Label for a new poison

5 September 2003


A printing technique that is normally used for Braille is adding bite to a new label by delivering a snakeskin effect. The label was created for re-launched alcoholic mixer drink Venom from The Federation Brewery.

Newcastle design company Robson Brown teamed with The Label Studio of Leicester to develop a label that looks and feels like snakeskin. The process involved a combination of rotary letterpress and silk screen printing in eight-colours.

"We created a stencil with particularly thick emulsion," explained David Cox of The Label Studio. "The heavier the emulsion the heavier the final deposit of ink we could make to create the effect of the individual scales on snakeskin.

"To ensure the scales maintained their shape we used a UV-drying ink. The result is better than embossing as it gives the right feel and won't flatten over time."

The technique has previously been used to print hazard triangles in Braille onto bottles of correction fluid.




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