At Interpack, a collaborative design and art project harnessed the power of HP digital print to create one-of-a-kind shrink sleeve designs for Heineken bottles.
The seemingly endless possibilities of mass customisation through digital print continue to be demonstrated. In a collaborative artistic execution, packaging designer Silas Amos and leading graphic artist Emily Forgot teamed up with HP to create 2000 unique Heineken bottles to be served up on HP’s stand at Interpack.
Akin to similar HP customisation projects, each shrink sleeve is completely different, with 2000 designs created using seed patterns and HP SmartStream Mosaic variable design technology. Each bottle is also individually numbered with a font specially designed for this project, using HP Variable Data Printing.
Dutch label converter Eshuis printed the bottle sleeves on an HP Indigo WS6000 series press.
HP SmartStream Mosaic and HP Variable Data Printing feature as part of HP SmartStream Designer software for HP digital presses, allowing artists to create sophisticated, custom jobs simply and affordably. These tools make it possible to personalise any print job’s images, text, and colours — creating virtually unlimited variations of any design — to maximise visual impact.
Emily Forgot is known for working with some of the world’s most prestigious brands, with her designs embracing the odd, the everyday and sometimes the surreal. Her specially commissioned artwork for the Heineken bottles features 10 numerals as well as icons and seed patterns, with a design aesthetic inspired by the Yellow Submarine animated film — playful and distinctive. These have been harnessed by Silas Amos using HP SmartStream Mosaic technology, using the seed patterns and numerals to create unique, individually numbered artworks, ensuring no two bottles share the same image.
Amos, who was at the HP booth to talk about how designer and technology co-create, said: “We wanted to create artistic packaging for the Heineken bottles that is striking as well as different in each instance. The concept takes full advantage of the capability to make each bottle unique, all the while held together by a simple design system. Emily’s design announces each bottle’s place in the limited edition loud and proud, at the same time as emphasising the set is ‘greater than the sum of its parts’.”
HP also launched a new resource especially for designers called HP Agency and Designer Tool Kit. It offers open source training materials, enabling creatives to “unleash the true potential of HP digital printing technologies”, HP says. The Brand Managers Digital Packaging ROI Calculator is a simple to use tool that can calculate the ROI of any type of HP digitally printing packaging, compared to current conventionally printed packaging costs.
“Mass customisation is the next frontier for global brands, and our industry-leading digital technology is the gateway to this,” said Francois Martin, global marketing director, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Inc. “People like Silas and Emily know this and their skill and talent, ignited by HP digital technology, can reinvent a brands’ competitive edge. We would like to encourage more designers, artists and brand owners to fully explore how digital printing technology can transform packaging, and I believe our two new tools will help them do this.”
