‘Delightful, beautiful, surprising, and exciting’ — four adjectives the judging panel at the Miraclon-sponsored Global Flexo Innovation Awards reached for to describe the entry from Victory Graphics and Caps Cases.
Produced for luxury fashion brand The Rake, the entry won UK-based Victory and Caps a Silver Award for its creative use of graphic design in a successful conversion to flexo from offset. Furthermore, Victory used a single KODAK FLEXCEL NX Plate to create the arresting black-and-white, photographic-quality image, with its hugely challenging mix of highlights and dark shadows.
Packaging designed for unboxing and e-commerce must work differently from packaging in the physical retail environment, combining exterior anonymity — because deliveries may be left on the doorstep — with interior impact when the package is opened. For judge Ken McGuire, from Procter & Gamble, Victory and Caps achieved this brilliantly: “The outside of the shipment box is very plain, but when you open it there’s this delightful, surprising artwork — a very striking black-and-white high-quality image. It shows the brand equity and gives the consumer a delightful surprise when they open the package. This is exciting for brand owners because it delivers an experience that you can’t get in bricks-and-mortar.”
Karl Pampus, owner and Managing Director, Victory Graphics, says, “A number of companies have invested in presses specifically designed for this type of work, to print — in a single pass — two or three colours on one side, and one or two on the other, saving press time and consumables.”
Reducing production costs was an important factor in The Rake packaging project. Dean Darby, Operations Director, Victory Graphics, adds, “We and Caps Cases were asked by Macfarlane Packaging to explore flexo post-print as an alternative to litho-lamination, which was proving too expensive. Digital had been ruled out on the same grounds. They knew the advantages flexo offered — lower cost, shorter lead times and more flexibility on smaller lots — so the only question was whether flexo could match the visual impact of the litho printed product. We’ve worked with Caps on other, similar jobs and built a good working relationship. Like us, Caps’ print manager Wayne Booker is passionate about flexo, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with post print. The combination of the work we do on the digital file, the capabilities of the FLEXCEL NX Plates and Caps’ on-press expertise produces exceptional results, as it did in this case.”
