The days are becoming shorter and there is a chill in the air, sure signs that autumn is here and that winter is not far behind. This has inspired two of the submissions we look at this month. There is a gift carton of Nivea’s range of products aimed squarely at the Christmas market, printed for the first time by Boxes Prestige which won the job because it could not only print the right level of quality but could come up with the design concept that won over the customer.
The story of Matalan’s dramatic Halloween in-store displays is similar. Simpsons, which printed the creepy castles, offered more than just printing, but could take the concept that the retailer had and turn it into reality with real panache.
Staying in the north east, South Shields company Potts the Printer has produced a rather lovely job for Northumbria University for a conference it was staging about paper and printed media conservation. If the subject put extra pressure on the printer,
it rose to the occasion well.
Finally, another timely job, this time for Esquire magazine’s October issue to tie in with London Fashion Week. Colour Five printed a spectacular cover on gold Mirri board to make the magazine stand out. With publishers getting the message about cover mounts and environmental impact, they are turning more to brilliant printed effects to achieve shelf appeal, which is great news for the industry.
Gold-plated read delivered by Colour Five
Esquire magazine treated a privileged section of its readership to a special edition of its October issue using a six-page gatefold cover printed on gold Mirri board to lend a quality distinguished feel to the magazine.
The cover was printed at Colour Five in Wembley, a specialist uv printer which is used to working with a range of non porous substrates including polypropylene and Mirri boards. “We like Mirri,” says managing director Neil Atkinson. ”We can get really good results with it.”
The company was started 11 years ago to concentrate on uv work and operates a five colour Speedmaster 102 with interdeck uv lamps, then a coating unit and further uv system so that it can print a gloss varnish inline.
For this job it printed the cover fourcolour process with selected areas of white to allow the title to stand out and provide the right degree of contrast for the bar code. A gloss uv varnish was added as a protection and to add to the quality of the image. The sheet was then turned and the reverse printed, three to view.
In all Colour Five printed 40,000 covers on the 370gsm material.
“We are getting more and more interest from publishers looking at ways to give magazines shelf impact,” says Atkinson. “We already print a lot of uv varnish covers and can offer them different materials and effects.”
The company is currently printing covers for the full run of the Christmas issue of Empire magazine on Mirri.
The company’s normal fare includes packaging, postcards and greetings cards. “We have noticed over the last five to seven years that we are using our uv capacity to print on non-paper materials, which is an advantage that we can offer that is not possible in the general commercial print world.”
Potts nails conference guide for conservation experts
Potts the Printers in South Shields has produced the impressive Printed on Paper conference handbook for an international gathering on the techniques, history and conservation of printed media at Northumbria University.
The printer has a long association with the university producing a wide range of material on a regular basis. But this was out of the ordinary says business development manager John Conway. “Now and again it’s nice to be able to produce a one-off of a special product for them.”
This was a 236pp burst bound book with 4pp cover with a print run of 500 copies. The inner section was printed on Cocoon Silk 50 produced from 50% FSC virgin and 50% FSC recycled material, fitting in with the conservation theme of the conference.
Kate Adamson, senior designer at Northumbria University says: “We chose to use Cocoon Silk 50 because we wanted a paper which would be sympathetic to the wide range of full colour art illustrations in the book. Cocoon had the perfect feel for us, giving a high quality product without excessive bulk (postage costs for the finished book were a factor we needed to take into consideration too).
“The fact that the product was also recycled was an added bonus,” she explains.
Antalis supplied the 130gsm stock and 300gsm Trucard 2Matt used for the cover. Potts printed the four-colour throughout inner sections on its Manroland 706 with the cover being matt laminated on one side. Files were supplied on disk and laser proofs supplied.
The job also fitted well with Potts’ environmental stance. The company has a full range of certificates and is currently installing a Roland which will run without IPA.
“We will sit down with a client and advise them on changes to reduce the amount of paper they are using without losing any impact,” says Conway. “We are adding a paragraph now to every job to say it was printed by a printer with ISO 14001, FSC and PEFC chain of custody, using vegetable oil inks and from plates processed without developing chemistry. We will also be able to say that no alcohol was used in printing.”
Simpson’s spooky success
Boxes hits note of seasonal luxury Halloween has become a major season for retailers, increasingly celebrated through displays to encourage shoppers into stores. Matalan had just this in mind when after visiting the Spring Fair in Birmingham and an exhibition dedicated to Halloween goods in Las Vegas, it approached Simpson Group with an idea to produce store displays of creepy castles for this years Halloween, commissioning the printer to bring the idea to life. The units were planned to go into the 70 Matalan stores which have M Party departments selling costumes and party goods.
Simpson’s design team worked with Matalan’s inhouse staff over the summer to come up with prototypes and to test the concept in stores. This included ensuring that the units conformed to health and safety rules as they would be spanning aisles says Simpson director Neil Johnson. “This is not a problem for most display units which do not pose any potential risk, but Matalan wanted shoppers to pass under the castles. We also had to make sure that the design was going to look and feel right.”
It was, so much so that Matalan decided to roll the campaign out across 197 stores. Simpson produced 300 castles as some stores required more than one unit owing to the floor space. “They wanted to draw shoppers away from the core parts of the store to the side aisles,” he says.
The castles were built using screen-printed sections and litho print mounted on corrugated. In addition there are sound chips to emit an eerie noise as shoppers pass beneath and lights to add a spooky feel to the eyes of the ghostly figures haunting the castles.
Matalan’s Debbie Burrell adds: “Feedback from shoppers, kids in particular, has been fabulous - kids are getting excited about Halloween already! This is a ground-breaking innovation for Matalan. I am very proud of what we have achieved with this campaign and the close relationship we have with Simpson Group to be able to work together to make it happen.”
Boxes hits note of seasonal luxury
Boxes Prestige has been working on a line of Christmas gift packs for the Nivea skincare brand after impressing brand owner Beiersdorf UK with the design ideas it came up with.
The three designs will provide the Nivea products with maximum shelf appeal during a crucial time of year. The Earls Barton, Northampton, carton printer won the contract because it could offer the design and engineering skills to accompany print and finishing. Sales manager Ray Grundy says: “Our vast experience from design through production phases is well displayed in these gift packs. We have strong constructional design team resources as well as a proactive prepress department and inhouse production capabilities that Beiersdorf can rely on.”
The boxes, themed Gorgeous, Happy and Indulge, feature up to seven colour printing, matt and gloss varnishes, inline embossing on Incada Silk board.
The Gorgeous pack also has silver foil blocking, a Melinex window and magnetic closure. It will hold a selection of miniature sized products and is sure to be one that finds its way to mum’s Christmas stocking.
Boxes Prestige has a seven-colour Manroland 707 with full interdeck uv drying used for the printing. Hand finishing and window patching help keep the work inhouse.
Beiersdorf packaging technologist Mick Clipston is as indulgent towards the printer as the products are to the women using them. “We were impressed by the concepts that Boxes Prestige presented to us for the gift packs and are very pleased with how the final cartons have turned out. They should look terrific on shop shelves and should really please recipients come Christmas morning.”