Greetings creative friends –
Pangae Organica is looking for new and creative ideas on how to label our coffee bags without printing labels. Here is the problem: In order to achieve a reasonable unit cost of less than $0.20 per label we need to spend several thousand dollars on a large run of labels. We’ve spent this much before, but are now looking for more cist effective and creative ways to spruce up our coffee bags.
After some research, I have vague notions a mechanical press that, like an ink stamp, would press an image onto a bag. Another idea is some sort of silk screen. Fairy dust. The Beatle’s White album…. I know nothing about any of these things–ink presses, silk screening–and I’m hoping that you do. Anything goes. Lets see what you’ve got!
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29 September 2010 at 7:05 am
thego206girl
Well, despite my background in the arts, I knew very little about silkscreening until this summer. I had a family reunion that we hadn’t made shirts for in 16 years. I wanted to make shirts, but had no inclinations about collecting sizes and $ from family. So, my idea was to silkscreen.
It really couldn’t have been easier! I designed an image by hand, paid a graphic designer to render it into a digital image, and then took it to a local silkscreening place to get it put on a screen. Silkscreening is SUPER easy! The only trickiness is when you layer multiple images on top of each other (for different colors). My image was one color, so easy. They basically transferred it onto a fine mesh where the image was “holes” in the mesh, and this photo emulsion stuff was applied everywhere else (so as to make it impermeable, so the ink only goes through the image).
You put the ink across the top of the screen and do one swipe across with a squeegee that’s an appropriate size for your screen. One swipe, done! I used water-based inks (which you probably would too…less toxic and no turpentine/ mineral spirits needed to clean up) and they were pretty cheap and easy to clean up. Air-dry inks (water-based) are good because you don’t have to heat set. However, they can dry in the screen itself, so you have to be ready to print quickly. I had three screens of the same image made so that in case the ink starting drying in the screen, I could use a fresh image. Otherwise, the other ones were getting a little clogged when ink dried in the screen itself. These screens can potentially be reused if they are cared for and washed carefully.
One minor thing to think about is if there is a seam on the bag. It was make silkscreening a little challenging to try and deal with a seam.
I was intimidated by silkscreening because I had never tried it. I was also introducing it to 70 people hoping that it would work. It totally did!
I don’t know too much about inks used, but the people at Midwest something…I can find the name if you’d like…were very knowledgable and helped me choose the proper one for my needs. They are online and have two locations (of which only one is in the midwest, if I’m not mistaken).
Oh- and you need some way to hold what you’re printing on. I had a helper physically hold the t-shirt in place on the table so it wouldn’t move when I swiped it with the inky squeegee.
I would be happy to tell you more scoop if you’re interested. I was very pleased with the result and couldn’t believe how simple it was.
29 September 2010 at 7:06 am
thego206girl
buy in bulk. reach out to a bunch of other coffeeshops and buy all your bags at once. This will provide an economy of scale. Plus it will connect you with other coffee folks. That idea is free, the rest comes at a price. (if i weren’t broke and busy it would be on the house)
Another free tip for the bag. Hand make your own stensil and spray paint the lables on. . .with “green” paint.
29 September 2010 at 7:07 am
thego206girl
With the logo/label design, you could have someone make a printing block (woodcut or lino) or metal plate and could be done manually or through a press device/machine.
Over here in the UK, Print and pressing like this has become quite trendy with some design studios, so presume could be popular out there too. But you’ll probably find a traditional grassroots printmaker who can do these or at least make the plate/block for you at the least. Alot more environmentally friendly and organic in its process too!
29 September 2010 at 7:08 am
thego206girl
Ok so I was wondering how much dimension you want with the labeling? Are you looking for color[s] do you want texture? Would something simple like embossing the bag be worth your time?
I researched various ways to emboss; wax, rubber stamp and mechanical. Mechanical seems to be the way that would have some longevity for your product. With mechanical it won’t smear like a stamp, it won’t crack from being on the shelf like wax. Mechanical embossing will allow you to put up to a 2″ image on your package.
With mechanical embossing, the machine relies only on physical power; no batteries, no electricity. You press. It embosses. Yeah, it’s subtle. Yeah there is a certain dimensionality that is lost with just a ‘plain’ looking bag. Perhaps the embossing could allow for a space in the middle for you to hand write the type of coffee that is enclosed in the package.
Here are some links to embossing that I found interesting.
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/heat-embossed-personalized-stationary
http://www.crstamp.com/category.aspx?categoryID=99
http://www.stampin.com/tips/htemb.htm
http://www.customembossers.com/
http://www.columbiamt.com/CMT-Marking-Stamps/Embossing_Dies.html this one is my favorite read.