The Chetan Jain column: The road to perfect shrink sleeves

Let us first review the basic cycle of shrink sleeve development which you are already familiar with — container development, sampling for size development by the vendor, trial samples for size approval, artwork set in the size, the approval of the artwork printout, cylinder development, proof approval, and finally printing and supply.

The above steps are the most basic ones followed by most packaging suppliers. The idea is to make you understand that many important steps are missing here and not followed by shrink sleeve suppliers, but mostly because you are not asking for it, you are not getting it.

Let's get some more steps incorporated in our process to reduce errors in shrink sleeves. As a purchaser, owner or marketing manager, only you know your product the best. Only you can visualise the right result packaging for your product But sometimes it is just too hard to communicate your concept of packaging to your supplier or the rest of your team.

You find the colours are not looking good on the product, but the cylinders are ready.

The artwork is getting distorted due to the contours of the container.

The placement of elements is disturbed after shrinking.

The placement of artwork elements or text is not correct.

Now, cylinders are ready, time is short, your launch date is near and your supplier is giving you stories. You end up accepting the sub-standard sleeves since you have no other option at this moment.

Some use of available technology can just make your job easy and avoid this post-production mess.

Global Standard of "Fully Integrated Sleeving Technique- FIST.

The steps involved in getting those perfect sleeves even if you don't have a packaging professional are as follows:

• Get a 1:1 KLD
  An actual size Key Line Drawing given to your designer will help him set the design correctly as per the container's shape so that your artwork elements are not hidden in container contours and top-bottom rings. Get your brand name highlighted in the main branding portion of the container with the correct KLD.
   
• Sleeving prediction methodology
  You can now get sleeving predictions done for your artwork. Orient your design, text and images to achieve a perfected non-distorted view after sleeving...
   
• ARC View
  Get a Collada file for a 3D and Augmented Reality view of your sleeved product. See your container placed on a table or retail shelf to get the right imagination of how your product will fare with other products on the shelf for a consumer. All this before, even production started.
   
• DigiSleeve
  With the advancement of printing, now you can get a real prototype before getting the cylinders made or getting an expensive test proof. Digisleeves prototypes are cheap.

Case-study

I'll tell how this technique helped a client save so much valuable time to launch his product. We created the perfect post-shrink scenario for our client through ARC view and digiSleeves which helped him make the important decision with their marketing team and graphic agency without having to wait for the cylinder or test cylinder to be made. This not only saved their most valuable time during the peak season of product launch but also saved lots of direct and indirect costs.

The above additional steps help align your thoughts with your suppliers. You and your supplier will make fewer mistakes. And you will not have to settle for sub-standard shrink sleeves. If you haven't explored this technique in creating your perfect shrink sleeve, then you must try it today and see the difference.