Skincare is a daily routine for millions of people. Women use skincare products more than men but guys are becoming more interested in caring for their complexion. But like many products on pharmacy and supermarket shelves, skincare products are in abundance. As a producer, and particularly of skincare products using organic ingredients, you know that competition is fierce. What will please and challenge you is the research which suggests women have the fly spray slogan approach to their skincare products – when they’re on a good thing, they stick to it.

If you can persuade a woman to try your skincare products and she likes it, you may well have a customer for life. Repeat customers are your best customers. So what will persuade a woman to pick your tube or jar? Well marketing is obviously the key and a major part of that is your choice of skincare labels. Cosmetic labels can draw a potential customer in, tempt them to look and that’s the first step to a sale.

What makes an eye-catching skincare label? Is it a logo, a colour or combination of colours? Is it the name of the product? There are marketing gurus who have expertise to burn on these subjects. But once you settle on your cosmetic label, then comes the printing of same.

This has to be top-drawer in terms of quality, longevity and colour-fastness.  Experience is a great indicator.  Using a quality and experienced label printer guarantees a brilliant job first time every time.

Glass is less popular these days. There was a time when soft drinks came in bottles, large and small. Now aluminium cans have crashed the bottle party. But glass continues to reign supreme when it comes to jam. The big manufacturers with their millions of jars all the way to the cottage industry where someone in their kitchen makes jam for the local farmers’ market. And apart from the taste and goodness of the jam itself, the most important thing is the packaging. Your jars will need jam labels.

Now all food being sold must provide the nutritional details as required by law. But marketing is something else. The best jam in the world needs a product label which catches the eye. It’s a highly competitive world out there. Do your jar labels say, “Pick me”?

Of course jam-making and graphic design are completely different skills. You may have the jars of jam but no idea about the design of your jar labels. Problem solved. Finding a professional label printer is great. Having that label printer provide expert design services as well makes this a one-stop-shop for you and your conserves.

The size of the label, the essential information, the colours and the design can all be expertly provided before the print run commences. A simple email request or phone call can provide answers to all your questions.

Unlike the cost of regular printing, there is no set price for label printing as almost every order is different. There are also a number of ways of printing labels. Basically, you are paying for the use of the machinery and the paper stock. Here are eight things to consider.

1. Size: Is it a standard size? If not, you may have to pay more. The larger the label, the more expensive it will be. Price is generally dependent of the total volume of label stock used.
2. Shape: Most labels are die-cut to a particular size so if you were to order a label in an unusual shape, this could be done but the die will be expensive. Renton’s Labels actually has a digital die-cutter to create a label into any size but it is a bit slower so it will mean that you are paying a little more for the use of the machine but this is more than compensated by the elimination of the cost of an expensive new die.  A die is simply the outline of the label.
3. Stock: The paper stock can vary according to the type of stock. Generally, the least expensive stock is white matt or gloss stock. The most expensive stock is vinyl label stock which is designed for outdoor use and can maintain its colour for up to seven years. This includes labels on cars and windows and even, buses.
4. Machine Usage: You will be required to pay for the use of a machine. If it is a complex machine that requires plates and preparation, then this could amount to several hundred dollars.  A smaller digital label printing machine still requires some set–up time but it is minimal so this set–up fee could be less than $100. You will still be required to pay for the time needed to receive your artwork and confirm the price.
5. Quantity: The quantity of labels affects the price in two ways. Firstly, more stock is needed for longer runs and secondly, it will take longer to produce the machine.
6. Delivery: Unless you collect the labels in person, you will be required to pay for delivery. If you are quoted free delivery, then that simply means the price for delivery is factored into the price for your labels.
7. Colours: If your labels are printed in full colour in the traditional manner with four plates, then this is factored into the final price of your labels. This means you will be paying for these plates and you effectively a price for each colour. If your labels are printed digitally, i.e. without the need for plates, then the price will be the same for printing in one colour as four colours. You should receive a small discount for printing in black only.
8. Overheads: All label printing companies must recover the cost of the overheads so the rent, the number of staff, the size of the company are all factored into the price. Small businesses tend to have an advantage here as they have lower overheads and tend to run more efficiently.

