Innovation Award (Cont’d from Page 1)
sitive material, and the second screen is printed along with the other decorative inks on top of the clear lamination. Because the microstructures are done at a mini- mum of 480 LPI or higher, the 1:1 pixel-for-pixel accuracy of the FLEXCEL NX Plates was essential to hold lines that are 10 microns wide and spaced approximately 42 microns apart. Stiff Competition In the craft beer business, competition for shelf space and consumers’ attention is fierce in the craft beer business, so impactful labeling is hugely im- portant for a small, independent brewery such as Confluence. In the case of the award-winning la- bel, the ‘Wizard’ branding of the Gose-style sour ale opened all sorts of creative possibilities, with the favored option a multi-dimensional, moving 3D im- age that would capture shoppers’ attention as they walk by, and further engage them as they pick up the can and rotate to explore the image further. “The idea behind Fathom Effects is software-based, not materials science-based,” according to the com- pany. “The foundation of it is to take large-scale computational algorithms and use them to change the way materials interact with light. We compute complex interference patterns that can be printed
holographic foil, using FLEXCEL NX Plates on Grace Label’s standard flexo press using standard inks. Fathom Optics and Grace Label teamed up for the ‘Wizard’ label, which came about because of a friendship between the family of Tom Baran, CEO and Co-Founder of Fathom, and John Martin, own- er/founder of Confluence, to whom Grace Label is an established label supplier. Founded in the mid- 1970s by the father of current company President, Steve Grace, Grace Label operates as a full-service supplier that handles every step of the design-to-de- livery process. Besides the craft beer and spirits in- dustries, Grace also serves customers in meat and agricultural foods. The company has both digital and flexo presses, with flexo printing representing 90 percent of its work. Enhancing Labels A fourth party to the project is creative design agency 818 Iowa, who created the original design and worked with Confluence to enhance the labels most characteristic features — the wizard, staff and orb. Fathom then worked with Grace to bring ev- erything to life. The effects are achieved by printing very fine mi- crostructures on two interference screens. The first screen is printed on the white BOPP pressure-sen-
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