Wizard Labels

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It’s natural to want to receive any item that you order online as fast as humanly possible. The story is no different when it comes to ordering custom product labels. Delivery times for product labels vary dramatically from printer to printer, and can often cost vastly different amounts (depending on who you order from). Here at Wizard Labels, we offer free 2-day shipping on all label orders to anywhere in the 50 United States (and DC).

Fast product label printing and delivery

Often times we’re asked if we offer a next day delivery or 'rush' option. To be perfectly honest, the answer is always no - we treat all jobs with the same priority, i.e. on a first in, first out basis. However, there are some really good reasons for this. First, our fast turnaround times for printing product labels are often so quick that we have minimal opportunity to adjust the process anyway. Second, we also believe that allowing somebody to "jump the queue" automatically means somebody else's job won't ship on time. We've found that if we work to continually improve and streamline our production processes, we are able to offer the fastest and most reliable turn-times in the digital label printing industry.

Some companies will take your money quite happily (often significant amounts) to rush a label order through. They may be able to get your labels to you a day earlier for a significant extra cost (some adding more than $1,000 on top of what would normally be a $300 product label order). We have found that our standard 2-day turnaround time is not only more than satisfactory to the vast majority of our customers, but most other label printers will charge an additional fee for a 2-day turnaround time. In the same vein, offering free and fast shipping on any custom product label order seemed like a no-brainer to us.

Free 2-day shipping on all custom label orders

Here at Wizard Labels, we offer free 2-day shipping (via UPS) on all label orders to anywhere in the 50 United States (and DC). And in many cases, depending on where you're located, the delivery time can often be a single day - but we guarantee a maximum of 2 days for simplicity (barring any unexpected delivery delays or natural disasters outside our control). Our standard 2-day production time is also arguably the fastest in the industry. It’s also important to note that our entire business is focused on “custom labels” (with an emphasis on 'custom'), which implies we make everything to order from scratch. We do not carry inventories of off-the-shelf items, because every customer has unique needs for their unique products.

Ensuring a smooth ordering process and fast delivery

Just because we don't offer a 'rush' order option, doesn't mean that there aren't a few things that you can do to ensure that your custom label order is shipped as soon as possible. One of the first things that you can do is review our product label design artwork specs to make sure that the label artwork you are uploading to our website is formatted properly and ready to go to print.

If you’re printing multiple versions of a product label, we can print them all together (as long as they are the same size and shape). The colors and designs can even be completely different between versions – so long as they’re all the same size and shape and being printed on the same material.

One final thing to consider if you're in a rush and trying to get your labels on a tight deadline, we cannot reccommend enough that you try printing out a test product label before placing your final custom label order and submitting your artwork. There is nothing worse than being in a hurry and placing an order, only to realize that your labels are a half inch too small, large, or don't look like you thought they would on your product.

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Plan for Change When Designing and Ordering Your Custom Product Labels

Any successful business plans for the future and prepares for change. So why should your approach to your custom product labels be any different? It can be difficult to forecast your product label needs at times, but it's important to stay up-to-date on necessary changes that may need to be made. You never want to be left hanging when you need to remove products from shelves or online storefronts because a change wasn't made in time. Luckily, we have a few tips and tricks to consider during the product label design and ordering process to help make your life easier.

Stay Up-To-Date on Changes in Product Label Regulations

Staying up-to-date on changing industry regulations can save you time and money when it comes to your product labels. Just this year we have seen major regulatory changes in multiple major industries. Earlier this year, the FDA passed major legislation which effects the electronic cigarette industry, and new changes we’re also announced for any company that uses nutrition facts on their product labels. No one wants to order several months worth of personalized labels only to realize that a they have to make changes to every label design in order to meet new industry standards or regulations.  

Try Thermal Transfer Printing

Thermal transfer printing? That sounds complicated. Luckily, it’s not too difficult. Consider focusing on fewer versions of product labels, and put your design efforts into the “branding” rather than the changeable information such as lot numbers, dates etc.

There are very affordable desktop printers available (typically between $400 and $500) that use a ribbon-driven approach to print the missing data. This process is called “Thermal Transfer printing” – it applies heat to melt the surface of the ribbon in the appropriate spots and transfer the melted ink to the material being printed on. If you’re in an industry where you need to order branded custom labels for your products but need to be able to add more information at a later date, then thermal transfer printing may be right up your alley. You can check out our previous blog post about Thermal Transfer Printing and how it relates to the e-cig business (but the same ideas can apply directly to other industries too).

Make Adjustments and Order Labels Fast With Our New Labels Library

Our new "Label Library" makes reordering and managing your product label artwork a breeze. Every customer that's placed an order with us now has access to their own personal library of labels that have previously been ordered. If you're making changes to a label design that you've ordered before from us, you can now upload the new artwork and place an order faster and easier than ever. As you place orders for new designs, they automatically end up in your library. You can even “Inactivate” individual label versions if you no longer wish to see them in your library - or “Activate” them again if you change your mind at a later time.

We understand that it's not always as easy to plan for the future regarding your product labels. Sometimes you need to make changes fast. We can still help you out. We pride ourselves on having some of the fastest production times in the industry, and we even offer free two-day shipping on all orders. However, avoiding a situation like that is always the option. With a little planning, you can save yourself a big headache when the time comes to make necessary adjustments to your custom product labels.

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QR Codes: Do They Add Value To Custom Product Labels?

Chances are that you have seen those ‘square things’ on product labels at your local big box store or supermarket. These little square marketing tools are called QR codes. While there are a few instances where QR codes have been effectively used (very few), the vast majority of QR codes serve little or no value to the end consumer.

We’re looking at you, the brilliant marketer who decided to put a QR code on a moving bus. We’ve also got our eye on you, the designer who decided to place a QR code on the billboard along the highway. Apart from the obvious challenge associated with scanning something so far away, what part of "don't use your phone while driving" don't you get?

