Smurfit Kappa says this vibrant, flexo pre-printed corrugated pack for Calypso Soft Drinks, which won its Kappa Preprint operation Supreme Gold at the recent Flexo Tech International Print & Innovations Awards, demonstrates how it is “challenging conventional perceptions of print” and the quality of image achievable on corrugated.
The group claims to be taking the onus off brand managers to provide an exact print process brief when developing packaging; instead, it believes, customers should not be restricted by print process or technical practicalities, but should “focus instead only on their end goals” and leave it to Smurfit Kappa to find the most appropriate solution. This, it explains, involves working with customers from the initial design stages and then “pushing the boundaries on print and no longer being governed by predetermined perceptions of the best utilisation of high quality post print, litho, preprint or any other process”.
When Smurfit Kappa Preprint began working on a Calypso pack to tie in with the launch of the film “Stormbreaker' in mid-2006, the goal was to produce a final result directly comparable to litho in colour definition and print density terms which would also enhance shelf presence.
David Spencer, sales director, says: “We wanted to do justice to the complexity of the pack's artwork and ensure it really stood out. It was a one-off promotional design to tie in with the film's release so the pack had a short shelf life and needed to achieve maximum impact. We were very critical of our work and produced more than one chromalin for final approval to demonstrate to Calypso the density of print needed to bring the pack's artwork to life. We are delighted our approach means the industry may now start to recognise that preprint is as feasible and cost-effective as litho, which really opens up the field of print and offers customers fresh alternatives.”
