Dressing up your glass packaging: labeling options, printing, surface treatments and some emerging techniques add sparkle and brand imagery to glass containers.

Glass packaging offers a premium image. But you can elevate this image through fresh decorating options that add panache and visual excitement to glass bottles, jars and other containers.

What are your options? Consider a variety of labeling techniques, printing choices, surface treatments

Sometimes, using more than one type of decoration may give you the look you desire to support your brand imagery.

Let's examine a variety of decorating techniques to help you find the right choice for your glass packaging.

Labels offer different looks

Glass containers can wear pressure-sensitive labels, full-body shrink labels and heat-transfer labels. Each of these offers a different appearance, such as a 360-degree "billboard" or a "no-label" look.

Pressure-sensitive film labels deliver high-impact graphics through multicolor UV inks. You can add foil to these labels to foster a premium image.

Due to the clear film, the graphic image on the label appears to be floating on the bottle or container. This no-label look is similar in appearance to screen-printing. But you have many more color options and tighter print registration.

Over the past several years, the no-look label has become popular and advances in ultra-clear films and printing, such as high-definition flexo and digital, have made this the standard in bottle labeling, says Elisha Tropper, President of Prestige Label, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Due to the prevalence of this label style, creative marketers are looking for alternatives. These include pebble paper stocks on cosmetics, Tropper says.

"We find ourselves constantly being challenged by packaging designers to develop pressure-sensitive concepts that will elevate lheil package from the rest of their competitors. Sometimes, this means customizing a varnish or lamination," Tropper says.

For a new line of organic coffee syrups ham Flavorganics. Prestige Label created a custom paper face label with a "tuxedo" varnish. Trapper describes the finish as "satiny like a tuxedo's lapel."

This surface treatment, atone with simple and colorful label graphics, supports the elegant design at the bottle. The glass container--used for olive oil in Italy--has a square base and four flat sides that taper up to the neck of the bottle. The trapezoid-shaped front and hack labels follow the lines of the container and accentuate its shape.

Opaque films can deliver a "peek-a-boo" look on back labels. The label's capacity enables putting on both sides.

For example, the interior at the back label can carry an eye catching image that consumers can view by looking through the bottle. The liquid in the container may distort or magnify the image, adding to the visual effect.

You can print the exterior of the back label with product information.

Pressure-sensitive labels are durable and can weather the temperature extremes of pasteurization processes and retail display in ice chests.

You can die-cut these labels in unique shapes to highlight the con tours of your glass container and differentiate your product on the shelf.

Almaden Vineyards took this approach for its new glass packaging for all bottle sizes. The design maintains Almaden's proprietary "swirl" contour. A teardrop-shaped label with soft tones echoes the trademark swirl Capsule and neck labels in matte gold and bronze promote an upscale feel to tire packaging

Retaining glass breakage

Full body shrink labels offer 360-degree branding around the entire glass container. They also can deliver tamper evidency and protection for light sensitive products.

Another benefit: these full-body wraps can retain glass breakage during shipping and storage.

These labels can conform to and fit snuggly around irregular shapes Sometimes, unusual shapes present adhesion challenges for pressure-sensitive labels.

Campbell Soup selected a full-body shrink label fen its Pace Mexican Cooking Sauces 1 fie product comes in tall faceted jars from Saint-Gobain Containers, Muncie, Ind.

Campbell's chose the slender faceted jar to support the premium image of the product. During consumer focus groups, one participant said the new jar was "faceted like a diamond." The snug fitting label emphasizes the facets' ridges.

American Fuji Seal, Bardstown, Ky., prints the shrink label rotogravure in nine colors. Along with vivid graphics, the label heats a featured recipe and several cooking ups. Some parts of the PETG label are clear to allow consumers to see the color of the sauce.

"Pace represents fresh ingredients. It has a heritage as an authentic cooking ingredient," says Evan Frisch, Senior Packaging Engineer, Campbell Soup. The jar and label differentiate the product on the shelf and support the brand promise.

Champagne with extra 'pop'

Pierrel Champagne got added "pop" on the shell with a shrink-film label from Sleever International, Paris, France.

When exposed to black light in nightclubs, the phosphorescent label reflects an intense blue glow that reveals all the graphic sophistication of the decoration. The label bears a soft-touch varnish for added sensuality.

Heat-transfer labeling uses heat and an adhesive to transfer a high-quality graphic image from a web-style carrier directly onto a bottle. The image bonds permanently to the glass surface.

This labeling technique offers multi-color graphics, bright metallics and novel finishes, such as a frosted effect.

Although labeling has replaced printing on some glass bottles, marketers continue to use screen-printing for its graphic and tactile qualities. Consumers can feel the raised surface of the graphics on the bottle.