They do happen and yes, it is important that spelling mistakes, even grammatical errors, should never appear on your printed labels. Sadly attention to detail is lacking today. You only have to read responses from readers on web sites to see how many people don’t care about their writing, assuming they know right from wrong in the first place.

Just think for a minute about your label. Product labels are often the first port of call with a customer. You want your label to be well designed, colourful, easy to read, eye-catching and informative. You don’t want customers spotting a typo and losing interest.

If the company can’t be bothered getting their label right, how much do they really care about their products?

Your product label is your business card, your flyer and your introduction to your business. You can only give one first impression. Make it the best you possibly can and don’t include mistakes.

Then there is the safety aspect. If your product label contains specific detail about the contents inside the package, bottle, etc, it is essential the details are 100% accurate. It is the printer’s responsibility to produce the best-looking printed labels but it is your responsibility to ensure the details on the label are correct in every shape and form. If you don’t know the rules about use of the apostrophe, learn the rules. You don’t want to be a TADBE – it’s an acronym for those who are lazy or ignorant – The Apostrophe Deserves Better

A trip to a bottle shop and certainly to a large liquor retailer will demonstrate just how many different winemakers there are today. The competition is fierce. Of course, the quality of the wine itself is a major factor but what influences customers when making their choice? The bottle labels or the wine labels definitely have an impact.

Some winemakers go to the trouble of having their company logo designed and their choice of logo and colours are also carefully considered. All that then remains is the expert printing of their labels. To stand out, this is a highly recommended course of action.

But wine is also an excellent marketing tool and many companies use wine as a gift to clients and/or as a reward to members of staff. In these situations, the company often has a wine label with their own business details displayed. This is a simple and effective marketing tool, hence the importance of the design and printing of the bottle label.

So whether you are trying to win sales from customers or promoting your business, wine labels play a significant role. Get the design, wording and colours right and then leave it to an expert printer of labels to deliver a quality product to match your quality wine.

Launching a new product is a serious business. You will have done your research on the need for the product, looked at what’s already available, the work of your competitors, designed a campaign and a launch and crossed all your fingers.

But even if you are experienced in business and have launched many new products already, you are only as good as your last job so there needs to be lots of planning to get things right. One seemingly small yet seriously important part of your new product is the packaging which includes the label.

It needs to catch the eye, have enough information to meet any government regulations and convey the style, feeling or mood of the product being launched. You should engage a talented designer and an experienced label printer to make sure this aspect of your launch is as good as it can be.

The size of the product label will depend to some extent on where it is placed. Talking to an expert label printer will help you understand the types of material you can print on, the range of colours available and the actual shape and sizes of the product labels. Everything needs to be done to emphasise the quality of the product. Use your product labels to sell your merchandise.

All your marketing material whether in print or digital form can carry the logo, colours and design of your striking product label. Having it professionally printing is the icing on the cake.

A well designed product label can achieve important objectives:  it reinforces brand identity; it describes the product; it entices customers; it stands out from competitors on the shelf and gets the company’s message across. Adhering to certain design principles when creating a product label can lead to successful branding for a business and, ultimately increase the products perceived value establishing relationships with customers, and in the long run increasing sales.

The following tips can help you design the best label for your product or service.

• Choose your fonts wisely: Keep your fonts clear and legible. Font styles, colours and sizes will directly impact the customers’ impression of your brand. Don’t settle for the typical fonts like Arial or Times New Roman. Choose a font that will help the product stand out, or one that captures the personality of the product.

• Keep it simple: Simplicity makes your design easier to recognise and remember, and has a greater chance of achieving timelessness.

• Take into account the colour of your product label against the colouring of the packaging. You want your label to stand out rather than have a negative impact on the product.

Example: Here is a good use of patterns and colours against the wine bottles. Mas Romani label designed by Gabriel Morales.

