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Design of the Month – Metallic Effects for Eye-Popping Beverage Cans

July 16, 2024

As an ongoing feature, Velox will spotlight a Design of the Month that exemplifies the capabilities that exist today in digital direct-to-shape printing. The goal is to inspire and educate designers and brand owners to think beyond analog decoration to an exciting spectrum of colors, textures, finishes, and precise detail never before achieved. Enjoy!

When it comes to your product, you’ve put a lot of effort into making it taste and feel unique. But in a crowded beverage aisle or refrigerator, it can be tough to make your cans stand out from the competition.

Whether it’s for a craft beer, seltzer, iced coffee, or any other beverage in aluminum cans, metallic printing effects can be a powerful visibility-booster – drawing the eyes of curious consumers and creating an easily identifiable brand that is easier to spot the next time round.

In this example of our special Velox brew, you can see the intricate level of detail achieved, with each element clearly standing out.

Using metallic effects on numerous levels around the entire can body and up through the chime creates a premium, entirely seamless design.

The result is a truly unique, yet fully unified look and feel.

 

How to add high-impact glamor to aluminum can design

Getting these results is easier than you’d imagine. All it takes is an imaginative design, a Velox direct-to-shape digital decorator, and the natural qualities that aluminum cans deliver as a canvas.

By printing directly on the aluminum, Velox’s one-of-a-kind technology is able to create an almost infinite range of stunning metallic colors using the metallic surface of the can.

To get an idea of the range, if you look closely at our example, you can see how the design integrates multiple colors, particularly several subtly different shades of gold and bronze, as well as metallicized turquoise and red. This is achieved thanks to the translucent characteristic of special Velox inks that, when printed on the aluminum can, create metallic colors that make the sample pop. You can play with as many inks as you want in different areas to achieve these wonderfully different shades.

Some of the design elements are printed with embossed inks, giving the design a 3D look and feel. In addition, selectively applied opaque white ink completely blocks the metallic surface of the can in strategic areas, providing a nice contrast to the colorful design, and ensuring the product name is clearly visible.

The seamless 360-degree design ensures no overlap or seam, with printing all the way through the neck and chime area, taking full advantage of the entire packaging space.

Together these elements provide a premium look to the can, while boosting brand engagement. And just like that, a memorable metallic design makes all the difference in creating a beverage brand that truly stands out.

 

 

 

Read more from "Design of the Month":
Design of the Month - Operational Flexibility Makes Last Minute Changes Simple

How often does a brand manager or designer envision a finished product with their carefully designed artwork on it, only to discover that the design and messaging misses the mark. Designers constantly face this challenge as once they view the printed prototype, they pick up on flaws and tend to want to make tweaks to their design.

Design of the Month – Digital Makes Customization Easy

Customized products are perceived as luxurious and special. They grab consumers’ attention while giving them the sense that extra thought was invested in them as individuals. It's a powerful and effective marketing tool, though not often used due to the limitations of most current printing technologies

Design of the Month – Seize the Potential of Digital Can Decoration

New and innovative direct-to-shape digital solutions for beverage can decoration open up new possibilities for brands and the design options become plentiful for mass production or high-volume short runs.

Design of the Month – Great Potential for Aluminum Tubes

There are many advantages to using aluminum tubes. Combining these advantages with high-quality decoration and unique capabilities results in a powerful packaging solution. Let’s see how, using the Salmon Paste tube featured here.

Design of the Month – The Benefits of Transparent Tubes are Clear

Transparent containers in the cosmetic industry are an interesting medium for design-material interaction. They are both functional (show the exact amount of material left inside the tube), and a beautiful container design can be enhanced by what’s inside.

Design of the Month – Aluminum Canvas for Aerosol

In conventional printing technologies when the design requires decoupling the metallic effect of the substrate, the entire container is coated with white ink. Setting aside the additional step, this process doesn’t utilize the entire design possibilities that lay within this type of container. In this Design of the Month feature, we are focusing on design possibilities for aluminum aerosol decoration.

Design of the Month – The Finishing Touch

What does it take to get someone to reach for a product on the shelf? Most consumers make purchasing decisions based on packaging design alone, so it’s important to have an attractive design produced using a quality printing process.

Design of the Month – Shades of Grey

This plastic tube design is a striking example of how black and white photography can be used to draw consumers to a brand. In this particular example, you can see very fine shifts between white, grey and black, from the subtle shading of the model’s cheek to the bold eye and eyebrow.

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