Buttery Looking

Sometimes we are asked to reproduce an 'old' look onto a new dieline for an updated carton. Not only will this Butter Pecan Ice Cream be tastey, but the color of the carton is buttery looking!

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Auction Poster 'Packaging'

Packaging comes in all sizes and shapes. In this case, 'packaging' of an event was the task. Red 7 Packaging was asked to design the posters and brochure cover for the Kalamazoo Christian School Association's annual auction. Bright and eye-catching! Those were our goals for this one.

Dusty Road Packaging Dieline Changes

Sometimes a customer will change printers. Thus, we are called upon to convert the present carton to a new dieline, making everything fit within the new specifications. It's tricky, but we do it!

For the Files

After the digital files and color proofs are shipped off to the printer, sometimes a customer will request a sample copy for their own files. Thus, we create a 8 1/2 X 11 sized color proof which won't have to be folded, mutilated, spindled, stapled and stuffed into a file drawer.

Cool Packaging for Mint

It's fun to create packaging colors which create the 'mood' - in this case "cool" Mint Chocolate Chip.

Ice Cream Image Photoshoot

One of Red 7 Packaging's specialties is our photography. It takes skill and know-how to do food styling. Our very own Cory Van De Griend is encouraging Guernsey Farm Dairy Farm's new flavor - Grandpa's Blueberry Way - to smile nicely. Red 7 Packaging is designing a new carton for Guernsey - new colors, new image, new everything!

Don't You Wish You Were Our Customer?

As a New Year's Greeting to our customers - thank you for asking Red 7 to help with their projects - gift bags with VERY special somethings were mailed out to each participating customer. We truly value our customers and wanted them to know it. The contents of each gift bag must have brought wide smiles as we certainly enjoyed assembling our very own 'packaging'.

Ice Cream Man

Yes, fun on the job! Recently we had a photoshoot of some ice cream for a customer. It seemed a shame to throw out the (now) inedible ice cream - there was a snowman inside, just crying out to be created. Packaging takes many forms, doesn't it?!

Reading for Package Color

Have you ever wondered about the color bars on the bottoms of our printed proofs? For this particular printer, these are the tools we use to ascertain accurate color after the package design is printed. So far we have been right on!

Packaging Color Accuracy

We take color seriously at Red 7 Packaging. Can you tell? The color our customers want in their designs need to be able to be translated exactly into what is printed on their packaging. It takes effort on our part, but accuracy is worth effort. What you are seeing is the result of some color testing we are doing to make sure our colors are in syn with the variety of printing companies we use.

The Real Thing

We were fortunate to be able to quickly obtain one of the finished cartons - Ta Da! There you have it - from beginning to end (except for the ice cream part).

I'm certain that they printed more than one carton but we are grateful whenever a customer sends us a finished product, which Gifford's Ice Cream was so kind to do. Now that our mouths are watering, let's take an ice cream break!

Keyline Completed !

After that slight detour to the Asphyxiation Shop, we are returning to our project, as we should.

You've watched this project progress from design options to the breathtaking contest wondering which one would win. Next we took the chosen design and laid it out on the correct dieline (no small task).

Aroma Therapy at Red 7 Packaging?

To our surprise, upon arriving at work many days over the past year, we would smell a strong aroma of gasoline or paint thinner. We could not figure it out since our nearest neighbor was a knife marketing sales office. Well, recently they moved out....all except for the tell-tale signs of what was going on in a back room.

Apparently we were smelling paint thinner as the aroma rose into the rafters throughout the entire business complex. Mystery was solved! But now we know who to contact if we have any customers who need some motorcycle art done for them. We are always on the look-out for good resources (if we don't die from asphyxiation first.)

And The Winner Is . . . .

This one was our favorite, too. Now we are ready to proceed with the package keyline aspect of the project.

Designs Galore!!!

When a client requests a new packaging design, we spring into action, kicking up our heels, anxious to begin something new and fresh for them.

First, during the Discovery Phase, Cory conducts an extensive interview with the client to determine the exact brand positioning and design elements they want included.

Second, the Design Phase begins. Much thoughtful intent is activated during this phase to provide options which the client can review to see if we 'hit it'. Because there are so many variables in a design, many options are provided. For example, the above 5 options were only a small portion of the color prints which were provided on presentation boards for the client's review. Each is a work of art, in our estimation.

Third, the design is then incorporated into the entire package design.

Art Work - Ice Cream Carton Packaging

Have you ever wondered what the art work for ice cream packaging (on a half gallon lock-end die) looks like? Well, here it is!

We can create a packaging keyline in approxamately 3 weeks - from the time the order is placed until the final contract proof is shipped to the customer for final approval. We keep our production schedule (and ourselves) on task and on time.


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How Do We Print the Color Proofs?

The color proofs needed for the customer's official approval are huge! Our Epson wide format printer can handle VERY large projects - even some to-be famous artists are asking us to print their work. And we do!


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Stickers vs. Labels?

Our magnificent looking labels!

A heated discussion arose yesterday when someone exclaimed "Yeah! Our stickers are here!" [gasp] STICKERS!?!?! We're a place of business we don't use stickers. We use LABELS! Besides stickers are not cool, whereas labels are VERY cool. Clearly this ill-informed person needed to be re-interrogated er..rather re-educated. So over the course of the next few hours we quarantined the said individual and subjected them to viewing a series of flash cards. Each flash card either depicted an image of something cool or not cool. It took repeated viewings but we finally coerced (re-educated) the said individual to renounce the fact that Strawberry Shortcake® stickers on Trapper Keeper®s are NOT cool. However, when one places one of our magnificent labels on a Trapper Keeper® the Trapper Keeper® becomes instantaneously very cool. That's the power of a label. Stickers can't claim that.







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Photojournalism

In addition to writing time management articles for the local paper, Dawn, our very own project manager, enjoys capturing our part of the world with a camera and sharing what she sees with the community.

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Lemon Custard - Have it YOUR way

Color accuracy is crucial for food photography. We use all sorts of insanely complicated tools to make sure your lemon custard photography looks like...... you guessed it.... YOUR lemon custard.

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