Posted by: Marsha Nix

The When, Where, What and Why About Labels (Post II of II)

When you are a manufacturer of consumer or industrial products one of the most important investments is your custom label.  Why must your labels look and appeal to your target market?  It becomes …

Posted by: Marsha Nix

The When, Where, What and Why About Labels (Post II of II)

When you are a manufacturer of consumer or industrial products one of the most important investments is your custom label.  Why must your labels look and appeal to your target market?  It becomes …

When you are a manufacturer of consumer or industrial products one of the most important investments is your custom label.  Why must your labels look and appeal to your target market?  It becomes your branding.  Along with Brand Recognition labels convey critical information to the consumer, where they will find instructions for use, Nutritional information, safety warnings, expiration dates, lot codes, and contact information. What printing method to use for your labels?  Below are listed three of the most popular options.

Flexographic Labels

If you are looking for affordable labels with high volume, high speed, high quality then flexographic printing is ideal.  It is compatible with many different inks including water-based, solvent, UV, and fluorescent.  “Flexo” printing is an excellent choice for solid or 4-color process printing from 1000 up to millions on a variety of substrates including paper, polyester, polypropylene, and foils. 

Choose “flexo” printing if your label needs are foil stamping, metallic ink, special effects, coatings, embossing, or greater color accuracy on a large scale. 

Silkscreen Labels

If you are looking for durability in a range of conditions, then silkscreen is the right choice.  Silkscreen labels can withstand outdoor conditions, can get wet, can be washed, can withstand heat, and are abrasion-resistant. Labels ideal for silkscreen printing includes graphic overlays, industrial labels, hazard, OSHA, safety, window decals, and static cling. 

Silkscreen printing dates back to the early 1900’s.  Some of the most common items that utilize silkscreen printing are garden products, glassware, alcohol bottles, pharmaceutical bottles, health and beauty products, and medical devices. 

Digital Printed Labels

Extremely high quality and ideal for short runs, digital print gives you fast turnaround and provides you with more flexibility than older methods such as flexographic printing.  Benefits of digital printing include variable data, multiple SKU’s, 2D barcodes, and perfect registration.  If you are looking for a short run and high quality, then digital printing is your choice.

If your need is product testing or prototypes, the affordable price and fast turnaround of digital printing will help your cause.  Digital printing is faster, cheaper, and more flexible than traditional printing.  It gives you clean gradients, custom color matching, crisp text, colors that pop and precise images.

Digital is the right choice if you need labels for food and beverage products.  It is ideal for products like medical labels, device labels, or products that will have a barcode.

We can talk about the relationship between your products and your labels, how they “stick” together.