Responsible and luxurious – Sustainable enhancement
For the September issue of creativ verpacken, the focus is on luxury and will thus accompany the autumn trade fairs LUXEPACK in Monaco and PCD in Paris in January 2022 in terms of content and theme.
The topic of sustainability has also long become an issue in the luxury goods industry and is increasingly determining the decisions of brand owners and purchasing decisions at the POS. So the challenge is to combine these two aspects, which at first glance seem to contradict each other. It's about showing how packaging can appear luxurious and still be produced in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. In summary, this could mean: LUXURY - Sustainably and responsibly produced.
For this issue, PrintCity Alliance members and project partners designed and produced a cover. Having had the environment on its agenda for a long time, the alliance launched a new, broad-based project on this very topic in 2019. Using the fictitious Better Human brand as an example, high-quality packaging is being developed with a special focus on sustainability: Starting with the construction from just one material, through the selection of materials to production and, of course, recycling. Better Human thus forms the technological basis for this cover.
A sea turtle was now chosen as the comprehensible image. Designer Martin Appoldt explains: "The sea turtle stands as a symbol for a fragile and threatened ecology like hardly any other animal. And this despite - or perhaps even because of - its massive shell, which was able to protect its sensitive interior perfectly over millions of years until just a few decades ago. This hard shell is, so to speak, its protective shield on the outside and thus fulfils functions very similar to product packaging. This can be used as a bridge to the cover design. The different surfaces of the animal now serve as a projection surface for different finishes. There are no limits to the design possibilities and a wide variety of finishes and effects can be homogeneously integrated into the graphics."
The luxurious appearance is provided by the print graphics, filigree floral elements that replace the massive horn structure of the carapace, haptic effects such as soft lacquer and blind embossing as well as diffractive diffraction effects through embossing transfer printing (hot stamping) and pigment lacquers.
The printing is done in UV-LED offset with UVALUX LED U540 Commercial colour series in the Euroscale colour space. To protect the inside front cover (U2) and the full-format ads on U3 and U4, an embossable and block-proof SENOLITH® UV LED print varnish is applied on both sides in the fifth printing unit.
A haptic SENOSOFT®-WB soft varnish, a matt varnish, a pigment varnish and a total of three different hot embossing, micro and blind embossing processes are used.
All details from design to finishing are also summarised in a tutorial (download below).
Production in detail and machine configuration
Substrate
MetsäBoard Pro FBB Bright is a fully coated, bleached board with white reverse side, high whiteness on the front and back and excellent sensory properties make it ideal for special effects and for sensitive premium products. It is light and stable and can be used in direct contact with food. Available in a basis weight range of 180-350 g/m2 for offset, gravure, flexo and digital printing.
Print cover outside
Print cover outside: Offset printing 5c with UVALUX® LED U540 Commercial ink series and SENOLITH® UV LED print lacquer as well as full-surface applied tactile SENOSOFT® WB matt coating.
Offline finishing cover outside
Hot stamping transfer plano with LUXOR® blue metallic of the Creativ Verpacken lettering and the lettering line in the header. In a further hot stamping pass, the contours in the shell are finished with a diffractive LIGHT LINE® decor as plano and partly as prismatic relief stamping. The tactile SENOSOFT® matt lacquer applied over the entire surface is embossable and does not have to be cut out. This eliminates the need for a coating plate, which in turn saves costs and resources.
Print cover inside
Offset printing 5c with UVALUX LED U540 Commercial colour series with SENOLITH® UV LED protective coating and partially applied SPECTRAVAL™ pigment coating.
Offline finishing cover inside
Hot stamping transfer of the entire silhouette of the turtle with a light blue, transparent décor, whereby the fine structures are additionally incorporated in the shell as micro-embossing within the embossing tool.
Multi-level blind embossing
Multi-level blind embossing of the structures in the yellow coloured areas and the circular structures in the dark areas are deeply debossed from the outside of the cover. As a special feature, the effect is mirrored on both sides by countering the motif to the reverse and the use of counter embossing dies.
Offset printing with LED UV, hot & blind debossing, soft varnish, effect pigments
Tutorial & Environmental flyer
Companies involved::