were psending your day making a big gray wall.

No matter how diligent you were in applying the tape, there will be some bleed. Go in with a small brush and touch those up.

This will take awhile as there always seems to be another one you missed.

Now, what's a dungeon wall without some blood splatter? This is where the nerves will kick in. After six hours of back breaking work it's hard to throw blood on it knowing there's no way to take it back if you were to mess up or change your mind.

Start slow with your splatters. You can always add more but you can't take away.

Throwing the paint with your hands, or flicking with a brush - it's all good.

Oh yeah!

Nice blood splatter.

Now it's time to sit back and admire your work.

At this point the euphoria of finally being done will overwhelm your fatigue and aches and pains.

Time to hang it up.

My client holds some of his personal mask collection to test how it will look.

Debut at the trade show.

Most of the biggest players in the industry just display their masks on bare steel grids. It's sad how neglectful their presentation is. However, being a new comer to the market, Trick or Treat Studios didn't have the luxury of either market dominance or riding on their past glory to afford to be so cheap and half-assed. So a nice original handmade backdrop not only displayed the masks well, it also made an impression among the buyers that this new company was to be taken seriously.

The next year the booth size doubled so we painted up two darker column to cap off the ends.

USDA Meat and Poultry Inspection Mark – FREE Vector Graphic Download

Clay — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:41:52 +0000

The Raw and Processed Meat and Poultry Inspection Marks, Icons and Labels That The USDA Forgot to Provide

The USDA doesn’t provide edible vector files for their Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) marks. Really, no lie. I had several clients who needed them so I made my own. Now you can enjoy them too. These are Illustrator editable files so you’ll need Adobe Illustrator to change the EST and P numbers.

Download the Free Editable Vector USDA (FSIS) EST Inspection Mark Icon for Processed Meat

On the EST icon/bug inspection mark on processed products, you just need to swap out the EST. (processing plant) number.

Download the Free Editable Vector USDA (FSIS) Inspection P Mark Icon for Raw Poultry

On the inspection mark on raw poultry just swap the P number (poultry) number for your product.

The fonts are Akzindenz-Grotesk BQ.

And if you need someone to design your product package, email me or call 831-477-9029 to get started.

File Under: Raw Meat Inspected and Passed Label, Raw Poultry Inspected and Passed Label, FSIS Meat and Poultry Bugs, USDA Meat Inspection Marks, USDA Poultry Inspection Mark

How to Design a Shrink Sleeve Label – Shrink Sleeve Packaging Design Tips

Clay — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:13:46 +0000

Shrink Sleeve Packaging is Super Sexy – Learn How the Shrink Sleeving Process Works with This Shrink Sleeve Tutorial

First Some Good News

You don’t need to add the distortion percentages on a shrink label yourself. You just design it the regular non-distorted way according to the dieline and the printing company will add the distortion to your design to match the curvature of the container. They have special packaging software for doing that. Really, they do. No lie.

I found this out the long way back in 2006 when I received a blank dieline from OSIO. I was working on the new Zola bottles. They were transitioning away from juice boxes at the time and were moving to shrink sleeves. Although my design is not in production anymore, they continue to use shrink sleeve technology to this day.

Along one side of the dieline was a list of millimeter markers and next to each one it specified the percentage of distortion needed. Confused on how I was supposed to do that, especially on a design that contain hundreds of round acai berries near the top of the bottle where it narrows the most, I called up the production department.

“Oh, you don’t have to do the distortion. We do that for you. That’s just for our information. It also let’s you know that it’s best to keep anything that could suffer from the natural effects of shrink sleeving, like tiny text or geometric shapes, away from the part that will shrink the most.”

“Whew, that’s a relief!”

Since then I’ve done a variety of shrink sleeve labels so I’m making this little tutorial that walks you through the process. For this example I’m going to use the shrink sleeved Canna Cola bottles I designed and take you through it from beginning to end.

Decide if Shrink Sleeve Packaging is Right For You

This comes down to cost and appropriateness. Cost depends on your margins. Shrink sleeves are more expensive to print and apply. However the shelf appeal is undeniable. Shrink sleeving is sexy and consumers respond accordingly. If you want to make a big splash, then shrink sleeving may be worth it even at the cost of slimmer margins- especially in the beginning when your print runs are lower.