One particularly stupid example we've seen is the huge QR code on the back of a bus - inviting us to scan it to find out the wait times at our local hospital Emergency Room. Um, maybe that's a subtle invitation to scan the code with your phone while driving - undoubtedly resulting in a need to visit the ER. That marketing department deserves a medal for originality for sure. So before you decide whether to place a QR code on your custom product label, we want to provide a little more information about QR codes.

What is a QR Code?

QR is short for Quick Response (as these codes can be read quickly by a cell phone). QR codes (as shown below) are not like the UPC barcodes that are found on many items in the grocery store. The difference between UPC barcodes and QR codes is that QR codes have the ability to hold information in both vertical and horizontal directions, while UPC barcodes only have the ability to hold information in the horizontal direction. Sounds great, right? Well, the truth is that a QR code holds little more than a URL to a webpage. A QR code does not hold any information related to inventory or price, rendering it virtually useless to any retailer.

If You Don’t Need A QR Code, Don’t Use One

There are times when a QR code can be used effectively on a product label. However, these instances are few and far between. Unless you are absolutely sure that utilizing a QR code will add real value to the consumer experience, then we recommend that you don’t add a QR code into your label design.

It would seem rational to assume that the majority of consumers use smart phones, and for your target market you may be correct. However, a QR code serves zero purpose to any consumer without a smartphone. Furthermore, a QR code only serves a purpose to consumers that have downloaded a QR code reader app onto their smartphone (further limiting the usefulness of the code.)

Another thought to consider is the longevity of usefulness of any given QR code. If you should decide to place a QR code on your custom product label, the destination URL needs to be relevant for the shelf life of the product. Websites change constantly, so providing a link to a page that's moved is simple evidence of carelessness - and your customer will recognize that immediately if they choose to scan the code.

How Large Does a QR Code on My Custom Product Label Need To Be?

After taking all of the previous factors into consideration, should you decide to use a QR code in the design of your custom product labels, you need to make sure that it works in practice. Making sure that a QR code is large enough to be read by a scanning app is the single most important thing that you need to keep in mind when integrating them into the design of your product label. Using a QR code that is too small can make the QR code unreadable. Talk about a nightmare scenario. A good rule of thumb is to not make a QR code smaller than 75 pixels by 75 pixels. Try scanning the QR code on a printed copy of your label artwork (printed at 100% size) before sending the artwork off for proofing and printing. This will ensure that the printed version of the QR code will be able to be read by consumers' smartphones in a given retail space.

While it may be tempting to use a QR code in the design of your custom product labels, it is vital that you consider whether it adds anything of value to the end consumer. Unless you believe that it is absolutely necessary to have a QR code on your custom product labels, we would recommend you steer clear of these often over-used and misused marketing tools. Use the extra space on the custom product label for adding to the design of the label or adding even more relevant information.

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Printing Multiple Labels for a Single Product Package

It's not uncommom to see products in retail spaces that have multiple custom labels on the product's packaging. Now, we're not talking about products that have different flavors, scents, etc. What we mean by 'multiple labels' is a product that has two or more labels on a single package. Having more than one label on a product can sometimes add value to and enhance the overall presentation of the product. Often times, however, designing and printing multiple product labels for a single package is unnecessary - and can increase the cost significantly. Before you decide on which approach to use for your product packaging, there are a few important things to consider.

Does an Additional Label Add Value to the Product?

Maximizing the value of a product or service is a significant goal of any competitive business. The same is true for product labels. There is a point where the value of a product label becomes less significant than the overall cost. For example, designing a front and back label for a container that are both the same size and shape can save you money, i.e. if you have a front label that is 3" x 4" and a back label that is also 3" x 4", then we can print both labels in the same run without having to print two separate labels with a different size or shape. A single combined print run is always going to be cheaper than two separate runs.

Product Packaging Directly Affects Your Labeling Options

The shape of a product's packaging can affect labeling options more than one might realize. For example, a jar of peanut butter that has an even surface is more conducive to accepting a single label that can wrap around the entire circumferance of the package versus a trigger-pack used for a household cleaner. Attempting to design a single self-adhering label that wraps around a bottle with an unusual shape can be impractical, if not impossible.  

Think About the Label Application Process

There are a couple of ways to apply labels to a products packaging. The methods that our customers use are hand application and machine application. The method that you choose will have a direct effect on how you design your product labels, or whether you decide to go with a single or multiple label approach. If you are applying labels by hand, you are adding an extra step in the process and will have to manually ensure that the labels align properly.

Unless there is a specific reason for choosing to print multiple labels for a single product container, we recommend keeping things simple. In truth, there is no direct correlation between a product having multiple labels and an increased desire for a consumer to purchase that product over another option. We do understand, however, that certain types of packaging may require more than one label in order to effectively present a product. In the end, keeping these few points in mind while designing your product, choosing proper packaging, and designing the label(s) can help you avoid headaches and/or unnecessary costs in the long run.

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Multi Version Digital Label Printing ... Save Time and Money

As you'll have noticed on supermarket shelves in recent years, it seems there are a plethora of different variations of the same product, even within the same brand. Every product these days seems to be available in multiple flavors or scents - or even varying ingredient combinations aimed at different market segments. In the label industry we call this "versioning", and digital label printing makes it readily available to even the smallest businesses.

Fundamentally, if you wanted to print 10 different versions of the same basic label, traditional printing would require different plates for each change, which can add significant expense (and setup time). Each version may also need to be printed separately, particularly if the colors change. In digital printing, all we need to do is group together the individual artwork files for each version and we can print them all simultaneously. The colors and designs can even be completely different between versions – so long as they’re all the same size and shape and being printed on the same material.

