Lightning Labels Blog

How to Prepare Your Label Artwork for Printing

Preparing label artwork for printing is a relatively easy process, especially when your company works with an experienced third party such as Lightning Labels. There are a few quick steps involved in turning your product label art into the kind of compelling packaging that will catch customers' eyes. By following these tips, you can bring your designs from concept to physical label with no extra hassle.

Be Sure to Proofread

Before sending files in for printing on custom labels, you should make sure they're free of artwork problems or typos in the text. Once the pre-press process gets underway, there are extra charges associated with changing anything about the design.

5 Mistakes Your Vape Shop May Be Making With Your Current Vape Product Labels

Marketing vape products mean balancing distinctive branding with industry regulations, staying in compliance with relevant rules while getting ahead of competitors. As with any relatively young category of products, norms and best practices are evolving quickly. You may improve vape sales with the right visual strategy, but getting it wrong can be a liability. Keeping up means moving past branding mistakes such as the following:

1. Falling Out of Compliance with FDA Rules

Vaping liquid falls under Food an Drug Administration jurisdiction, which means brands have to deal with the latest dictates from the government agency.

Labeling CBD & Hemp Products Per FDA Requirements

Products made from hemp that contain CBD exist within a unique market niche. There is little information provided by the Food and Drug Administration about how these items should be packaged and labeled. This lack of specificity, however, doesn't mean companies should be careless or negligent when determining the appearance of their CBD products.

CBD Labels That Comply

Law firm McAllister Garfield, which specializes in cannabis related industries, recently noted that while there is little to no information about what to put on hemp labels, the FDA does at least have a list of elements that aren't allowed.

Small Business Organization Tips to Get More Done in Less Time

Small business leadership often comes down to one person's decisions. If you're the company founder, that one person is you. Dealing with the many responsibilities on your plate is challenging, and it may feel there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all the vital tasks piling up. Fortunately, there are a few common-sense time management strategies to get you though this common predicament. The following are a few of these valuable small business organization tips, ones you can put into action almost immediately.

1. Don't Be Afraid to Delegate

The Small Business Administration's recommended approach to time optimization involves breaking work down into five-day chunks, parceling important tasks out by day and ordering them by importance.

How Can A Cannabis Track and Trace System Impact the Cannabis Industry?

The relative novelty of the medical and recreational cannabis sectors has enabled regulators and companies within these spaces to harness new and effective product oversight and distribution strategies. States that have already legalized recreational sales have become great incubators for fresh thinking and concepts that could have applications not just around the country but beyond the cannabis industry altogether as well. One such development is the cannabis track-and-trace system used to follow plants from growth to distribution and sale. The ramifications of the system are vast, as better visibility into the supply chain could help in areas ranging from anti-contamination efforts to prevention of out-of-state sales.

Roll Labels vs. Sheet Labels…Which is Best For You?

The right labeling approach for your business will likely depend on the scale of your operations. Are you packaging a few products in-house, or has your operation adopted automation as it's increased in speed and scope? Custom sheet labels and roll labels are the two main types of production, and the difference is mainly important when it comes to applying the labels to products.

The good news is Lightning Labels offers both custom roll labels and sheet labels, depending on your preference. The default option are roll labels, wound around a three-inch core. This is a standard size that will make it easy to use an automatic applicator, whether you go with a simple hand-operated machine, a completely automated system or help from a third-party partner

Stay Ahead of the FDA's Nutrition Label Changes

If you operate a food or beverage brand, it's easy to sigh with relief due to the Food and Drug Administration's recent announcement that new Nutrition Facts rules won't come into force until 2020. While the compliance data has been pushed back, there's no need to toss out plans to debut new label designs. Pushing ahead with compliant food labels now is a way to get ahead of the curve, giving your products a fresh look.

2020 FDA Food Labels - in 2018

The FDA has made it clear that the new Nutrition Facts panel will be required on January 1, 2020 - one year later for smaller brands, ones that take in less than $10 million in food sales annually

Are QR Code Requirements the Future for Cannabis Product Packaging?

QR codes on labels could represent the next step in product tracking, ingredient disclosure and more data-intensive elements of legal compliance. In the emerging cannabis product industry, such innovations could prove especially important. As this sector is essentially being assembled piecemeal in real time, there's ample room for cutting-edge tech methods to become mainstays.

When studying the use of QR codes in the cannabis industry, it pays to look at the precedent set by Indiana. Though it hasn't legalized recreational cannabis or related items, the state does allow the sale of CBD products derived from hemp

Everything You Need to Know About California's New Cannabis Packaging and Labeling Regulations

California cannabis label rules changed on July 1. This roll-out of new regulations caught several businesses off-guard, with California CBS affiliate KPIX reporting the initial effects of the laws included empty shelves and destroyed stock as vendors struggled to get their items up to the standards, which called for extensive lab testing and the implementation of child- and tamper-proof packages.

As the dust clears from a turbulent July - during which some vendors lost thousands of dollars in stock - it's worth understanding the recent additions and changes to the California cannabis code.