- Alex - Marketing & Design
How to match labels to packaging for a label-less look
Product packaging typically takes one of two routes; either a printed label stuck onto a plain packet or bottle, or a pre-printed piece of packaging without the use of a label. Selecting an option typically comes down to what is most cost effective, and which has most compatibility with your production process.
Using labels is often cheaper and more flexible, but sometimes this can conflict with a brand’s desire to have a seamless ‘label-less’ finish. Luckily there are a variety of options to make labels which match product packaging, using different materials, finishes and printing options. Keep reading to find out how this ‘label-less’ look can be achieved.
Clear Product and Packaging Labels
The most obvious route to take when wanting to achieve a ‘label-less’ look is to use clear label material. With compatibility across all of our production processes, this material is great for applications such as cosmetics, food and drink.
To ensure that print remains vibrant and distinctive, additional white ink is used on our digital and flexographic presses to ‘back up’ standard colours. White ink prevents colours from looking faded and washed out on clear substrates by creating a background for the light to reflect off.
Clear product labels don’t always suit every type of product or application. If your label needs lots of small text or information, then not having a plain background could make it hard for the text to be read. Often a minimalist approach works best for clear labels, ensuring focus on the product showcased inside the bottle or packet.
How to choose a font for print >
Packaging-matched finishes and textured labels
An often overlooked aspect of self-adhesive labels for product packaging is the finish, such as a laminate or varnish. This is a very important part of ensuring that the label is consistent with the brand and feel of a product, no matter whether you’re wanting to achieve a ‘label-less’ look or not.
A matt or gloss varnish can be used to help tie-in with either a matt or glossy product. This is also the case for matt and gloss laminates, but these also have a much bigger impact on the feel of the label - for example, our matt laminates are very smooth and have a more ‘frictionless’ feel than our gloss laminates. A matt laminate is likely to be more suited to a matt or standard plastic bottle, while a gloss laminate more suited to a high gloss bottle.
Additional options such as vinyl laminates are also available, which have their own distinct textures which may better suit your specific product.
What if you need a paper label for your product? There’s a variety of texture based options for these labels too, such as ‘felt marked’ Tintoretto paper, a finely grained Antique paper, plus standard semi-gloss and matt papers. We particularly love how Antique paper creates an awesome wood grain effect when combined with digitally printed images of wood!
Textured Labels and Finishes >
Incredible colours and photo reproduction
Our Epson Digital Label Press is amazing at printing full colour images. With up to 1440 DPI printing across an extended colour gamut, images are vibrant, crisp and accurate. Standard digital presses use just Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks, but our press also uses Orange and Green. This means that colours are more vibrant, and Pantones are produced with much more accuracy.
The overall quality and capability of this press means you’ve got the option to get clever with your label design, and use high quality images to give the illusion of packaging being label-less or clear. Fine textures and effects can also be printed, which can make clear labels look like they've been stamped or burned onto packaging.
These are just three of the top ways you can get labels to match your packaging and achieve a ‘label-less’ look, but there’s a whole range of other capabilities too. Our team of experts will be able to recommend options to best suit your application.