Imagine the flexibility this provides when designing your packaging. Your various versions can have completely different visual designs aimed at making the products more visually enticing – for example the strawberry and peach flavors could include beautiful color photographs of the respective fruits to draw the consumer’s eye and more effectively describe the contents of their containers. Similarly, the use of different colored designs could differentiate between versions – green (or perhaps red) for an apple-scented body wash, orange for an orange-scented version, and so on. Rather than be restricted to simple text-only changes for each variation, digital printing provides unlimited flexibility of color and design. Instead of worrying about “How many colors do you want?” you can focus on making maximum impact with as many colors as you like – and you can gang all the different versions together to achieve the best pricing.

Here's an example of a multi-version digital label order. if your order is for a total of 2,000 labels spread across 4 different versions, you might want 1,000 of one version, 500 of the second version and 250 each for the remaining two versions (or some other logical breakdown to suit your business needs).  We can usually be quite flexible in this way, but there are some practical implications if the quantities are completely randomized with no logical groupings.  For example, asking for one version of 275 labels, another of 245 and another of 230 would make the production process more complicated, and may involve significant waste as well - which is something we try to avoid if possible to minimize our environmental impact. If your ordered quantities look unusually challenging in this way, we may need to work with you to achieve a less wasteful breakdown.

So there you have it. As long as your labels are all the same size and shape (and on the same material), there's no need to worry about extra cost or placing multiple orders. Digital printing means we can print them all at the same time and save you significant money in the process.

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Custom BBQ Sauce Labels: Getting Ready For Summer Grilling Season!

Summer is right around the corner, which means that it's time to uncover those grills and get ready for BBQ season! Now, everyone knows that a good BBQ sauce can make or break a cook-out. However, no matter how good your BBQ sauce is, if the label isn't appealing then it won't make it off the shelf (let alone end up on a smoked rack of ribs).

BBQ sauce is one category where "the image is critical" when selling your products. Whether your secret BBQ sauce recipe is for a sweet and thick Kansas City Style sauce, or an award-winning thin and sharp tasting Carolina Style sauce, label quality is extremely important for a number of reasons. Food products always look more enticing when the label displays a high-quality photo of the finished food product. The quality of a BBQ label can directly effect not just how consumers view your presentation, but also effect their perception of the quality of the product inside.

This is where Digital label printing really excels - we use only the best digital presses available, and the results are truly phonomenal. With traditional printing, it's difficult (if not impossible) to produce photo-quality images due to the complexity associated with the many colors and shades in a typical photo - but with Digital printing the sky is the limit. Food always looks more delicious when rendered in photo-quality images.

Print Multiple Label Versions for Different BBQ Sauce Flavors

Another advantage of using digital printing for your BBQ sauce labels is the ability to combine multiple "versions" into a single run (as long as the labels are the same size and shape), saving substantial money in the process. For example, if your BBQ sauce comes in 3 different flavor variations, we could print 1,000 Hickory BBQ sauce flavored labels, and 500 labels for each for Mesquite flavored and Honey BBQ flavored sauces - for a grand total of 2,000 labels. This approach achieves significant cost savings, and the 3 designs can even use completely different content and colors.

Choose High Quality Label Material for Your Barbecue Sauce

Also, it's important to remember that BBQ sauce is a very messy product in normal use. It can (and does) get everywhere, including on the label. It's important to take this factor into consideration when choosing a material for your label.

At Wizard Labels, our "baseline" label material is a polypropylene stock (not paper like so many other label printers), which definitely enhances both the visual appeal and the longevity of the labels when subjected to normal usage. Food products are frequently subjected to moisture, repeated handling and even refrigeration during their lives, which makes a robust label even more important.

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Effective Label Design: Keep It Simple

Designing an effective product label is key to ensuring that you will have a product that is able to catch the consumer's eye and also tell them what you have. Some brand-owners assume that in order for a product label to be effective, it has to be unlike anything that the customer has seen before - with a wealth of information and a label design unusual enough to make Pablo Picasso proud.

Well, we're here to tell you that having a complicated label is not always necessary, nor productive from a sales perspective. Designing an effective, concise, and eye-catching label isn't always about how many components you can cram into a certain amount of space. More often than not it's about how well the elements work together to communicate the desired product and brand message to your potential customers. In an effort to help you avoid designing and printing a cluttered, busy, and overly-complicated label, we have a few tips for you and questions to ask yourself during the design process itself.

Keep It Simple

One of the most difficult aspects of designing a label is undertanding when enough is enough. One piece of advice that we offer to many of our customers is, "Just because you can add a certain design element to your label, doesn't always mean that you have to (or that you should)."  Some of the most effective custom product labels are clean, concise, and to the point. It may initally be tempting to fit as much pizzaz and information as possible on your custom labels (i.e. product facts, benefits, brand story, social icons, QR codes, etc...), but it may not always be the best decision - indeed, we respectfully suggest that "less is more" in most cases.

For example, while a shiny metallic label in an unusual shape might potentially look really cool on your product packaging, it doesnt necessarily mean that... 1) it will actually adhere to the container properly, 2) that it will stay on the package for the life of the product, or 3) that it will allow for proper presentation of the brand imaging or product information. A balanced and elegant label can be just as effective (if not more so), than a label that tries to do too much.

Make Sure The Label Shape Flows With The Packaging

While it is okay to design a uniquely shaped label for your product, you need to make sure that the label shape will flow with the shape of the packaging. Never guess at the size or shape of a product label – having labels designed and printed without proper testing can be an expensive mistake. Similarly, never buy containers without seeing a physical sample first. Some customers have learned the hard way that what they saw in a photo online was no replacement for holding one and making sure it worked the way they expected. Yes, it can take time – but rushing any project this important is a recipe for disaster. Once you have your sample packaging in hand, this brings us to our final recommendation.