• Another idea is to use professional graphics such as drawings, vectors or photographs as a way of drawing consumers’ attention. iStockphoto and Vectorstock are  good online sources where you can find professional images to add to your label.

• Appropriate Size and Shape: Cut out and test a draft label against your product to decide on size and shape. An unusual shape will easily gain attention, differentiating itself  from its competitors, although it can be more costly when printing. That does not mean a well designed rectangular label will not do the job. It’s a matter of deciding if a custom shaped label will correlate to your company’s branding.

Example: Two Beers Brewing Company, have brought the famous mountain ranges of their state to their beer packaging, creating a label that is shaped like a mountain.

When it comes to many things in life, the KISS saying has a lot going for it. It’s an acronym meaning Keep It Simple, Stupid. Sadly it is often proved true. The example to illustrate this situation is when something is found to be ‘too clever by half’.

If you consider some of the most powerful marketing icons or logos or symbols, you instantly see and understand what is meant. The tick from Nike and the apple from Apple are classic examples.

So in designing your product labels, by all means make them unique and feature your brand and image but avoid clutter. Too much information is just too much information.

Your product label should immediately tell the viewer enough to whet their appetite. It must of course contain any information required by law but above all it must be easy to read.

The reason why newspapers appear in relatively narrow columns is because the human eye has difficulty scanning small print over long horizontal distances. Graphic artists and website designers often talk about ‘white space’ although it doesn’t necessarily have to be white. They mean that there should be space on the page to help the reader navigate. And that same principle applies to your product labels.

Plan them carefully so the design helps rather than hinders your product.

The use of colour is very important for product labels because it can make your product stand out on a supermarket shelf and if your branding is good, it can make your product easily recognisable just by the colour of the labels. Coca Cola’s dark red and white colours highlight its labels even more so than the actual product itself.

How are the same colours reproduced time and time again?

Well, colours in label printing are made up of a percentage mix of Cyan (a colour between green and blue), Magenta (a colour between red and blue), Yellow and Black. Refer to our logo below to see what these colours look like.

CMYK Label Printing

CMYK  label printing, also known as four colour process label printing, is a process whereby all colours except white and metallic colours such as silver and gold are produced by a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The process of printing is different from painting. You can go to your local hardware store and purchase white paint but traditional offset printers only ever have four types of inks, i.e. cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

White is not actually a colour in label printing. Instead, the white label stock is not fully covered in printing so it appears as though there is white printing. There is simply an absence of printing.

Four colour process printing is produced by using four plates, one for each colour. Spot colours are produced by mixing cyan, magenta, yellow and black to produce ink in a particular spot colour. For example, a company’s logo might be red and blue, but there are so many different shades of red and blue. Printers have a Pantone Matching System (PMS) that enables specific colours to be produced. This way, exact colours can be matched by referring to a PMS colour swatch.

Our business specialises in digital label printing. Instead of plates, labels are produced directly from computer generated artwork files. However, the label will actually still be produced from a combination of Cyan, Magenta, Black and Yellow.

A wedding is arguably the most important day in your life and for most couples, a great deal of planning and preparation goes into the event. Today there are themed weddings, weddings in exotic locations as well as the traditional religious services and other alternatives. And for every couple, the quality of their nuptials and the celebrations afterwards are very important. Everything must go like clockwork and everything must be as close to perfect as possible.

One way every bridal couple can add a touch of glamour and class to their wedding is through the use of wedding labels. These can look stunning, be economical to produce and serve as a lingering reminder to all of the happy day.

Wedding labels can be attached to nametags on tables, to thank you notes, to the decorations on the tables, to signs directing guests to the location and even to envelopes containing the invitations.

And the labels themselves come in a wonderful range of shapes, styles and colours. You can have oval, rectangular or circular stickers with fonts and words and colours to suit every bridal couple. The stickers can be anything from classical and traditional to funky and way out.

Because Renton’s Labels are specialists when it comes to designing and printing wedding labels, we offer free advice enabling you to choose the ideal look for your special event. We can produce small runs for your wedding at a highly competitive price and allow you to add that personal and special touch to your big day.