Next is appropriateness. Would you shrink sleeve pickles? Probably not as people like to see the pickles. Seeing the size, cut, color and shape of the pickle is part of the decision process. However yogurt, fruit drinks, smoothies, supplements, and other foods that are usually in opaque containers are good candidates for shrink sleeving.

Picking The Container

Before you design anything, you need to choose your container. Without that you have know idea what you’ll be designing to. The manufacturer will have spec sheets for their containers whether they are bottles, jars, tubes, or tubs. Sometimes it’s an outline of the container with measurements and sometimes it looks like a CAD drawing. Either way you need this file and some physical samples to test with. Here is an example of glass bottle spec files so you can get a good idea of what you’ll need.

Here’s a few top manufactures of containers:

Anchor Glass

One of the largest glass container companies in the US

Owens-Illinois Inc. is probably the biggest glass manufacturer in the US and possibly the world.

Thomasnet.com

Always a great place to start to find suppliers for plastic bottles, glass bottles, and plastic jars

CKS Packaging

Huge selection of plastic containers for all product types.

Plastic Bottle Corporation

I guess the name says it all.

Send a Sample to The Printer

The printer will want the spec sheets AND a sample of the container. This way they can double check everything. They will also use the container for testing.

Not everyone does shrink sleeving and these days you can get into very short runs with digital printing. You pay a premium per label over flexo or gravure but the set up charges are very low and mixing SKUs is very easy. Plus, with flexo you’re looking at entry level print runs of 25k per SKU just to get in the game. However, with digital you can print a couple of hundred if you like, you just pay a premium price per label. With flexo and gravure, that’s not an option at all.

Here’s a few shrink sleeve printers I’ve worked with:

Collotype Digital

Fantastic digital labels. Perfect for short runs. They can also do flexo and gravure print runs starting in the 25k per SKU range.

OSIO

Good choice for gravure printing. You’ll need big print runs in the 50k plus range per SKU to take advantage of their services

Century Label

Digital and flexo shrink sleeve printing.

Walle

I haven’t used this company personally but based one what I know, they look like a top notch company.

Design Your Label According to The Dieline

The printer will provide a dieline. If they didn’t, then ask them for one. For the Canna Cola Bottles I actually made my own just by wrapping a piece of paper around the bottle and then marking the overlap and then measuring it. Not the recommended way of doing it but it was spot on when we ran the tests.

The reason you can get by with an on-the-fly method of dieline creation is that no matter what the shape of the container, you will still be designing to a rectangular space. It’s no different than designing a flat label. Before sleeving, each label is cut off from the master print roll and then rolled into a tube and then seamed. The tube is placed over the top of the container and then sent though the tunnel. It’s the shrinking that creates all the great contours, not your dieline.

Note on Barcodes:

On a shrink sleeved label, place the barcode vertically (turned 90 degrees on it’s side).

This ensures that they will be scannable after they are shrunk.

Print Out and Mock Up The Design

It’s not the most pretty method, but print out your sleeve design and then just hand wrap it around the container. This will give you a decent feel of how the design works three dimensionally. Sure, it’s a wrinkled mess, but it’s good enough for judging balance, flow, composition, readability and the placement of key label components.

True, you could do a 3-D mock up in Illustrator but monitors are deceiving. We’re so used to zooming in that we quickly lose touch with how our design will feel in actual size. On the monitor your designs ALWAYS feel bigger than they really are and the text ALWAYS looks bigger and more legible.

However, the customer won’t be zooming in at 600% to read the label. They won’t see it on a brilliant LED display. They will see it on a shelf surrounded by hundreds of other products all trying to get their attention. This is why you need to do full scale hard prototypes. It’s the only thing that will simulate how it will actually be perceived in the marketplace.

Approve the Proofs

The printer will send you some proofs. Either digital or print. If it’s good, then approve it. However, only sign off on the visual part, make sure your client signs off on the text. Even though the labels will ultimately be shrunk around the container, the sleeves themselves will be cut and seamed into straight cylinders, just like a tube. Most likely your first proof will be flat and not cut and seamed. The proofs will look funny because they will already have the distortion factored in. So parts that will have a large amount of shrinkage will be stretched horizontally while low distortion areas will look almost normal.

