Back to all

Why Don’t Beer, Wine, and Spirits Labels Have to Disclose Ingredients or Serving Facts on Labels?

It didn’t take long for someone to make waves in the beer labeling world in 2019. Just 11 days into the year, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that Bud Light would feature serving-facts labels on its boxes starting in February.

While the move may not seem noteworthy for people unfamiliar with the rules and regulations of beer labels, the announcement is notable for one big reason: beer doesn’t need to divulge that information on its packaging. In fact, alcohol in general is exempt from disclosing ingredients and nutritional facts that are commonplace on labels for packaged food products.

So why is it that beer, wine, and spirits labels are exempt from listing nutritional information when those products have just as many–if not more–calories and carbohydrates as juice or other typical beverages? It turns out there’s one big reason why alcohol labels don’t require nutrition or ingredients labels: tradition.
(more…)

Back to all

5 Hot Foil Label Designs We Love

One of the things we love most about our job is that we work directly with some of America’s best packaging designers. The most successful projects are a collaborative effort between the brand owners, designers, and packaging vendors to make products that capture the customer’s interest and imagination. These projects use a variety of decoration techniques like embossing, spot varnishes, and screen printing to achieve a high level of complexity and depth.

Of all the decoration techniques, hot foil stamping stands out as the most effective. At a relatively low cost per piece, gold, silver, and other types of foils can be used to create outstanding, multifaceted compositions very economically. We’ve compiled five hot foil label projects that we had a lot of fun working on to demonstrate the versatility of foil stamping, especially when used in combination with digital printing.

(more…)

Back to all

Adding Value to Your Label with a QR Code

Guest Post by: Gretchen Ardizzone at Shout Out Studio

Having a well designed, well-executed label is the first step in attracting attention to your product, but there’s an opportunity for your label to do more. If you want to communicate the added value of your product, you might consider a QR code. QR (quick response) codes aren’t the newest technology to hit the market. In fact, the two dimensional barcodes have been around for almost twenty years. But we’ve seen them more (both good and bad) in the last few years in attempts to stand out in a highly competitive marketplace. When applied thoughtfully, they can provide their benefits.

Some people think the primary use of a QR code is a good way to direct consumers to your website. Not entirely. The reality is that your web address can just as easily be printed on your label, and if a consumer wants to visit your website before or after purchase, they’ll likely do it anyhow. The first question to ask is how engaging is your website? If you’re driving traffic there, it’s crucial that there’s something there to engage them. If it’s just basic company information and where to find your product (which they just did), you might want to reconsider.

(more…)