What was produced?
O’Donnell director Hugo Cooke scoured the industry for a suitable packaging company to realise his concept, and commissioned Saxon Packaging in Lowestoft. The firm created a run of 4,000 gift boxes using 150gsm white-top test E flute board.
Every box features a mono newsprint-style design, with each of the four flavours signified through a different colour embellishment. Saxon printed 1,000 boxes for each flavour.
What did the job entail?
Designs were drawn up in Adobe Illustrator and then prepared using a Pamarco hand proofer and a spectrophotometer. The boxes were printed on a Martin 718 three-colour flexographic casemaker, using plates from Contact Originators – two plates for the black parts of the design, and a third for the different colours.
The substrates were cut into a specific shape to include the pour-friendly lid using a Marumatsu die-cutter and then folded and glued on a Jagenberg machine.
What challenges were overcome?
The original draft designs presented by O’Donnell and designer Tonie Lam were made for lithographic printing, but as costs began to escalate, Saxon suggested flexo as a cheaper option that maintained quality requirements.
Saxon’s in-house design team then set to work making changes to the initial artwork in order to optimise it for three-colour flexo printing.
Internal sales coordinator Adam Futter said: “We looked at litho, but luckily we could achieve what they were looking for using flexo processes. We were open and clear with O’Donnell about what flexo could achieve, making them aware of its limitations but also its advantages – it was a case of careful sampling and gentle tweaking to get it right.”
What was the feedback?
“Saxon Packaging came to our attention thanks to multiple recommendations from some of their clients based near us in East London,” said Cooke. “Having spoken about the choices available to us we took their recommendation of using the flexographic printing option as it was more in line with our budget.
“After some trepidation about the clarity of the final product we were happy with the overall look and feel of the packaging.”