Run Some Sample Labels and Do a Shrink Test

You may or may not be there for this step. For the Canna Cola labels I went to the packaging plant myself and ran the test. We ran dozens of bottles and tested all the flavors. We tweaked the settings on the shrink tunnel as we dialed in the best speed and heat level. A shrink tunnel is basically a conveyor belt that runs though a metal box that is filled with steam jets. The steam shrinks the label to the container. It’s kind of magical to see it first hand but it needs to be dialed in to your specific label and container.

We had hundreds of sample labels that were pre-seamed (cut from the original roll and seamed together into tubes) but we had a limited number of bottles. So labels that shrunk poorly were cut off the bottle so we could run another label on it.

Some shrink tunnels use steam, and some use a combination of infrared and hot air to shrink the labels. Which method you use depends on application. For full body applications, and when you want high quality, distortion-free graphics, steam tunnels are best. Steam is also best for pressurized containers or products with high flammability. For tamper evident labels, a hot air convection tunnel does an excellent job. If your neckbands are very dark in color, radiant infrared is an excellent choice because dark material absorbs heat.

Rework the Label if Necessary and Repeat

After you run your tests you many notice problem areas. On Canna Cola it was the sunburst THC decal on the neck. This was placed on a very high distortion area so the decal came out more oval then circular. Rather than have a large amount of rejects we opted to drop the circle.

This is why it’s best to keep geometric or highly symmetrical shapes off high distortion areas. Asymmetrical or organic shapes can hide distortion flaws much better.

Run the Final Labels and Bask in the Glory of Your New Designs

Shrink sleeve packaging is hot, hot, hot. Even though it’s increasing in popularity, it’s still a novelty in the general market. And because it’s more complicated and expensive that a paper label, or printing a couple of spots on aluminum cans or plastic tubs, I suspect it will remain a premium look for quite some time.

Need a Killer Shrink Sleeve Package Design? Call 831-477-9029 or email me if you’d like to discuss what great branding can do for your product packaging design.

Additional Reading:

Nice white paper that explains how shrink sleeving calculations are achieved

Nice layperson’s article on the shrink sleeving proccess

Learn about shrink tunnel technology

Videos:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

This is a steam shrink tunnel in action.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

This is most likely an air or infrared shrink tunnel for a tamper evident label application.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Here’s a nice video of shrink machine money shots. If you like manufacturing as much I do you’ll dig this.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

More shrink packaging porn with a killer English host

File Under: Shrink Sleeve Packaging Design Tutorial

Product Localization – Marketing Your Product to US and Global Markets

Clay — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:08:14 +0000

Critter Quitter- A Case Study in Product Localization for the US Market

Last month I was approached by Impulsis Games, the dev division of Impulsis, a Ukrainian software company. Their specialty is building ecommerce websites with a focus on the Magento and TYPO3 platforms. However, they have started branching out into custom apps and had recently designed a game for the iPad. Being such a large market, Impulsis wanted to target US gamers specifically. They quickly realized that although their English is quite good, they were not proficient enough to successfully localize their product for a US market. They needed a native American English speaker with a marketing and branding background to develop a name for the game, a tagline, and all game descriptions and instructions that would be used in the game itself as well as press releases and the company website.

Yuri, the game director, walked me through the app and sent me all the supporting documents including screenshots. The game centered around defending your plates of burgers, pizzas and assorted treats from ravenous bug like creatures by crushing them. Not being a native American English speaker he was stuck on the obvious choice of calling the game “bug something”. The trouble was that nearly every combination of the word bug paired with some kind of crushing action was already taken. So most likely, no bug.

I brainstormed some names and ultimately came up with a list of 16 respectable options. However, it was readily apparent both to myself, and to the team when they took a vote, that only 3 were really in the running. Two of the names included the word “critter” and the other, the word “bug”. My favorite being “Critter Quitter”. It not only rhymes but uses alliteration (when two words start with the same sound). The human brain loves rhymes and alliteration. It’s like a little tickle to our neural pathways. And for a quirky video game that’s makes a lot sense.