Try Out A Couple Of Different Designs By Printing Test Product Labels

Sometimes we have customers who want to test a couple of different label designs before making the final decision on which design to print for their products. Trying to visualize how a label design will look after it has been printed is never as simple as looking at the design on a computer screen and assuming that the printed result will look identical - indeed, colors often vary significantly between computer monitors and printers of all kinds. This is why we always recommend printing out a full-size test label on your desktop printer (which will at least allow you to test the size and application), even if the colors are unlikely to be exactly be the same as our presses will print - due to differences in technology between printing platforms.  If color is critical, or if you want to see a variety of designs before committing to one, we offer press-printed Concept Proofs so that you can compare different approaches and apply them to your containers for a real test. Click here to learn more about Printed Concept Proofs.

It can be very tempting to cram as much information on your product label as possible. Just remember to periodically check your label design as you add new elements or reposition existing ones. A label design that looks great on a computer screen at four times the actual size, may look cluttered and hard to read at its actual printed size. We often encounter label artwork that simply doesn't work when printed to scale - another compelling reason to test-print everything yourself before assuming anything.

In short, always take the time to think through each design aspect of your product label. It's important to understand when enough is enough, and when excess imaging or information on a label becomes a liability versus a benefit. A product (or its label) does not need to be unique in order to be competitive. Often times, designing a simple and clean label that presents the product in a way that doesn't need a lot of time to understand can be the most effective path to take.

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Choosing Durable Labels for Products Being Used Outdoors

There are unique labeling challenges to consider when designing custom product labels for products that will be used outdoors. When designing a product for household use, you are able to make certain calculated assumptions about the environment and manner in which the product will be used. When it comes to labeling outdoor products, however, there are many potential variables that can wreak havoc on a sub-par product label. So let's explore a few important things to consider when designing labels for your outdoor products.

Consider the environments in which your product will be used when choosing a label material

Whether your product was designed to be used outdoors or just has a chance of being used outdoors, choosing a proper label material is crucial to the longevity and consistent presentation of the label. For example, consider a bottle of sunscreen. Over the life of the product, the label and packaging will in all probability be exposed to water, heat from the sun, bouncing around inside of a beach bag full of sand, the lotion itself, as well as the natural use of squeezing the bottle. This is why we recommend choosing a durable plastic label over less durable paper labels for virtually all outdoor products. Indeed, we make it even simpler by using the same material for the vast majority of our indoor labels too - because then you don't have to concern yourself about how your customers will use the product - it will always look pristine.

If you’re thinking to yourself “I bet there’s a significant price difference between these labels and paper labels”, we can’t blame you. After all, the label printing industry is full of companies offering cheap paper labels (most often known as "60lb Semi Gloss paper") as their standard offering when quoting prices. However, the standard material that we use here at Wizard Labels is a specially created labeling material called BOPP (Biaxially Oriented PolyPropylene). Being a form of plastic, the labels are effectively impervious to moisture or other corruption, and will more effectively adhere to your products as the temperature and other elements fluctuate. But isn't it more expensive? - well, not usually - we've done much data analysis over the years and concluded that the cost difference on a typical digital label order is negligible, and by offering fewer material options we can get better pricing from the manufacturers. So why offer an inferior product if cost is no longer a factor?

Make sure that you have your packaging before designing the label

During the process of designing your product and choosing the packaging, never assume that you can effectively label every package that’s available to you. There are virtually unlimited options when it comes to choosing a package for a product. The truth is that some packages and self-adhesive labels are not always a match made in heaven. There are many containers that are a complete nightmare when attempting to apply a product label.

Choosing packaging that allows the entire label to properly adhere to the application surface can mean the difference between the label still being on the product after a few uses or not. As we all know, once a label starts to peel, it's only a matter of time before it's off of the packaging (or worse, begins to deteriorate and look disgusting or unattractive). During the label design process, we reccommend having the product packaging in your possession so that you can test a few different label designs and shapes. Which brings us to our final point.

Draw or print a test label shape for your product packaging before placing your order

We can appreciate unique packaging as much as the next person, but printing your preliminary label design on a desktop laser printer (at its actual size) should reveal any obvious issues with following the shape of the container, as well as resolution quality and readability issues. Hand-cutting the printed test label to final size and applying it your product is an excellent way to check that your design works in real life and fits the product properly. If you notice a potential issue with the label shape's ability to adhere to the containers, you can make adjustments in real time. It's better to make the effort to check all these items BEFORE we print thousands of them and you find out they don't fit or look right.

In short, never assume that a label design will fit onto your product packaging or that every design element will print clearly. Take a few minutes and print out a test label before moving forward with a label order. The printed result may not be exactly the same as we will print on our million-dollar digital presses (in fact we sincerely hope not), but it should be a reasonably close approximation and hopefully avoid any costly mistakes.

Taking these points into consideration during your product design process can save you significant time and money. As always, you can contact us with any labeling questions you have. We have worked with many companies to produce quality labels for products that will be used in unusual environments, and would love to use our experience to help you develop the most effective product labels possible.

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Product Packaging and It's Effect on Product Labels

Developing all the aspects of a new product can be a rather daunting and time intensive process. Not only does one have to design, develop, and create the actual product itself, but also has to choose product packaging and design the product's labels. Often times we see customers who choose really cool and unique packaging for their products in an effort to 'stand out from the competition', but sometimes don’t consider what that packaging decision means for their custom product labels. After all, not all packaging is conducive to allowing a product label to adhere effectively.

During the process of designing your product and choosing the packaging, never assume that you can effectively label every package that’s available to you. There are virtually unlimited options when it comes to choosing a package for a product. The truth is that some packages and self-adhesive labels are not always a match made in heaven. There are many containers that are a complete nightmare when attempting to apply a product label.

Self-adhesive labels (also called pressure-sensitive labels in the printing industry) work and look best when applied to a stable package surface. For example, when was the last time you saw a toothpaste tube with a self-adhesive label on it? Ever wondered why? The reality is that squeezable tubes and labels are usually not an effective combination. This is because a tube gets subjected to some serious abuse during its life, the shape is distorted beyond recognition, and a label would be very unlikely to survive. This is why most products with soft or malleable packaging have designs that are screen-printed (printed directly on the packaging, typically before it's filled) rather than have a traditional label applied. That’s a completely separate part of the printing industry with very different and unique challenges – and it’s not something we do here at Wizard Labels. So, if you think that digitally printed product labels are best for your needs, then you will need to consider the the shape of your potential product packaging and what it means for your labeling options.

