Marketing Desire & Function – for Arbonne International

“We are passionate about what we do,” says Dr. Peter Matravers, Chief Scientific Officer for Arbonne skincare products. “We develop world-class products with potent botanicals and cutting-edge science.” Arbonne’s use of botanicals is just part of their earth-friendly attitude. In fact, getting back to nature has been a part of their corporate culture since 1980. Arbonne’s commitment to being green is demonstrated even in their decision to work with print manufactures who use soy-based printing inks, FSC-certified substrates and product packaging that is recyclable.
To further illustrate their “back to nature” image Arbonne wanted to create a label for a eau de toilette bottle that had a handmade natural look and feel. They had seen and were impressed with the deckle edge look of handmade paper and they wanted to incorporate that look into their label.

One of the characteristics of handmade paper is that no two edges of the paper have the same details. In making paper by hand a deckle or frame is placed on top of a papermaking mold before it is dipped into a vat filled with water and paper fibers. As the mold and deckle are removed from the vat, water runs through the mold as the deckle holds the wet fibers in place on top of the mold. When the deckle is removed the paper fibers at the edge of the mold have a ruff and irregular pattern. In machine made paper this ruff edge is cut off giving the paper a smooth straight edge.

Representatives from Arbonne approached Adcraft Labels to see if there was a way that this deckle edge look could be applied to a label. There were two major problems that needed to be solved in order to mass-produce these labels. First, the edge of each sheet of handmade paper is unique due to the papermaking process. So, how could Adcraft design a label where each side of each label had a unique, ruff, irregular look? And second, could a label with a ruff irregular edge be auto applied? The labels would have to be on a roll and they’d have to feed easily through a machine and be kicked off very rapidly in order to be applied to a container. In addition to the deckle edge Arbonne wanted to use a linen textured paper facestock that could be hot stamped with foil.

Adcraft accepted the challenge. Their first step was to test various linen facestocks to determine which substrate would be durable enough to accept the foil application and yet pliable enough to work with a die that had a detailed irregular pattern. Thus they had to marry a combination of tool, impression and tear factor in order to get the proper look.

Next, Adcraft engineered a die that contained 21 different detailed irregular patterns. Thus, when the labels were auto applied to the containers, each container had a label with a different irregular edge. Of course the pattern would repeat every 21 bottles but there is little chance of a consumer receiving a container with the same label. The project was a great success.

It’s projects like this that set Adcraft Labels apart from its competitors. It is our commitment of time and effort to research, test and apply unusual and unique techniques that makes Adcraft unique.