When I initially presented the list to Yuri he had no idea what a critter was, although he did like the sound of it. I explained that a critter is any small animal. Usually the word is applied to mammals but its also used as a generic to describe any small animal that’s quick and scurries around. I also explained that it’s often used affectionately or at least neutrally but can also be used to describe pests and vermin. I mentioned a popular line of children’s books by Mercer Mayer called Little Critters where the lead character is a small mammal of unspecified origin. We don’t know what he is – he’s just a “critter”. I specifically mentioned the book series as an example of cultural ubiquity of the word. I also pointed out that a Google search for the word “critter” fetched 41,500,000 results. So we were safe knowing that Americans would understand the word.

The next question was appropriateness. Yuri had explained that although this game can be enjoyed by all ages, they were making a clear push for women and younger children. They wanted a family friendly game with mild cartoony violence. This was the second reason I was a big supporter of the word critter. It’s a friendly word and ubiquitous enough to include cuddly creatures as well a vermin. Perfect for a game where the antagonists are bug-like, but not actual bugs in any scientific sense. The creatures have bulbous humanoid eyes, funny features, and are very colorful. So they would be very much at home in any Tex Avery or Warner Bros cartoon.

The quitter part of the name refers to the action. This too fit well as we wanted something softer than “kill” or “destroy”. Instead of using a word that refers directly to an action, such as crush or squash, quitter refers to the goal of the game, which is making the critter’s quit. As in quit eating your food. A Critter Quitter can also refer to the person who gets rid of the bugs. The same way we refer to the person who exterminates and the exterminator.

So all around, the name Critter Quitter works well for the branding goals of the game and describing the goals of the game itself.

Next we needed to create a one sentence tagline that would work well when promoting the game in the iTunes App Store, in the press and on the web. Something that reads well for humans but also hits our keywords for search engines. Basically an elevator pitch.

I condensed it down to a simple “who, what, why, where” statement:

Critter Quitter iPad Game – Protect Your Food from Ravenous Bug Invaders

Up next was a simple branding story for the company. They knew who they were, but this being their first game, no one else did. This would be used with the press and as the developer credits in the game.

Straight out of Lviv, the “Silicon Valley of the Ukraine”, Implusis brings a fresh, independent spirit to the development of games and applications for mobile devices.

Since 2005, we’ve been merging form and function to create user-centric mobile games and apps that blur the line between business and pleasure. Impulsis – because life’s too short for bad apps.

Next we needed to rewrite the copy for the website, the directions and instructions for game play, and write a press release (you can download the full press kit here).

Impulsis had provided a decent framework for the website copy, but since they were not native English speakers, the idioms and grammar were off the mark in many places. Too far off to be acceptable. I rewrote the text they had provided and we posted it on the website in preparation for the official product launch.

They had also written up the directions for game play that included names and description for all the characters, what they do, and the names and function of the player’s weapons (AKA: Power-ups). As expected, I could easily understand the directions but it had a distinct “English as a second language” quality and many of the names of the characters were poor matches for the game’s new name, for branding purposes, and for an American audience’s expectations.

Below are the new game directions localized for a US market.

Critters

Lil’ Buggy (Formerly: Small Bug)

Your run of the mill critter. Tap once to kill it.

Funky Fly (Formerly: Big Fly)

Funky zips around food before pouncing. Tap once to kill it.

Stinky (Formerly: Stinky Bug)

Ugly green critter with a super strong shell. Throw it off the table to kill it.

Cockroach

Cockroach is quick and clever. Tap once to kill it.

Big Boss (Formerly: Strong Bug)

This critter is twice as tough as Stinky. Tap twice to kill it.

Kamikaze (Formerly: Kamikaze Bug)

Take cover! Kamikaze explodes when killed and kills critters that are standing too close. Good for you, bad for them. Use it wisely. Tap once to kill it.

Big Mamma

Big Mamma releases her larvae when she dies. Very dangerous! Tap once to kill then get ready to squash all her offspring!

Tanker (Formerly: Armored Bug)

This critter has the strongest armor of all! Tap three times to kill it. Yes, THREE times!

Furious Fly (Formerly: Fast Fly)

Fast and unpredictable. Even Furious doesn’t know where it’s going next. Tap once to kill it.

