PACKAGING ALLIANCEPART ONE: HOW A DIGITAL WORKFLOW HELPS CONVEYTHE IMAGE AND EXPERIENCE OF WHAT’S IN THE BOTTLE

Beer aficionados are quick to point out that the first sip is the best, and the rest are simply to be savored. That entire experience, especially for the unique flavors and aromas of craft-brewed beers, begins with the label.For Church Street Brewing Company in the Chicago suburb of Itasca, the

labels of its craft-brewed beers and ales are critical to branding and marketing.

With competitors vying for shelf space in liquor stores, convenience stores

and supermarkets, the label can be a deciding factor for beer lovers deciding

which new beer to try or when searching store shelves a favored brew. Church

Street is hardly alone. Every micro- or craft-brewer knows the importance of

labels, as do the many small wine-makers that have sprung up around the

United States in recent years. All are chasing the elusive “three-foot effect”; that defining instant when the colors, designs and images on a label catch a shopper’s eye—and the moment of engagement begins.

Yet as for any consumer product, brand identity is critical. Labels and logos

must be memorable and work across a brewer’s product line. Colors must be

consistent and accurately rendered on bottles, cartons and cases, even when

job specs include spot colors, metallics, laser-trimming, and other demanding

features. Meanwhile, short runs—such as those for test marketing or special

limited batches—may amount to only a few hundred bottles at a time, but

every bottle must be clearly branded to foster loyalty while encouraging

shoppers to sample a new brew.

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STREAMLINING PRODUCTION

Seeking to further establish its growing brand among craft-beer fans and entice new

customers, Church Street Brewing looked to digital printing as the most cost-effective way of producing short run labels for the launch of latest creation, “Special Hell,” which, as its name denotes, is a pale German-style brew.

An all-digital process helped ensure labels were of the highest quality, with compelling

colors and designs, and that they would stand up to the rigors of both retail shelves

and consumers’ refrigerators and coolers.

When it comes to label production, optimizing efficiency, especially for short runs, requires a streamlined workflow, precise color management, and a print engine with the flexibility to accommodate a wide range of substrates while delivering image quality and eye appeal that take advantage of the three-foot effect.

For the Special Hell labels, the process began with the label

designer, Church Street’s owners, Hybrid Software, GMG Color,

and Screen USA. Having all the players in the loop from the

beginning helped ensure the final labels met everyone’s vision and expectations. Once the design was finalized, it entered a native PDF workflow using PACKZ and PRINTPLANNER from Hybrid Software. The applications connect seamlessly with comprehensive, state-of-the-art color management from GMG Color, a process designed

to ensure optimal print quality on conventional or digital presses.

The resulting files were fed to a Screen Truepress L350 UV inkjet press, selected for its speed, range of substrates, UV inks, and image quality and durability. The result? Superior quality shortrun print production that ensured each label, down to the finest details, was accurately produced and ready to stake out Church Street

Brewery’s place on retail shelves.

This end-to-end approach, with additional technical support from Anderson & Vreeland, a leading distributor for Hybrid, GMG and Screen systems, helped ensure a seamless process from initial design through prepress and production to the labels

being wrapped around bottles.

HERE’S HOW IT HAPPENEDPart 1 will cover Hybrid Software’s part of the story, part 2 GMG OpenColor,

and finally Part 3 with the Screen Truepress L350 UV.

If you visit Labelexpo in Rosemont, Illinois in September, you can get your own sample of both the label and the Special Hell beer while you see the system in action.

For some tangible proof you can inspect,

enjoy, and take home with you, be sure

to get your very own sample of Church

Street’s Special Hell and its label—fresh

off of a Screen Truepress 350 UV at Labelexpo.

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Prepress is critical for any print project, but the bar is set higher for labels when

the specifications include white inks, metallic, spot colors, barcodes and coded instructions for a laser cutting system. When production is taking place on a state-of-

the-art digital print engine running at up to 164 fpm and laying down UV inks, white underprint, and metallics, the job file has to be completely right long before the press starts running.

All prepress for the Special Hell label was handled by Hybrid’s PACKZ and PRINTPLANNER software, which passed the job onto GMG OpenColor for leading edge color management. The combined capabilities of PACKZ and PRINTPLANNER provided an efficient workflow that streamlined the entire production process.

Original artwork was created in Adobe Illustrator and opened in PACKZ.

The designer colors were converted to printable colors for the Screen L350 UV using PACKZ with a direct link to GMG OpenColor Server. More detail on color management and makeready using GMG’s OpenColor software will be included in the installment of this story.

PACKZ made final adjustments to the design with its Analyze and Fix function, ensuring it was ready for high quality output on the Screen Truepress.

The one-up label from PACKZ was saved as a PDF and opened in Hybrid Software’s Cloudflow PRINTPLANNER for layout.

PRINTPLANNER steps the one-up label to optimize the layout for printing, and adds eye marks for offline die cutting and finishing.

The fully stepped, print-ready PDF from PrintPlanner goes to the Truepress L350 UV for high quality inkjet printing.

EMPOWERING PREPRESS WITH HYBRID SOFTWARE

For some tangible proof you can inspect,

enjoy, and take home with you, be sure

to get your very own sample of Church

Street’s Special Hell and its label—fresh

off of a Screen Truepress 350 UV at Labelexpo.

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The original artwortk in Hybrid Software’s PackZ

This kind of efficiency is becoming an essential part of package printing and converting. With the label and packaging markets experiencing demand for shorter but more frequent runs and having to address the demands of SKU

proliferation, converters need workflows that reliably deliver print-ready files to digital presses. PACKZ, PRINTPLANNER and GMG OpenColor deliver the speed, efficiency and ease of use required.

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PACKZ is a professional editor developed specifically for the flexo, offset, gravure, or digital processes in the label and packaging industry. Operating on a modern 64-bit architecture and running under OS-X and Windows, PACKZ uses a native PDF-Editor for maximum performance and usability.

Because PDF is the standard file interchange format for all packaging graphic designs, native PDF is the easiest and most productive solution for producing any type of packaging. Using PACKZ eliminates the need for file conversions or the support of proprietary file formats, while reducing errors, simplifying file management, and ensuring consistent document content. Throughout the process, a versatile set of dedicated prepress and quality control features are available to make designs ready

for color management and production. PACKZ supports:

• Global or selected area trapping

• Separation handling including white underprint

• Database connectivity• Structured assets including text, images and graphics• Barcode creation and recognition

• Dynamic positioning, info panels and marks• Quality assurance tools

• Tabular and nested step & repeat• 3D visualization• Multi platform solution for OS-X and Windows• 64-bit multi-processing and multi-threading

PACKZ

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PRINTPLANNER is a modular component of Hybrid’s CLOUDFLOW PDF workflow for accurately laying out single or multi-gang orders for digital output on presses like the

Screen L350 UV. Its key features include:

• Easy template creation for decorating labels

• Automatic layout based on desired number of labels ordered

• Browser-based user interface to define layout and decorations, including registration marks

Developed in HTML5, all CLOUDFLOW workflows can be controlled from any web browser or computing tablet. This addresses the challenges faced by print service providers who rely on multiple file servers or even multiple production locations to manage digital assets and balance production workloads. CLOUDFLOW solves this problem by managing all assets and production within a single private printing “cloud”, where they can be accessed from any location through an intuitive browser interface.

In addition to PRINTPLANNER, other CLOUDFLOW modules include:

• Digital Asset Management• PROOFSCOPE soft proofing and collaboration• Automated prepress trapping functions

For more information on PACKZ and PRINTPLANNER, please visit Hybrid’s website at www.hybridsoftware.com.

PRINTPLANNER

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