Here’s a critical tip – and it’s helped many customers avoid expensive packaging/labeling mistakes. Before you start designing or ordering labels, make sure you have the intended package in your possession. We even recommend having a few different package samples in your posession before considering designing and ordering labels. In every labeling situation, creating a mock label is a good rule of thumb. To “mock up” a rough label, you can simply draw and measure the intended shape on a piece of paper – then cut it out and try to apply it to the container. If it doesn’t lie flat against the surface or gets misshapen by the taper of the container (or has wrinkled edges), you know you have a problem. It may be possible to overcome the issue using smart label design, but it’s critical to understand the challenges very early in the process. For more insight into testing a label design before ordering, feel free to check out our previous blog post here.

If you’re not quite sure whether digitally printed self-adhesive labels are a proper decision for your product, feel free to reach out to us for guidance - we can't tell you which specific container will work best for your product, but we can check your chosen approach for potential labeling challenges. There's a very good chance that we've helped previous customers with similiar labeling issues, and we may have solutions that can be directly applied to your unique situation.

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Vape Labels and Thermal Transfer Printing

It’s no secret anymore that the electronic cigarette or ‘vaping’ industry is rapidly growing. Even though vaping has been around for several years, is still a relatively new industry. With any new industry in it's infancy, there are unique challenges that arise. We have more and more vape related businesses that approach us nearly every day looking to have labels printed (the vast majority of these being e-liquid companies).

The common (and very unusual) thread between almost all vaping companies is the large number of flavors, nicotine strengths, and various bottle capacities that are in any given e-liquid line or product offering. This often results in lots of individual combinations for the labels, i.e. very many “versions”. For example, if your e-liquid line has 5 flavors and each comes in a different nicotine level (say 0mg, 3mg, and 6mg), then you will have 15 different label versions to get printed. If you are offering different bottle sizes on top of that, say 15ml, 30ml and 120ml bottles, then the number of different versions increases dramatically!

More Versions of Artwork Means More Work (and Cost) at Both Ends

More versions means more art files to deal with, which has an associated cost impact. For each artwork file that is sent to us, our pre-press department needs to go through several processes before we can print the file on our presses - as well as creating “proofs” for the customer’s approval. This function adds extra cost for every additional file - so if you want to print (say) 50 different variations then the pre-press costs can add up very quickly. In addition, your own designer also has to build and maintain all those design files at your end, which also means extra time and cost.

Predicting Consumption can be very difficult

If you have a lot of product variations (which is normal in the vapes industry), placing an order for labels requires significant planning and a crystal ball. How many of each version should you expect to sell, and how long will it take to sell them?  When you have (e.g.) 50 versions, getting all the numbers right every time must be a crap-shoot at best – which means you could end up with lots of unused labels or run out of the ones you need. The last thing anyone wants is to be sitting on a ton of labels that will not be used and are simply taking up storage space, not to mention that cash-flow issues of buying labels you may not need in the short-term.

We have a few suggestions that may make your life much easier!

1. Consider focusing on fewer versions, and put your design efforts into the “branding” rather than the changeable information such as lot numbers, dates etc. You may be able to find some way to add those elements that doesn’t affect the actual label itself, thereby minimizing the variations during the production run and saving a lot of money along the way. For example, some of our customers stamp lot numbers onto the bottles themselves, but this is just one possible approach.

2. Consider leaving space in the label designs for the variable components and explore the use of Thermal Transfer printing to “over-print” the labels with the relevant data as you need them.

Thermal Transfer Printing - what’s involved?

How does this work? There are very affordable desktop printers available (typically between $400 and $500) that use a ribbon-driven approach to print the missing data. This process is called “Thermal Transfer printing” – it applies heat to melt the surface of the ribbon in the appropriate spots and transfer the melted ink to the material being printed on.

While the use of ribbons usually means you’re limited to a single color, it’s an ideal way to add simple text like lot numbers and production dates in a very acceptable way (and one that consumers are very used to seeing on perishable products already).

Some Factors to Remember

1. Many of these T/T (Thermal Transfer) printers can accept rolls of pre-printed labels on standard 3” cores (which is what we use here at Wizard Labels) – so it’s critical that you buy a printer that can accept those cores. There are many printers that use smaller cores, so make sure you don’t buy the wrong model.

2. For a T/T printer to work properly, the ink (from the ribbon) needs to be applied to a surface that is compatible with that ink - you can’t just assume that any material will work and the ink may easily smudge or rub off. Don’t worry - we have a solution!

If we know in advance that a label job is intended for T/T over-printing, we can replace the normal over-laminate with one specifically designed for T/T inks. Indeed, we even allow you to select that laminate during the online ordering process - problem solved! Note - there is a very small increase in cost for this special laminate, but in the bigger picture you’ll save substantial money by reducing the number of versions you’re ordering.

We realize that using this approach may not be ideal for all companies. We get that. By no means do we think that this is a "one size fits all" solution. For many e-liquid companies, however, using thermal transfer printing could be the difference between having properly labeled product available on demand. Get your free instant quote at www.wizardlabels.com! 

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Raising the 'Status Quo' for Quality Product Labels

Product labels are no exception to the age-old rule; most of the time you get what you pay for. Far too often, we hear horror stories from customers about their experiences ordering labels solely based on the price per label. We have a history of doing things a little differently at Wizard Labels than the rest of the industry. That’s why we decided to raise the 'status quo' for a standard label order. There is more to the labeling industry than meets the eye, and there isn't always a wealth of information available to someone ordering labels for the first time. Naturally, price per unit is a comfortable and familiar metric that potential customers use to determine which printer they will place their label order with. However, it's important to realize what you may receive when ordering product labels at the lowest possible unit price.