Colorado Critter (Formerly: Colorado Bug)

Colorado is a tricky one. Must use Electric Bucket in the corner to kill it.

Power-ups

Frog

Frogs love to eat critters. Place them on the plate and they will help you to protect food. The more expensive the frog, the more critters it can eat.

Shield

Shield covers food from critters for 15 sec.

Electro-Shield (Formerly: Electric Shield)

Electrified Shield covers food and kills all critters that try to break through. Last for 15 sec.

God Finger

Your finger becomes so strong that it crushes anything!

Electric Bucket

Extra bucket for killing Colorado Critters.

Napalm Nuke

The ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Activate to vaporize all critters on the table.

Spray

Use your finger to spray the table with deadly disinfectant.

Machete

Swipe your finger across the screen to make critter confetti!

Slow-mo (Formerly: Slow)

All critters move very slow for 15 sec.

Freeze

All critters on the table freeze for 8 sec. Shatter them before they defrost.

Game Rules

How to Play

Your mission is to protect your food from hungry critters. Squash them, collect their juice, and use the juice to buy power-ups for more effective defense.

Juice

Each critter kill earns you juice. You can use juice to buy power-ups. The juice multiplier at the top right of the screen shows how much bonus juice you will earn when you complete the level. Each level completed increases the multiplier.

Power-ups

Power-ups help you when things get crazy. Each power-up has a cost – so use them wisely. Combine power-ups to achieve stronger destructive affect. Power-ups are stored on the menu.

Perfect Wave

If you stop ALL critters from taking a bite of your food you will earn a perfect wave bonus for that level. A perfect wave doubles your score.

Juice Store

Have a Juice Crisis? Don’t lose heart. You can always earn some extra free juice or buy an unlimited amount from our store.

Finally, we wrapped up the project with a press release. The press release was fairly easy since we had already solved most of the branding and localization issues earlier

Impulsis Games then delivered my new copy to their localization teams in France, Germany, Russia, and Spain. This is the right way to do localization. You can’t rely on automated translations. Proper localization must be done by native speakers who are talented writers and branding professionals. If you have any doubt if this is correct, just run any text or website through Yahoo’s Babel Fish or Google Translate and see how horrific the translations really are. Sure, in a pinch it’s good enough to help you understand the gist of something, but it’s also completely inadequate for marketing and branding. If you rely on an automated translation service you will kill your business for international markets.

If you’d like some help localizing your product for the US market call me at 831-566-3046 or email me.

Links:

Download Critter Quitter on iTunes

Check Out The Official Critter Quitter Website

Visit Critter Quitter on Facebook

File Under: A Case Study in Product Localization for the US Market – How to Localize a Product for Global Market – Localization Services for International Markets – Translation Services – Translation Tips and Tricks

USDA Safe Handling Instructions Label for Meat and Poultry – FREE Vector Graphic Download

Clay — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:01:13 +0000

The Safe Handling File That the USDA Forgot to Provide to Designers So They Can Make a Decent Package Design for Their Bacon Product.

If you’re in a hurry just download the Print Quality Vector USDA Safe Handling Instructions Graphic now.

Got a minute? Then read on.

I’m designing the packaging for a new line of premium natural bacon for Tender Belly. This bacon is the real deal – all natural, hormone free, cherry wood smokey and sweetened with maple syrup. However when it comes time to place the USDA safe handling instructions that are required for all meat products, I’m stuck with a low resolution gif file that they oddly call a “reproducible master”, or a jpg file that they call “larger”. The gif file is unusable and the jpg is just not good enough for printing if you are at all serious about package design.

So I decided to make my own based upon the USDA official Safe Handling Instructions and Guidlines.

It came out really nice, and since no one else has bothered, I figured I’d make it available for everyone to use.

So download my improved Print Quality Vector USDA Safe Handling Instructions Graphic.

FREE Bonus USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Included in Safe Handling Document

The USDA doesn’t provide edible vector files for Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) icons either.

On the EST icon/bug Inspection mark on processed products, you just need to swap out the EST. (processing plant number).

On the inspection mark on raw poultry just swap the P number (poultry) number for your product.

The font is Akzindenz-Grotesk BQ

Enjoy.

