Fine Cut Blog

Morrisons is preparing to re-brand 17,000 product labels in what is one of the biggest design briefs of the year, reportsPackaging News.

The supermarket is following in the footsteps of other retailers who are all reported to have seen a marked interest in their own brand products.

Morrisons has tasked design experts Coley Porter Bell with the challenge which will also build on the strengths of the supermarket's corporate values. Such values include selling the freshness and quality of its goods as well as promoting the knowledge of its staff.

Britain's second-largest food manufacturer also wants to get across the fact that it has more qualified butchers and bakers in store than any of its rivals. As a result of this, customers can expect to see hand-drawn typography and thorough imagery throughout in-store product labels.

Coley Porter Bell's chief executive Vicky Bullen described the challenge as "immense" - strategically, creatively and in its execution.

"But it is also a unique brief because it is rare for a large retailer to consider their entire portfolio at once," she says, according to The Drum.

"It has allowed Morrisons to do fascinating, category defining marketing and it has allowed us to give their own-label a visual and strategic coherence that will help sales better reflect the quality of their products," Ms Bullen added.

Customers can expect to see the new product labels rolling out over the next 18 months.

Demand for product labels is set to soar in the coming years, making it a £69 billion industry by 2015, packagingeurope.com reports.

New research by Freedonia Group claims that with demand around the world set to rise 5.2 per cent each year, the total volume of labels created in 2015 alone would be 51.6 billion square metres, enough to cover one tenth of the entire world if laid end to end.

Of all the labelled produced, pressure sensitive labels look set to remain the most popular, as they continue to grow and take market share from glue-applied labels.

In 2010, 52 per cent of all labels manufactured and sold were pressure sensitive, a share that looks set to grow even further as brands move away from the traditional adhesive-glue design.

Elsewhere, stretch-sleeve, heat shrink and in-mould labels are also set to grow, though not at such a rate as the more established types, freedoniagroup.com claims.

Where specific regions are concerned, Asia and the Pacific countries look set to see the most take up, with their growing manufacturing base. Central and South America will also see something of a rise, as will Eastern Europe and Africa. China is by far and away the leader, however, accounting for 31 per cent of all global market volume gains in the years between 2010 and 2015.

An new etching antennae made from glass is capable of making engravings with dots one-hundredth of the size of a human hair.

According to MIT News, Nicholas Fang, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes it is a "fascinating advancement" that can produce a better cut than nanoimprint lithography - a more expensive method of doing such small-scale imprints.

This advanced form of precision engraving can be used for creating diagnostic sensors, which can separate molecules into constituent parts with the right microchips.

A test image produced by Mr Fang and his team's glass-etching technique saw a number of nano-sized shapes drawn on silver, including an ionic column.

He said: "I was inspired by glassblowers, who actually use their skills to form bottles and beakers. Even though we think of glass as fragile, at the molten stage it is actually very malleable and soft, and can quickly and smoothly take the shape of a plaster mould."

While Mr Fang's research has shown the modern potential of engraving, the Mail Online recently reported on the history of the practice, with the oldest known Christian engraving having been translated and dated.

Etched on to a stone in Greek, the engraving known as NCE 156 is believed to be from the latter half of the second century. The experts working on the artefact believe the piece is a funeral epigram.