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

November 19, 2020

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!

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. For example, a blue-tinted soap in a transparent tube can look like ocean water or the sky with other design elements like white caps or clouds.

The transparent tube on the left was decorated with digitally printed embossed fine lines designed to look like a distinctive wood grain pattern. This beautiful tube was further enhanced by the color of the product inside.

The tube is made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and the cap is a white polypropylene material. Although made of two different materials, the cap (that looks like actual wood) and the tube were printed at the same time – one of the features unique to the Velox IDS 250 direct-to-shape digital printing process.

The ability to print a design on the cap replaces the additional master batching process where raw polymer is tinted during manufacturing.  This greatly improves operational agility by eliminating master batching. That means only white or transparent caps need to be produced because they can then be printed in any color, texture, or design desired.

The vivid 360-degree decoration enabled by the digital, non-plate technology, works well in this design since the continuous lines create a natural-looking wood-grain texture. The branding is printed using Velox’s opaque digital ink that completely blocks the transparent substrate of the tube (and the material inside) in the text areas where opacity is required for functionality.

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 – 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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