Issue: May/June '04
 Cover Story:
How Daymon Helps Private Labels Vie for the Shopping Public's Eye
by Patrick Henry
As a shopper, do you think of private labels as ho-hum "house brands" distinguished only by their cut-rate prices? As a package designer, do you regard private-label packaging as a bit beneath your creative aspirations? You haven't met Daymon Worldwide's Todd Maute, an evangelist for the power and the glory of well-packaged private-label brands. [more]
Package Design Magazine's Makeover Challenge
 by
M. Grace Maselli
Five first-rate design teams. Five products in search of a new look. A before-and-after
exhibition decided by the most qualified and exacting judges in the packaging
world: you, the readers of Package Design. This multi-issue exclusive feature
begins here, with profiles of the participating teams. Remember, you make the
call to pick the best of the best! [more]
Material Review:
A New "Can"-Do Attitude for Metal Cans
by Carro Ford
If your basic metal can hasn't changed much, it's because until recently, there haven't been many ways to make cans more efficient and economical than they already are. But, new developments in can manufacturing and design are giving these quotidian containers more visual pizzazz and practical appeal than they've ever had. [more]
The Class of Glass
by Mary Ellen Reis and Jung Weil
Want your branded product to flaunt its "ethos"? Give consumers a "seasonal experience"? Send a message that it's "a little more sophisticated" than the competition? The answer is as clear as glass—the medium of choice in these three compelling case studies. [more]
Smarter Modeling: 3D Design Tools
by Noel Jeffrey
It's always been something of a perceptual guessing-game to design three-dimensional objects like packages in two-dimensional space. Today, however, increasingly powerful 3D design software is making the guesswork a good deal more educated. [more]
In Praise of Digital Labels
by Dan Welty
Digital label printing eliminates costly steps and reduces production preparation time associated with traditional flexographic or offset lithographic printing. Digital labels can be colorful and cost-effective in small runs, and they can "get personal" with end-users of branded products in a way that no other element of packaging can.[more]
The Front Panel: Must "Mono-Culturalism" Mean Monotony?
by Marianne Klimchuk
As competition on a global scale homogenizes product marketing everywhere, is packaging design at risk of succumbing to the me-too mentality of mono-culturalism? Klimchuk thinks that package designers should recognize and resist pressures to make everything look like everything else. [more]
Global Trendsetters
by Wilson Palhares and Ron Sasine
Not everyone realizes that Brazil contains one of the world's most avid markets for ultra-high-ticket consumer merchandise from footwear to Ferraris. The country recently played host to the Luxe Pack São Paulo Luxury Goods Packaging Show, an event that reaffirmed Brazil's prominent place on the world stage of package technology and design. [more]
Countdown to PACK EXPO
Four all-new "technology pavilions" are four more reasons to attend Pack Expo International in Chicago, November 7-11: the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Pavilion, the Package Security Resource Center, the Showcase of Packaging Innovations, and the Confectionery Pavilion. [more]
Packaging Workflows: Large-Format Ink Jet
by Sharon P. Derbyshire
Large-format ink jet printers can print long and wide enough to wrap buildings, vehicles, or any other object that there's enough substrate and ink to cover. So, if a "package" is defined as a container with a wrapper, nearly anything can be a package with the help of large-format ink jet equipment. [more]
Packaging Workflows: "Spotless" Spot Color Printing
Premixed spot colors are great for effects beyond the range of CMYK, but specifying them can add time and expense to print production. What if there were a reliable way to build "spotless" spot colors from the four process inks? A vendor of prepress technology is about to launch what it says is just such a solution. [more]
Spotlights
A look at the products, packages, and technologies making news in a sampling of key packaging fields.
Wow! What A Package!
by David Luttenberger
If there were an Academy Award presented for packaging, this year's unanimous recipient would be U.S. canmakers. Luttenberger turns the spotlight on his favorite performers and finds all of them strong contenders for leading roles in blockbusters coming to a theatre—er, retail outlet—near you. [more]
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COMPASS is an online software tool for packaging designers and engineers to compare the environmental impacts of their package designs.