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UV-printed carton carries natural appeal
Linda Casey
January 29, 2014
1 Min Read
Zeek & Manny and their food
Zeek & Manny and their food
To debut Nature’s Benefits, a granola-style food line targeted to consumers looking for natural products for their pet birds and small animals, Kaytee Products Inc. chose paperboard packaging with visual cues that convey the natural attributes of the product. “We wanted to create a crunchy-granola feel that was also very eco-friendly,” remarks Aria Grant, art director with Directions Inc. (www.directions.com), Kaytee’s design agency. This was achieved by using kraft paperboard as a packaging material and muted tones in the carton’s graphic design.The package is UV-printed by Great Northern Corp. (www.greatnortherncorp.com) using the web-based StrataGraph process, which utilizes UV inks and UV curing of inks and coatings. “For the Nature’s Benefits boxes, we first printed a thin coat of white as a silhouette of the image to seal the uncoated substrate,” Don Schroeder, president of Great Northern’s StrataGraph operations, Oshkosh, WI, explains. “The white makes the ensuing colors really pop out. As each color of ink is applied, the substrate moves through a fast-acting dryer. The dried ink forms a polymer that sits on top of the paperboard instead of being absorbed into it and acts as a base for the application of the next layer of ink. After printing, the top sheet is laminated to the paperboard.”
“The color and style of the package tells the consumer, even before seeing the brand name Nature’s Benefits, that this is a natural product,” says Kay Thomson, senior marketing manager, Kaytee Pet Bird. Nature’s Benefits is available at Petsmart, Petco and independent pet retailers throughout the U.S.
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