Throughout the majority of our industry, a quote for standard custom product labels normally defaults to the least expensive (and least durable) label material, i.e. Semi Gloss Paper. This material may be fine for some products (particularly those with a very short lifespan, but in many instances the product is intended for a lengthy shelf life or exposure to harsh conditions. For example, using a paper label on a bathroom product (or a food product) where it's exposed to moisture and/or repeated handling would be a poor choice.

Now, the material you choose certainly can have some impact on price, but it’s important to understand that false economics often have costly results – so the “cost per label” is not the only factor you should consider. After all, the label itself is a critical part of the product – a well designed, high-quality, and properly printed label creates a very different impression in the mind of the shopper than a product with a label that looks like it was produced on a desktop printer in a home-office.

Unlike most companies in the label printing industry, the standard material that we use here at Wizard Labels is a plastic labeling material called BOPP - which stands for Biaxially-Oriented PolyPropylene (yes, we know that’s a mouthful). Anyway, it’s what we use at Wizard Labels as our mainstay offering. Being a plastic, the labels are effectively impervious to water and other elements that the packaging may get exposed to. This means that your product will retain its “brand new” look throughout its normal life. And even better - the price differential between the two materials is inconsequential in a typical digital print run (where volumes are usually lower than in the traditional flexo plants).

What all of this boils down to, is that we have deliberately chosen to not even offer the industry standard semi-gloss paper - we've standardized on the BOPP material to guarantee a better quality label for your products. While you can't control every environment in which your product is stored or used, you can take steps to ensure that your product labels stand up to natural use over the life of the product. A business owner shouldn’t have to pay extra for having your labels printed on a quality material. That's why we have raised the status quo for custom product labels.

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Looking to have labels printed for your products? Get your free instant quote for your custom product label order at www.wizardlabels.com today! We print labels for products in all sorts of categories, shapes, and sizes.

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Labeling E-Cigarettes and E-Liquid

Electronic cigarettes (e-Cigs) are a booming industry, and they have very specific challenges when it comes to labelling. For example, most vendors offer various "nicotine strengths" and certainly many different flavors - all of which adds up to lots of different labels in varying quantities.  This challenge is perfectly suited to digital label printing, which is all we do here at Wizard Labels. Whether you are looking to print labels for e-Cigs or e-Liquid (the 'juice' that produces the vapor), we can help. Here are some tips particularly relevant to the "vaping" industry (as it is sometimes known):

Multi-versioning - As vapers all know, there are thousands of flavors available in various sized containers - from 5ml through 30ml being the most typical.  But that's just the beginning - because all these products are also available in a range of nicotine strengths, so the labeling challenge is significant when you take all these variations into account.  If you went to a traditional label printer, the plate costs alone would bankrupt the average e-liquid vendor, but digital printing makes it much more manageable financially and logistically.  As long as you "group" all the labels of a single size together, you get the combined pricing for all those variations.  We then run all those versions at the same time, and you can even vary the quantities - some versions may sell better than others, so you can freely mix the quantities within the run.

For example, if your order is for a total of 2,500 labels spread across 5 different versions, you might want 1,000 of one version, 500 each of the next two versions and 250 each for the remaining two versions (or some other logical breakdown to suit your business needs).  We can usually be quite flexible in this way, but there are some practical implications if the quantities are completely randomized with no logical groupings.  For example, asking for one version of 275 labels and another of 225 makes the production process more complicated, and may involve significant waste as well - which is something we try to avoid if possible to minimize our environmental impact.  

Why is this important? - because we print multiple versions side-by-side across the raw material, so having equal numbers wherever practicable is much more efficient in every way.  Does that mean all versions need to be the same quantity?- no... just that we may want to work with you and even some of them out if possible.  This usually only becomes necessary when we receive an order for many versions and the specific quantities are likely to create unnecessary waste (or extra time to break down in production).  In such cases, we'll reach out and see if there's an acceptable compromise. The adhesion challenge -  Many of the smaller e-liquid bottles are a label's worst nightmare, due to the narrow diameter of the bottle which makes adequate adhesion more difficult than (say) a flat container.  This is the same challenge we see with lip balm sticks - the labels can have a tendency to "unfurl" and become unstuck over time, and there are a couple of tricks that can make this less likely (see the image below).  First, the adhesive on the labels themselves needs to be more aggressive to stay in place, and second it can help if you design your labels with a slight overlap area (so that the label wraps around the small bottle and sticks to itself).  To make matters worse, many vapers carry their "supplies" in their pockets, so paper-based labels are not a good solution - they can tend to deteriorate very quickly.                      

We have a great solution to both of these problems at the same time, called "Tight Mandrel BOPP" material - it's a polypropylene label stock which is extremely resistant to wear and tear (and moisture), plus it has a stronger adhesive to achieve a better bond with the container.  Note - as the bottle size increases, the need for these special tricks begins to diminish - but on smaller bottles it's almost an essential part of the process if you want your labels to stay in place and look good.

Cleanliness and Godliness - Okay, let's concede that there might be some debate about whether vaping is a mortal sin, but cleanliness is a big issue for e-liquid vendors (during manufacturing as well as labeling).  If the bottle surfaces come in contact with the juice before labeling, the labels will have difficulty adhering properly - so make sure your containers are clean and free of any contamination when you apply the labels.  Also, it's quite likely that your customers may spill some juice down the sides of the bottles during use, which just reinforces the need to avoid paper and use a robust label material (as mentioned above).

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The Murphy’s Law of Labeling

Murphy's Law states that "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". However, in the labeling world we prefer the saying "count on the fact that things will not always go as you anticipate them going". Like most things in life, a little planning ahead when it comes to designing and printing custom product labels can save you potential headaches throughout the labeling process.

