Our Christchurch-based Account Manager Rachel O’Connor has been working with the Reefton team since their inception, developing labels for their range including the Little Biddy collection. Little Biddy pays homage to Bridget Goodwin, a local gold miner from the nineteenth century. It is fitting that the Little Biddy brand was chosen for this collaboration.

The label design brought together the key identifiers of each brand – the red and black Swanndri pattern and the gold detail of the Little Biddy artwork.

We had previously printed Reefton’s Little Biddy labels on our silver filmic material and the team was keen to incorporate this into the label design once again. The synthetic material is highly conformable to curved surfaces, like bottles, as well as being moisture resistant. The shiny nature of the material also creates a foil-like effect for the label design.

The label design incorporated Raffine Gold ink to provide a true premium gold look, consistent with previous print runs. We also added white ink to enhance the opacity of certain design elements. The white ink was also applied under the mandatory New Zealand license number and the barcode to ensure ease of readability.

We gave the label extra tactile appeal with the application of our soft touch matt lamination and highlighted key areas of the artwork using a spot gloss varnish for stunning contrast. This finishing gives the label a velvet-like feel whilst adding scuff-resistant protection to the inks. This is particularly important when printing labels with darker backgrounds.  

We printed the labels in Christchurch using our flexographic (flexo) printing technology. Flexo requires the use of plates for each colour that carry a raised image to accept the ink. When the plate is pressed against the material the ink transfers from the plate to the material.  In most cases, once the colours have been printed, the same machine will have stations to apply coatings, add any embellishments and die-cut the labels. Our flexo presses achieve world-class quality print and are well set up for medium to long label runs, such as this Limited Edition variety.