And if you have a product that needs some seriously good packaging design then email me or call 831-477-9029 to get started.

File Under: USDA Labels Requirements for Meat, Poultry and Pork – Bacon Package Design

Beats Digging Ditches - My Life as a Professional Graphic Designer

How Much Does a Package Design Cost? – Why Your Package Design Should Cost a Heck of a Lot More Than $80

More Than Just Pretty Pictures. Package Design is a Complex Process that Starts Well Before You Start Designing.

The Long and Winding Road

Label Design Tutorial – How To Design a Product Package Label

A Behind The Scenes Look at a Typical Product Label Design Project

Step One – Initial Contact

Step Two – Client Consultation

Step Three – Setting Up Your Document and Creating the Dieline

Step Four – Research

Step Five – Designing the Label

Step Six- Final Proofing, Printing Quotes and Choosing the Best Label Materials

Create a Dieline From a Flattened Box Scan – How To Save a Bad Dieline

How I Saved My Client From A Bad Box Dieline and Why I’ll Never Trust Anyone’s Dieline Again… Not Even My Own…and Especially Not One from China.

Looking for a Package Designer?

Ultimate Digital Ink and Color Tutorial for Adobe Illustrator CS5

Learn My Secret to the Fastest, Simplest, Down and Dirty Comic Style Inking and Coloring Technique for Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator Inking and Coloring Video Tutorials

Illustrator Inking and Coloring Video Video #1 (Shorter Version)

Illustrator Inking and Coloring Video #2 (Longer Version)

Text and Stills Version

How to Make a Faux Finish Stone Wall Dungeon Backdrop

Make a Faux Finish Hanging Dungeon Wall Backdrop Using a Painters Drop Cloth, House Paint, Brushes, Paint Rollers, and Painters Masking Tape…In Just One Day!

Top 15 Questions To Ask Your Client Before Designing a Product Package

Understanding The Value of The Client Discovery Process.

What Questions You Should Ask Your Client BEFORE Giving a Quote, Taking a Deposit, and Starting a Package Design Project.

1. Where are you right now? Is this a re-brand or a new product?

2. What is the product?

3. Who are your competitors?

4. What makes you different? Why would someone choose your product over another option?

5. Are your suppliers, copackers or private labelers all lined up or are you still exploring production options?

6. Have you finalized what bottle, jar, box, can, tube, or bag you will be using? Do you need help with sourcing this?

7. Do you have your dielines ready?

8. Are you working with a printer already? What are your anticipated print runs? Do you need a printer?

9. What are your distributions channels? Direct to retailers? Selling to distributors? Private label? Box stores or mom and pop? Online only?

10. Do you have your UPC codes ready? Do you need help getting them?

11. Is your body copy complete? How about your name and tagline?

12. Do you have a print ready logo or any other graphics that you want to use?

13. Are your nutritional facts done? How about ingredients?

14. Are there any USDA or FDA requirements for your packaging?

15. When is your projected launch date?

So Now What?

USDA Meat and Poultry Inspection Mark – FREE Vector Graphic Download

The Raw and Processed Meat and Poultry Inspection Marks, Icons and Labels That The USDA Forgot to Provide

How to Design a Shrink Sleeve Label – Shrink Sleeve Packaging Design Tips

Shrink Sleeve Packaging is Super Sexy – Learn How the Shrink Sleeving Process Works with This Shrink Sleeve Tutorial

First Some Good News

Decide if Shrink Sleeve Packaging is Right For You

Picking The Container

Send a Sample to The Printer

Design Your Label According to The Dieline

Print Out and Mock Up The Design

Approve the Proofs

Run Some Sample Labels and Do a Shrink Test

Rework the Label if Necessary and Repeat

Run the Final Labels and Bask in the Glory of Your New Designs

Additional Reading:

Videos:

Product Localization – Marketing Your Product to US and Global Markets

Critter Quitter- A Case Study in Product Localization for the US Market

Critters

Power-ups

Game Rules

USDA Safe Handling Instructions Label for Meat and Poultry – FREE Vector Graphic Download

The Safe Handling File That the USDA Forgot to Provide to Designers So They Can Make a Decent Package Design for Their Bacon Product.