Dutch

I recently had the chance to go on an all expenses paid, weekend trip to Amsterdam due to a few fellow creatives living out there working on various live projects. For the very short time and little camera battery life I had, I tried to capture some of the more interesting graphic design and typography around the city. I fell in love with Amsterdam when I was about 16, mainly for the grungy but friendly atmosphere it had to offer, in recent years it's cleaned itself up a lot, especially in terms of graffiti and street art, although their design is still as strong as ever...

Top Ten

Colour guide

I went to the local record shop/spray paint distributor in leeds to see if they had any printed media relevant to the guide I'm going to be producing as a final printed product. They had a newer version of the MTN 94 spray paint range. This fold-out guide is 4 colour process, most likely offset litho and folded.

Printing

Ive been looking into the different processes that can be applied to aerosol products in order to achieve the desired graphic effects. Depending on the scale there are a few options that can be offered.

Silk Screen Printing
Using this method for printing cans is usually done in small volumes to individual customer requirements. I doubt it would be a consideration for a company like Nike to produce cans of paint on such a small scale although it is a process worth documenting

Litho Printed Cans
I found this little source documenting the process of these two methods used by James Bridges ITW Ltd


Labelled Products
No need to be tied to producing thousands of labels for your products…we have the facilities to finish the cans we fill with self-adhesive, thermal transfer or hot-melt labels that we'll produce batch by batch for you.

Print process

I found these interesting printing methods from tubex that are rather quite innovative, especially the debossing of an aerosol can.

Special Flitter Coating. The new developed effect-coating with flitters opens up another perspective of layouts. With this it has been achieved to combine a top-dressing dark-blue fond with a partial omitted field which highlights the brushing of the can and which visually shows up the flitter coating only onto the dark part of the can.

 

The worldwide first aluminium aerosol can which is debossed in a separate machine inline is introduced exclusively by TUBEX Rangendingen. The process allows debossing of outlines as well as whole fields, which could be combined with an embossed writing or logo.

 The latest innovation is the can “What a feeling”. The aerosol can has been improved by a special haptical (partial) effect on the can surface – you can feel the sand! As well other materials like i.e. rubber, velvet etc. are possible.
















The Thermotransfer process is a completely new decoration process. The main advantages of the Thermotransfer process are: • Photorealistic designs • Highest print quality up to 8 colours
• Whole can surface can be printed
• Combination of offset and flexoprint possible
• Via digital printing a personalization of the
product is possible
• Haptical effects possible by over varnishing
• Small lot sizes can be produced in an
economical way

Generation Press

Generation press came in for a visit, the presentation lasted a while but was filled with nothing but absolute design gold. Paul and Anand bought along an abundance of ridiculously gorgeous printed design, more stocks and finishes than I could comprehend in one afternoon. I got a load of photos but not nearly a full documentation of what was there to get our hands on.