Aldi Specially Selected Crisps

Agency: Sun Branding Solutions
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Location: Bradford, Yorkshire, UK
Packaging contents: Various flavours of Aldi Specially Selected crisps
Packaging Materials: Litho printing on cardboard, Flexo and Gravure printing on various flexible plastics

Challenge:
This project was part of the re-brand of the Aldi Specially Selected range and Sun Branding Solutions worked closely with Aldi to produce a high quality print that would differentiate its premium crisp range from other leading retailers. The emphasis on this project was brand consistency across all print processes and formats.

Aldi wanted to incorporate the use of black into this re-design but wanted to avoid following suit of the other major retailers. Sun agreed on the mottled black colour was difficult to achieve in press and proofing trials.

Process:
To create the mottled black effect, after several tests, the uniquely created ‘Aldi six’ black was mixed with a non-standard gold ink for the Specially Selected logo.

The Aldi black was formulated into our colour management software to create a specific and dedicated colour for Aldi. Individual jobs were then proofed using the relevant printer profiles. The Aldi black six spot colour was created and supplied as a lab colour reference.

The agency proofed using traditional wet proofs until the client was happy with the result.

Following this Sun Branding Solutions backward engineered the print to create the final colour standards. This involved taking readings off the wet proofs to create a specification sheet to produce the ink lab values, density and dot gain, and also the matt and gloss varnish levels.

Results:
The final printed result was achieved by reverse printing seven colours on Flexo, followed by surface printing, patterned matt lacquer gravure enabling the gloss / matt effect to be evident on the surface of the bag. This was then laminated onto metallic plastic.

This process was used across a full range of print processes including Flexo, Litho, Gravure with the aim to bring brand consistency across all three processes.

The delicate detail in the mottled effect background was not only a challenge for carton board work but also for film and flow wrap work. Particularly with the requirement to achieve both a matt and gloss finish whilst printing on clear substrate.

However, through close, tight colour management from concept to print, Sun Branding Solutions achieved excellent results and consistency throughout all processes.