Our modern society operates mainly on instant gratification. If we need information, it's nearly instantly available from any smartphone or computer nearby. If we want food, we can order it within seconds using the latest app. If we need a new computer by tomorrow, just choose next day shipping and you'll have it at your doorstep in no time. However, expecting things to go perfectly in every situation is not realistic. This is the mindset that we recommend you adopt when it comes to printing your custom product labels.

Far too often, a customer submits a label design and expects that no adjustments will need to be made and that the design is ready to go to print. While this may be the case in many instances (especially re-ordering), factoring in even an extra day for potential changes that the designer will need to make can help immensely. Similarly, a common misconception with the free 2-day shipping we offer at Wizard Labels is that some customers assume they can order labels on a Wednesday and have them delivered on Friday. If you think about it, that would allow us no time for proofing or production - which clearly makes no sense. Even Wizards have limitations. It’s critical to remember that we keep NOTHING on the shelf – everything we produce is “made to order”.

In reality, assuming your artwork does pass through the proofing phase without modification or re-submission, most orders get produced and ready to ship within 2 workdays, but you then need to add in the transit time while UPS brings them to your door. Again, most orders are delivered within the 2-day transit window we offer free of charge (unique to Wizard Labels), but many customers actually receive them overnight if they're in the mid-West region.  As a general rule of thumb, we strongly suggest that you allow a week (i.e. 5 work days) between the time you place your order and the labels turn up at your facility - in many cases they'll arrive earlier than that, but allowing a little wiggle-room is always a wise move.

'Murphy's Law of Labeling' also means that completely unpredictable things can (and do) happen occasionally. We may have a sudden press breakdown, a power outage, unusually busy order periods (typically around holidays), almost anything can potentially get in the way of our normal production schedules. They don't happen often, but it's unwise to expect them not to happen at all. And once your package does get handed to our great friends at UPS, then a whole different set of possibilities kicks in - weather delays, misdirected packages (which thankfully happen very rarely indeed), or the brown truck could even get a flat tire on its way to you. Throw in potential air traffic problems for the more distant customers and it almost seems like a miracle when things go according to plan (which is in the vast majority of cases).

All this being said, we don't want to scare you off. In fact, we take great pride in the speed and reliability with which we print and deliver labels to customers. We're not saying that you need to plan on everything going wrong, but allowing a buffer to allow for hiccups in any labeling scenario is a good rule of thumb.

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Label Turnaround Time

How long will it take for me to receive my custom labels? This is a question that we get asked fairly regularly. We get it - you've spent all of this time developing a product and you're ready to get it in the hands of your customers. However, printing professional quality custom labels is a little more involved that clicking 'Print' on your desktop printer.  To help you better understand what it takes, let’s go on a quick journey through the label printing process.

First, you place your order and supply us with the appropriate artwork (assuming of course that it’s not a simple repeat order, in which case we already have the artwork). Once we have the art files, our pre-press department then has to review every design file you’ve sent. The amount of time taken to complete this process varies a lot (depending on how many files are involved and how good the art is when we receive it), but we allow on average 5 minutes per file to get your artwork into a press-ready state and proofed. Some files take less than this, but others can take quite a bit longer - which is why it's critical for your designer to prepare the files as closely as possible to our artwork specs (see https://www.wizardlabels.com/artwork-specs).

The next step is the proofing process. Regardless of whether you’ve sent new files or are re-ordering artwork we’ve used previously, we still need to “proof” the order (i.e. we send you a PDF with all the versions you specified) – this is necessary to make sure we've pulled the correct versions and we also got all the quantities etc correct. We never schedule a production job until we get the final approval to proceed, so it's in your interest to review the proofs carefully and quickly. That said, please don't rush this – sadly we find some customers don't even bother to check the proofs and just give us the approval to go into production, only to subsequently find they missed something important.

Okay – so now we have an approved job to produce physical labels. This is when the real fun starts, beginning with scheduling the job. We normally allow a couple of business days to complete the job and ship it out to you – because each unique “job” goes through multiple production phases, beginning with the actual printing itself. Depending on how many labels you ordered, this initial printing process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours – and it's normal to expect there are other jobs in front of yours in the production queue.

After the printing is completed, the roll of material (known as the "web") is then moved to the next station in the process on a separate piece of equipment about 20 feet long – where die-cutting and lamination take place. Die-cutting is where the printed labels are stamped out of the surrounding material into the required size and shape (like a cookie-cutter in concept). This equipment usually also applies a thin film of clear protective lamination on top of the printed material. Mounting the appropriate die for your order and aligning the die-press for each new job usually takes 10-15 minutes and then the operator hits “Go” and the magic continues – the pre-printed web streams through the die-press and out the other end comes a die-cut web with appropriate lamination in place and all the waste between the labels removed.

This web is then passed on to the next section – known as the Rewind department. The rewind operator mounts the web on a mechanical slitter-rewinder, and adjusts rotary knives to slit the web into individual rolls of labels. The rewind operator is also responsible for making sure the rolls end up in the correct “unwind direction” for your intended application method, and the finished rolls are then transported to the last section in the process, which is packing and shipping.      

The packers assemble the finished order into boxes for shipment to your chosen destination. Late in the afternoon, a UPS truck comes in and collects all the orders for that day and takes them off for delivery. Our free 2-day delivery to anywhere in the US is unique to the best of our knowledge, and depending on your location it may actually happen overnight at no extra cost.

As you can see, there are many individual steps involved in producing each and every label order. Each of these steps is necessarily time-consuming to achieve the best possible quality, and a single job typically takes a couple of workdays to wind its way right through the plant and onto the UPS truck. It’s also important to note that our entire business is focused on “custom labels”, which implies we make everything to order from scratch. We do not carry inventories of off-the-shelf items, because every customer has unique needs for their products.

