Store Shelves are Sparkling

Color, glitz, and sparkle will be all around you in your stroll down the store aisle.

By Tom Polischuk

Editor-in-chief

LOOK AROUND THE store shelves next time you drop by your local supermarket. Chances are, what catches your eye will be any number of products whose packaging literally sparkles on the shelves, or gives you a 3D view of the product's image, or changes its image as you look from different angles.

Much of what you'll see comes from the use of holographic substrates. These materials can provide colorful, sparkling images with 3D and motion effects. Not quite as prevalent at this time, but having the potential for even greater eye-catching graphic appeal are lenticular substrates. These materials offer additional effects such as morphing, zoom, and flip—but as you might guess, at an additional cost.

Holographic and lenticular substrates are not only viable materials for eye-catching graphic images, but they are also useful for security applications, including brand protection. This is because images that can be placed into the holographic or lenticular graphics are not easily replicated by your average printer. This is especially true in the use of lenticular substrates, where a high degree of craftsmanship and technology are required for success.

For now, we'll focus primarily on the shelf appeal that these substrates offer. And in this realm, holographic images are much more prevalent and what will most likely catch your eye on your trek around just about any store. Here's a small representative sampling of what's out there.

Products on display

PROMA Technologies has done some recent work for customers in the produce, games, and beverage markets. Its #60 HoloPRISM® holographic paper was used to produce "dancing tomatoes" for Ag-Mart in its Santa Sweets label. The paper was flexo printed in 5 colors, plus a UV varnish.

According to PROMA, Robert Meade, executive vice president of Ag-Mart, first looked into the use of lenticular technology, but got the eye-catching movement and shimmer they were looking for with the holographic substrate, in a more cost-effective manner.

Evidently, the project was a success. "As a produce company, we would never have dreamed that we would receive emails from people about the product, but by creating a holographic label and kid-friendly characters, we are accomplishing just that," says Meade.

PROMA Technologies also worked closely with Hasbro to develop graphics for its Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Board Game. To show that DVD technology was incorporated into the product, a custom hologram using HoloPRISM holographic paper was used on the package graphics. Once all parties involved were satisfied with the realism of the DVD image, a master hologram was made and the image was micro-embossed onto coated base paper. The paper was metallized and sent to Seneca Printing and Label where the holographic sheets were printed on a Heidelberg Speedmaster press using opaque white inks, followed by 4-color process printing.

An additional challenging project implemented by PROMA Technologies was done for Molson Export, a company that was commemorating its 100-year anniversary. The company developed a highly successful promotion using contemporary holographic images that were based on actual labels from 1903, 1955, 1962, and 2003. An important challenge that was met came from the need to be compliant with Canada's stringent recyclability requirements. To test and verify label functionality and compliance, PROMA Technologies worked with Molson and the label printer, Inland Printing Co., to develop HoloPRISM holographic paper labels that met both the functional adhesion requirements, as well as removal under normal "returnable" soaker conditions.

To take advantage of the demand for the shelf appeal that holographics can offer, suppliers are continually developing products to expand the application realm of these substrates. Graphic Packaging International recently developed Metallene™ X, a direct-print, heat-sealable holographic material that can be run on standard poly 2 cup machines. Previously, the use of holographic materials on cold cups was impractical because poly coating holograms to allow heat sealing dulled the colors and reflectivity of the material, reports Patti Gettinger, Sustain™ market manager for Graphic Packaging. Also, the use of holographic materials required a reduction in the run speeds of the cup machines.

The Fresnel Lens Arrays product line from Spectratek Technologies was used in promotional posters for "Matrix—The Movie," along with some of the products licensed from the movie. According to the company, the high-quality visual affect of Fresnel Lens Arrays is due to Spektratek's ability to control the embossing technique for the pattern. The product line is available in 1- and 2-mil polyester film.

To expand the reach of its products, KURZ has addressed a common problem in holographic foils that comes from fine seam lines, called shim lines. These lines cause a contrasting effect in certain foil applications and require careful consideration in the design process as to the size and shape of holographic patterns.

KURZ has developed its Laser Select product line using different production methods that completely eliminate the non-diffractive shim lines. Using this material, designers are free to use larger patterns without the risk of shim lines disrupting the holographic effect.

International Graphic Films (IGF) has recently completed a project for a holographic substrate to be used on shampoo bottles for a customer's summer movie promotion. The challenge for IGF was to develop a new holographic pattern that resembles "stardust." The product it developed, called Stardust, is a 2-mil polyester that is top coated for UV flexo inks.

An interesting new software development from HumanEyes Technologies can provide realistic 3D and other lenticular effects (such as, flip, morph, zoom, and layered 3D) using standard digital cameras, printers, and digital or UV-equipped presses. The software solution uses mathematical algorithms to overcome existing optical limitations to create the desired effect.

The technology was on display at drupa at several booths including KBA, HP, Inca Digital Printers, and Zünd. The technology has been used with offset printing to create eye-catching images for food and beverage, personal care, secure printing, and luxury goods packaging applications. The Coca Cola Co. used HumanEyes 3D graphics in vending machines, while Unilver developed a point-of-sale campaign for its Dove product. According to HumanEyes, the Coca Cola campaign reported an 11 percent point-of-purchase sales increase in locations using the HumanEyes graphics.

Crown Roll Leaf provides free design assistance with use of its Retail-Vision™ Holograms. It can produce original holograms in its laser lab using models, objects, photos, line art, or any combination.

For product security, FLEXcon stresses the value that holographic substrates can offer. It has a range of overt and covert security solutions that can be customized to meet specific requirements. These include MICROSAFE™ and VALIDATE® that feature metallized and clear holograms that are very difficult to reproduce.

How about lenticular

Stepping up from holographic to lenticular substrates offers incrementally eye-appealing graphics, but at a price. Although suppliers are working on bringing costs down to extend its application reach, lenticular is more expensive than holographic materials. It also requires precision craftsmanship from design and prepress through the printing press.

National Graphics is expanding the reach of its Extreme Vision® Lenticular Technology with its Ultra Thin 200 LPI 7-mil Crystal™ lens. Bill Benedict, sales and marketing manager, says that this substrate can be converted to a pressure-sensitive roll label and applied in a fully automated process. An application using the Crystal lens in a CD/DVD lenticular label will hit the shelves in a few short weeks.

In the meantime, National Graphics' Extreme Vision technology has already made a positive impact on DVD and video packaging for "Cher, The Farewell Concert" and "Dick Van Dyke Show." Mary Schepis Johnson, VP of Creative Services for Image Entertainment, says that they experienced widespread success with the Dick Van Dyke DVD package using National Graphics' 3D effects on the covers. "The final packaged presentation garnished Image Entertainment with two industry awards recognizing us for the quality and presentation of the programs."

The store shelf is the last chance that consumer products companies (CPGs) have to win the fight for the consumer dollar. This battle is being fought intensely, right down to when the cash is being pulled out of the wallet. And this last battleground—the store shelf—is the realm of packaging and package printing. CPCs will continue to look for novel and innovative ways to make their products stand out.