South African label in international calendar

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In 2004, the Neenah Paper Company, based in Wisconsin US, initiated the Labels of the World contest and in 2010 opened it to non-wine label entries for the first time.

The South African label competed against 50 other labels including packaging for pasta, micro breweries, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products in the category, which was judged by Steve Sikora from the award-winning agency, The Design Guys.

According to Janet Kinghorn from Coley Porter Bell South Africa, their brief from distributors Edward Snell & Company was to create a label that reflected the natural, handcrafted process that is used to craft the Oude Molen Solera Grand Reserve brandy. "The intricate Solera process, which uses a multi-tiered micro-brewing system, served as the inspiration behind the design and unconventional printing technique we used. We took extra care in choosing paper stocks and finishes as the execution had to be exceptional due to the simplicity of the design," she says.

New label technique

A new technique was employed to retain the relief on the paper, as many of the embossed features of a label are lost during application to the pack. "By experimenting on press, the high-build station was shifted to the start of the printing process to create an embossed effect. This ensured that the label would retain its relief even after the background colours were printed over it and during the application process. A darker tint was then overprinted to emphasise the relief even further, creating a rich, textured label true to the brandy it was crafted to represent," explains Kinghorn.

The award came as a surprise to the agency as they were not aware that Collotype had entered the label for this prestigious competition. "As an agency, we like to push boundaries particularly when it comes to printing, so it was great to be recognised and rewarded for our efforts," concludes Kinghorn.

Neenah prints and distributes 1200 calendars globally to its luxury packaging specialists, international merchants and global sales force.