One screen-printing method is applied ceramic labeling (ACL). A decorating machine silk-screens ceramic inks onto the glass surface. The bottle is then cured in an oven, which fuses the paint to the glass. This forms a durable label that avoids scuffing.

Rolling Rock and Corona use this graphic technique on its bottles of beer. POM Wonderful LLC also uses ACL to decorate its snowman-shaped glass bottles of pomegranate juice.

The bulbous bottle mimics the look of a pomegranate fruit. But this presented decorating problems. Four passes through the ACL decorating machine are necessary to print two bulbs in two colors--white and red TricorBraun, St. Louis, supplies the decorated bottles.

The primary disadvantage of ACL is its limited color options. While the number of colors available is increasing, these additional colors do raise production costs.

Another printing technique uses organic polymer inks. Labatt Breweries employed this technique to decorate bottles for a special beer promotion. The limited-edition bottles feature logos of the original six National Hockey League teams.

Surface treatment options

A number of surface treatment options are available to decorate your glass packaging. These include embossing, acid etching and color coatings.

Embossing produces a raised or relief image or lettering on a bottle. The visual impression and tactile properties help to generate consumer interaction with the package.

Anheuser-Busch's new Anheuser World Select pilsner beer in test market comes in a green bottle with an embossed globe. This adds to the premium brand image.

Acid etching creates a frosted effect on the bottle by exposing its surface to a chemical solution.

Arbor Mist uses a combination of acid etching and pressure-sensitive labeling on its wine bottles. This produces a colorful label on a frosted surface and differentiates the brand on the shelf.

Saxco International, Horsham, Pa., has helped White Rock Distilleries to package its Three Olive premium vodka in an upscale container.

The frosted bottle bears a screened on martini glass etching and a green olives graphic. The tilted martini glass image adds elegance and "movement" to the bottle.

DECORATION RIDES THE WAVE OF 'SURF AND SEA' BRAND

Parlux Fragrances faced the challenge of packaging a fragrance for Ocean Pacific--a surfer apparel brand that dates back to the early '70s.

Parlux wanted a retro look but the container still had to appeal to the California lifestyle of sea and surf, says Kathleen Galvin, Vice President of Marketing.

The fragrance marketer turned to Risdon-AMS, a supplier of cosmetic packaging, for help. The resulting package consists of a glass bottle encased in a clear copolyester plastic shell.

Risdon-AMS partially fills the space between the glass and plastic with two special fluids that deliver a trickling, bubbling water effect, especially when the user tilts or tips the container upside down.

The two fluids--one blue and the other clear--have different viscosities. This causes the blue liquid to sink and the clear fluid to rise, says Palmer McGuinness, Parlux Director of Package Development.

The outer surface of the glass bottle contains "moguls." These irregular bumps and depressions enhance the bubbling effect and 3-D fluid motion.

In addition to wave imagery, the decorative effect has the retro feel of a lava lamp, Galvin says.

An anodized, matte silver aluminum collar affixes to the top of the plastic case and glass bottle. Risdon-AMS silk-screens the "Ocean Pacific" brand on the collars surface sidewall. A clear Surlyn overcap completes the package.

Where to go for more information ...

* Color pout decorating technology. At Risdon-AMS, contact Jim Bigham at 203.743.8775 or visit www.risdon-ans.com

* Glass decoration consulting. At Packnology, contact Mary Ellen Reis at 802.592.3208 or mel@packnology.com

* Pressure-sensitive labels. At Prestige Label, contact Elisha Tropper At 718.927.2600, ext. 150 or et@prestigelabel.com

* Glass packaging. At Saint-Gobain Containers, contact Marilyn LaGrange at 765.741.7622 or marilyn.m.lagrange@saint-gobain.com

* Shrink-film labels. At American Fuji Seal, contact Maureen Lane at 973.882.5600 or mlane@ofseal.com

* Full-body shrink labels. At Sleever International, contact Marina Andre at marina.andre@sleever.com

* Glass packaging. At TricorBraun, contact Suzanne Fenton at 314.569.3633, ext. 110 or sfenton@tricorbraun.com

* Glass packaging. At Saxco International, contact Keith Sachs at 215.443.8100, ext. 15 or info@saxcointl.com

* Glass decorating services. At Vitro Packaging, contact Jose Fuentes at 800.766.0600 or jfuentes@vitro.com

* Glass decorating services. At Chattanooga Labeling, contact Mark Gottsacker at 423.424.1019 or mgottsacker@clsdeco.com

* Glass bottle decoration. At Owens-Illinois, contact Dennis Marsh al 419.247.8403 or dennis.marsh@us.o-i.com

The author, Bob Swientek, is the Editor-in-Chief Of BRANDPACKAGING magazine.