The biggest Typography Museum of Greece –with 2000 exhibits- and one of the biggest worldwide opened its gates at the University of Ioannina under the auspices of a lot of professional and government bodies (including ELSET).
Between 1st and 8th July, besides the 2nd Summer Graphic Arts Camp, the visitors had a great opportunity to learn about the evolution of typography and related arts.
During the event, ELSET had an opportunity to notify its activities and its contribution, as well as the contribution of labels at the packaging industry.
The audience was consisted mainly of Graphic Arts students, which ELSET invited for specializing and professional practicing in a sector rapidly growing and developing.
Presentation of ELSET by its General Secretary Mr. Th. Kalkavouras and the visualized material:
Label, an “invisible hero”
Sign, model, painting, cliché, paper, cardboard, badge, card, tab, drawing, image, inscription, sticker: those are just a few from the names given to this unknown “visitor” who appered a few decades ago, when the revolution on packaging broke out. It covered a very basic need, which was the identification of the product from its package. That’s why we concluded to the present name of it: self-adhesive label.
The years went by and this “revolution” kept on expanding. The whole atmosphere on the packaging sector was continuously changing. Paper bags, plastic bags and hard tetra packs are now used in grocery stores. Detergent powder transformed first into liquid in a disposable packaging and later into a bottle with a measuring tape cap. Milk is no longer in glass bottles with just the company’s name carved on it, but in a plastic or paper bottle, which quotes the company’s name, the weight, the fats, the production place, the expiring date and in general all the necessary information.
But the changes hadn’t been limited on the ways and methods of packaging. They were expanded ok the quantity of the product every company can dispose. In older decades, families even in Athens had farms with chickens and goats. Detached houses with yards allowed agricultural production which covered most of the family needs. Also, Attica’s population grew rapidly after the 1960’s.
Those who had eggs, milk, meat, tomatoes and lettuce in their yards now are obliged to buy all this stuff. This phenomenon, apart from the need for even more standard products, also created the need for supermarkets with big refrigerators, multiple shelves and enlarged storerooms, as the old grocery stores couldn’t any more serve neither the clients, nor the products.
This is why there was a need for packaging. Labels are an integral part of it, because they give an “identity” to the product. It gives to the client the opportunity to choose quickly what he wants.
So, label is not only a “magic paper”, but also an “invisible hero”. It makes a product attractive, but keeps its own “identity” secret.
Label industry is an autonomous industry which has a few things in common with classic typography, despite the fact that a lot of people think they’re the very same thing. But they don’t use neither the same paper nor the same technicians, while their purposes are completely different.
Labels have a very restricted room, in which they have to quote a lot of information, to be typed in bright colors, to stick well on the package, to be attractive to the client, to be an alternative kind of advertisement for the product and many more.
Also, labels on greek products disposed at other countries become an “ambassador” of the national industry on the international market. They’re more than just the last touch of the product before it will be put on the shelf of a foreign store. They are a part of the product on the shelf, on the storage space, on the consumption area, on the dumpster, even on the landfill! They have to be environment friendly and easily removed, in order to be recycled. Also, we must always remember that a product is recognized by its label even in the dumpster.
Really, could anyone imagine a product on the shelf of i.e. a supermarket without its “identity”? Without the possibility to know what this product is and which company created it? Which is its country of origin? If not, no one can imagine a product without label.
Labels are not used just on specific products. They are used in every packed product on the market: foods, wines, drinks, detergents, medicines, bags with clothes, lubricants, fertilizers and almost everything we can imagine.
This can’t be achieved by a simple printing on a device, with just a successful color fading. Labels also have to be varnished, gold printed, screen printed and laminated in the very same device and the very same time. No mistakes are allowed there and everything has to be done in a synchronized, quick and right way. In order to do so, we apply the latest technical achievements: offset, letterpress, silk, pot foil etc.
There are a lot of stages we have to pass, in order to reach to the final result: design, prepress, printing, finishing, quality check, research, development and many more. But the most important of them all is the one that never stops: the continuous practice and education of the people who work on label industry. That’s the only way for us to catch up with the imperative demands of the Market.
Label is a charming stranger. It’s worthwhile getting knowing it. We invite the youth with appetite for work, creativity, ambitions and career dreams to work on label industry, in order to help it grow.
Future belongs to those who are charging it.
Thank you
