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Structural package design tech: Shrink-film labels

By Rain Noe - March 9, 2009

in Object Culture

Back in the early '90s, designing bottles for shampoo, dishwashing detergent and the like had one prerequisite that sharply constrained their shape: The label panel couldn't be made from compound curves, at least not if you wanted a label to stick to it.

Nowadays things are different, with companies like Eastman Innovation Labs producing their Embrace line of copolyesters for shrink film, which completely encircles the bottle, rather than being slapped on the front like a sticker. Method is using the technology for their new line of baby care products.

"Our industrial design team came up with these beautiful shapes," says Sally Clarke, a graphic designer for Method. "With the need to decorate and communicate a lot on a small package, shrink [film] quickly became the obvious solution. It allows us to do 360 degree decoration and get the high quality results we wanted."

Adds Erik Frey, Method's packaging development manager: "The top of the lotion bottle gets really narrow, so we needed it to effectively shrink down without any sort of ruffling or bumping. We wanted to keep the smooth shape."

"We wanted to use Shrink in a little different form than you traditionally see," says Clarke. "We went for a matte finish that has a soft touch quality and made the icons glossy. So we're playing with the different textures of the shrink itself. The printer, National Label, worked out the distortion areas to get the look we wanted."

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Josh

15 years ago

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nice work sally!
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Edward M. Allen

15 years ago

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Why do we need to have printing in compound curvature surfaces. This shrink wrap stuff just uses more material in the packaging. A lot more. Not only that, but compound curvature volumes take up more volume per unit volume of product, increasing shipping space/cost/fuel use.
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grenadethebaby

15 years ago

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Why did they copy a hand grenade?
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