Given the number of orders we're processing every day, and the very short turn-times involved, please note that at Wizard Labels we do not offer a “rush order” facility. Our standard 2-day production time is arguably the fastest in the industry and we do not believe in allowing customers to jump the queue, because that would adversely impact every other customer's orders. In many cases we can upgrade the shipping to Overnight delivery if needed, but the production process is based on "first in, first out" once we receive approval of the proofs.

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Printed Concept Proofs for Custom Product Labels

Deciding on a final product label design can be difficult. Every business owner wants to adorn their product with the most eye-catching, informative, and effective product label possible. Even after putting in hours of brain power and tinkering with the label design, some customers want to be able to see and touch a physical sample (or a few variations) of their product label before having the order printed and shipped out.

Trying to visualize how a label design will look after it has been printed is not always as simple as looking at the design on a computer screen and assuming that the printed result will look identical - indeed, colors often vary significantly between computer monitors and printers of all kinds. For every label order that we receive, we always create an electronic proof of the order - which confirms the chosen versions, order quantities, etc. These electronic proofs are provided at no charge to you and they are a critical piece of the ordering process, as they provide a check-point for you to make sure we've correctly interpreted your order and selected the correct art files.

However, in some cases you may wish to see an actual press-printed proof (or even several variations of the design) before committing to a final production run.  This is why we offer the option for you to order a 'Concept Proof' before your order goes into production, so you can see what the final labels will look like - and even experiment with different design treatments.

Note - there are some points to take into consideration before assuming that you should order Concept Proofs:

There is a flat $95 fee for us to print an agreed selection of your artwork files (including overnight delivery to you via UPS after the proofs have been printed). Concept Proofs are printed on the same presses we use for normal jobs, but they do not have the same high priority as production orders - so there may be a delay of a day or two before they ship. We'll do our best to squeeze them in between jobs in the least wasteful way, but getting production orders out to customers is always our top priority.

If you're uncertain about specific color mixes or design approaches, you can even send us some alternative files to print side-by-side on the press and make your final design decisions based on the results

    - Concept Proofs are limited to one set per production order - we cannot devote resources to multiple rounds of artwork adjustments, so make sure you prepare your selected files with that in mind.

  - You will need to have a customer profile already set up on our website, and you'll need to have placed a production order. If for any reason you subsequently decide not to proceed with the order, we can easily cancel it and you'll only be charged for the proofs.

 - Choosing to have Concept Proofs sent to you can help cut long-term costs, lower risk, and give you peace of mind - but they do add some initial cost and time delays, so make sure you leave adequate time in your label design and ordering process for adjustments to be made if necessary.

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The False Economics of Labeling - There's More to a Product Label Than Unit Cost.

Most companies in the printing industry have traditionally taken a very narrow view of what makes their particular offering more attractive than a competitor's, and that key differentiator has often come down to one factor - the unit price of a single printed piece (whether it's an envelope, a brochure, or a product label).  In this desperate game to "beat the other guy", getting a quote is often a difficult process and you need an advanced math degree to even make sense of the all "add-ons" buried in the fine print. Let's explore why comparing offerings can actually be misleading and you may forget some significant factors when making this decision. In short, it's critical to consider one concept that is very often overlooked - what we call "Total Cost of Ownership" (or TCO).

Sure, when you look at your product (say it's a bottle of shampoo for instance) you need to consider many things - how much you can sell it for, how much it costs to make and ship it, what the bottle and packaging costs, and of course don't forget the label.  Assuming you've remembered all the costs, then you also need to make sure the profit margin is sufficient to make a healthy profit - otherwise you won't be around long enough to be too concerned about the rest. Sadly, the labels are something that often get forgotten until the last minute, and then the focus goes firmly onto "how much per label can I afford to pay and not break the formula?". This is what we like to call the "False Economics of Labeling".

Key Point number 1: - Quantity drives price

In the print industry, economies of scale are the norm - i.e. the more you order the cheaper they get (per piece). This is largely due to the manufacturing process itself - it's usually little extra work to print 20,000 of something than it is to print 10,000 once all the usual equipment setup etc is done. However, buying 20,000 when you only really anticipate needing 10,000 is the first kind of false economics we encounter. Yes, the unit price dropped - but what can go wrong with this thinking?

Key Point number 2: - The Only Constant is Change

In business (and everything else in life), change is inevitable. The same principle also applies to your labels. It's important to take potential regulatory changes into account when ordering large quantities of custom product labels. Certain product categories such as nutraceuticals and electronic cigarettes can be more prone to regulatory changes, but it is a good idea to be aware of labeling regulations regardless of which industry you operate in. Similarly, ingredients can often change with minimal warning, and you're stuck with a bunch of unusable labels. In the end, trying to save a few pennies per label may not be worth it if you have to toss half of them in the dumpster when an unexpected change needs to be made.

Key Point number 3: - Cash is King

Okay, you managed to negotiate your printer down to an acceptable unit price - but you had to order more than you need in the short term to achieve that. Congratulations - but you're expected to pay for the whole truckload now, not later. If you're swimming in cash this may make sense, but most businesses do not fit that description. So, while your per-label price is always going to be higher for smaller quantities, you should keep in mind that you're only parting with a smaller pile of cash this month. Spreading your purchases across time is what the manufacturing industry refers to as "JIT inventory control" (which stands for Just In Time). Even huge companies have long ago worked out that it's smarter to limit their exposure and control their cash flow by ordering more frequently - even if the unit cost is higher.

So, what's the message here?

It's quite simple really - you need to consider the Total Cost of Ownership when buying product labels (or anything else for that matter). If you base your choices on a single factor (unit price) and don't take into account the various other ways your money is being consumed, it's False Economics. Oh, and never let a sales person push you towards a higher quantity to achieve a better price - after all, they want the biggest order they can get. Fortunately, at Wizard Labels we don't employ sales people - our staff literally live and breathe to get you the best deal for YOUR circumstances - after all, if we look after you we believe you'll be around for a long time and we all win.