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Fall/Winter 2010 | From the Desk of James Lowry

Is How the Label Applied Important?

Having a high quality label is a great first step toward successfully presenting your product, but what happens when you go to apply them? The quality on the outside represents the quality on the inside. Right? Unfortunately, whether we want to believe it or not, that is the perception of many consumers. This can be especially concerning if you are hand applying the labels.

To begin with you must be realistic in that having the label perfectly applied is not a good expectation so plan on some margin of error when it is applied. So how do you do this? Here are a couple of simple tricks that may help avoid some frustration. First is to design your label so a slightly misaligned label isn't glaring at you like a neon sign. An example would be a label that is going to wrap around a container and either meet very closely to the other end of the label or overlap. If you incorporate a line or bar across the label so it has to meet exactly to itself or it is noticeably not lined up it can be an application nightmare. If you make your label look different from end to end or identical in color it hides this very well. Secondly, create a simple jig to guide how and where you hand apply your label. Part of the jig needs to hold the container in place. Part of it should provide a limited window that only allows you to apply the label in a specific place. A simple jig for placement of the label can usually be made from card board, card stock, heavy paper, etc.

I had the opportunity to work with a notable spirits customer once that wanted a metal label applied to one of their bottles which they would later fill. The label was very expensive and placement was critical. We were allowed some margin of error, but it was tight. Productivity and quality were very poor until a jig was made of plexiglass to hold the bottle stationery and there was a specific window created so the label could only be applied one way. Productivity increased and the misplaced labels virtually disappeared. The customer and we had found a combination that lead to success for both of us.

Label Application Tricks

Here are a couple of simple tricks from LL General Manager James Lowry for preventing frustration when applying labels by hand:

First, design your label so that it won’t glare at you like a neon sign if it is slightly misaligned when applied to your product. Let’s look at the example of a label that is going to wrap around a container and either meet very closely to the other end of the label or overlap. This type of label can be a label application nightmare if it incorporates a line or bar across the label that has to match up end-to-end wrapped around the product container. However, if you avoid incorporating such design elements into your label design, you will save yourself a headache. Also, designing your label to look different from end to end or identical in color hides label application mistakes with these types of labels very effectively.

Second, create a simple jig to guide how and where you hand-apply your label. The jig should hold the label in place and include a limited window that only allows you to apply the label in a specific place. A jig like this can usually be made from materials you already have on hand such as cardboard, heavy paper, or card stock.

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Fall/Winter 2010 | From the Desk of James Lowry

Is How the Label Applied Important?

Label Application Tricks