Excellence Awards — Yes They Did!

When presented with a challenge, MPI Label Systems stepped up to the plate, impressing its customer, as well as the judges of this year’s packagePRINTING Excellence Awards.

August 2008 by Missy Smith

multipage

The winery wanted the Windmill to be the focus of the label. The Windmill had to be smooth and glossy with the rest of the label showing off the surface of the labelstock. “The most difficult part of this design was the paper [that was] specified. It required the use of 70# felt which has got to be the roughest, most porous stock that a flexo press has ever printed,” says Lingo. “The Windmill request was what concerned us the most. We printed several tests to help us determine the proper technology that would make this project successful.”

MPI used its 12-color Mark Andy 4150 press to print the label with UV flexography. “First, we had to print an image of the Windmill using a rotary screen station. Screen selection was paramount for proper coverage and ink cure,” explains Lingo. “The ink used in the screen was formulated on site to give the optimal printing surface for the process inks. After the 4-color process was printed we hot stamped, then applied the final varnishes. Finally the embossing to accentuate the Windmill was performed, along with the diecut.”

The winery was quite pleased with MPI’s work, especially after another printer claimed that its flexo-printed label could not be achieved. And, because MPI was so successful in producing this particular label, it earned all of Michael-David Winery’s label business.

“When the wine was released with the new Windmill design, restaurants and stores requested that the previous vintage with the old label design be returned to the winery,” says Lingo. “The new design began flying off of the shelves; nobody would purchase the old label. Though we knew the label was beautiful, [winning Best of Show] told us that it really was something special.

“After the initial jumping up and down, cheering my team on, I thought of my mentor, Bert Wijfjes. Bert was the GM of our plant in 1993 when we last won Best of Show honors in the packagePRINTING Excellence Awards, and that issue is proudly displayed in my office. My first thought was of his legacy, and of what he was able to achieve with MPI Label Systems of California. Our ‘Yes We Can’ and ‘Whatever it Takes’ values were instilled [in us] by Bert, and I am proud to be leading a group of people that continues to exhibit these values.” pP



Best of Show Honorable Mentions

Because there were so many strong first place winners this year, the judges had a difficult task of naming the Best of Show winner. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think you could go wrong with any entry on the table. They’re all superb,” said Dean Gilbert, assistant professor at North Carolina A&T State University. The following entries made the judges’ Best of Show decision a bit more difficult.


Diamond Packaging’s Coty Stetson Holiday 2007 folding carton

“It’s just a great overall job. I’m really impressed. The [quality of the] folding carton samples were much higher than I expected.” —Joe Hamway

G3 Enterprises’ Blackstone Merlot Face wine label

“There is just about every process imaginable on that one. It has a lot of hot stamping, screen, registration, and embossing.”—Jim Flynn, print technician, Gallus

“You’ve got [a lot] more margin for error.”—Bob Waddington, about the difficulty of the job

• MORE ON
• SUSTAINABILITY
• DIGITAL PRINTING
• FLEXO PRINTING