by Brittany Willes, editor. PostPress

As little as 10 years ago, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team was considered an afterthought – even in its own hometown. Unfortunately for its various sports teams, Chicago has long been home to one-year wonders, and the Blackhawks’ chances of winning another Stanley Cup were considered practically nonexistent. This changed in 2010 when the Blackhawks faced the Philadelphia Flyers, defeating the Flyers four games to two and winning the team’s first cup championship since 1962 – one of the longest active Cup droughts in National Hockey League history. Luckily for Blackhawk fans, this was only the beginning. The Blackhawks would go on to defeat the Boston Bruins in 2013 and, most recently, the Tampa Bay Lightning, once again claiming the Stanley Cup for the 2015 season.

While winning three championships in six years is certainly noteworthy, 2015 was doubly special for the Blackhawks as it signified the team’s first championship on home ice in 77 years. Clearly, a celebration was in order – one that would be kept alive for years to come with the publication of commemorative book detailing the team’s journey from invisible to indivisible.

Against a deep red and black background, the headline “ONE GOAL III” stands out in stark white lettering. Below, a solitary figure stands with his back to the viewer while raising a gleaming trophy above his head in obvious triumph. The glimmer of the silver trophy is brightly complemented by a silver banner with further white lettering proudly declaring “The Inside Story of the 2015 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.”

After a 2-0 win in the final game against Tampa Bay, it could only be fitting that the cover of the team’s 2015 championship book be as distinctive and memorable as the game itself. “Our main objective with the cover was to create something that would be impactful, timeless and reflective of the team’s achievement,” explained John Sandberg, creative director for the Blackhawks. “We wanted to showcase the power of the moment of the 2015 Stanley Cup clincher.”

In creating the book and its memorable cover, Sandberg reached out to Universal Bookbindery (UBB), San Antonio, Texas. Casebound using PUR adhesive, UBB used a book block produced on a Kolbus Ratio perfect binding line with PUR glue. The printed cover wrap was applied to the board on a Kolbus DA-270 high-speed casemaker. The embossing to register then was done on a Sheridan four-post embossing press. Finally, the book was cased in tight-back on a Kolbus fully-automated casing inline machine.

“We decided to use embossing on the cover from the very early stages of the process,” Sandberg remarked. “We knew that embossing certain elements on the front would add an extra visual element to the design. We have used embossing on a variety of other print projects in the past, so we knew how to incorporate it into the design in a way that would only enhance the final product.” In addition to adding an extra visual element, the cover’s embossings also added a unique production challenge.

While UBB has created many similarly produced books, special to the championship book was “printing on a silver met polyester film which required the embossing die to register to the image of the player holding up the Stanley Cup after it was wrapped onto the heavy binding board,” remarked Trip Worden, president of Universal Bookbindery.

For the embossing, a 80# silver metallic poly paper was selected in order to give certain areas, such as the Stanley Cup on the front, a little extra shine. However, the designers did not want to have the stock overtake other areas. To avoid this, “we printed a white opaque at varying opacities before printing the cover art on top,” stated Sandberg. “This gave us some flexibility to see how much of the silver could show through on other parts of the cover, while still keeping the integrity of the overall design intact.”

The cover is not the only impressively detailed part of the book. The inside pages abound with colorful photos, interviews, player profiles and game recaps. Just as impressive are the several tip-ins placed strategically throughout the book: a replica of the home game ticket, a magnet bearing the Blackhawks logo next to the Chicago skyline, several holographic photos depicting some of the most exciting moments from the game, a team poster and even a miniature championship flag have all been incorporated into the almost 250-page volume. Finally, secured to the inside back cover via a thin plastic covering is a Blackhawks DVD. Every detail has been carefully thought out to provide fans with the ultimate piece of Blackhawks memorabilia.

According to Worden, the book’s creation required extensive collaboration between Sandberg, Jamie Carter with Rock Communications and Lotus Creations, which made the sculpted embossing die. “Thanks to this collaboration and all the work done in advance, the process was able to run smoothly and achieve the desired results,” said Worden.

The final product exceeded Sandberg and the designer’s original hopes for the cover from a production perspective, tastefully incorporating a variety of techniques to enhance the original design. Furthermore, the book received recognition during the 2016 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards. In a fitting tribute to the team the book is meant to commemorate, the championship book received the Gold award for best use of foil/embossing in the bound book category.

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by Brittany Willes, editor, PostPress

“Don’t forget about the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted. He lived happily ever after.” – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mythical candy man Willy Wonka may have believed that exotic candies appealed almost exclusively to the hearts and imaginations of young children, but the owners of Sugarfina® gourmet candy believed differently. It was during a screening of the original “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in which they first contemplated a boutique filled with gourmet, and decidedly adult, sweets. For them it was simple: Why should kids have all the fun? In keeping with this mindset, the Los Angeles, California-based company reached out to Thoro Packaging in order to create a unique package for its line of cocktail-inspired treats which include Champagne Bears®, Martini Olive Almonds, Jamaican Rum Snowballs and Cuba Libre® gummies. The result is the But First, Cocktails Candy Bento Box®, a stunning blend of whimsy and elegance one would expect from candies designed specifically for adults.

“The But First, Cocktails kit from Sugarfina is a sophisticated chic collection of cocktail-inspired candies,” stated Kate Scherer, creative director of Product 360 Creative, the agency hired to design the packaging. “Rosie of Sugarfina was inspired by the 1920’s, a time when cocktails and design were elaborate and elegant. She asked for an Art Deco-inspired pattern in a feminine color palette,” explained Scherer. “The shapes and intricacy of the pattern, along with the soft, muted tones, high-contrast black and reflective gold detail, are how we brought the Art Deco storytelling to the packaging.”

Sugarfina uses standard set-up boxes and customizes them for each product collection using a custom sleeve. For the Cocktails sleeve, a .018 caliper SBS board was selected and hot stamped using Kurz Luxor 414 Gold foil. The foil serves as an accent for the sleeve’s prominent white and powder blue color scheme, further emphasized by subtle ribbons of black throughout.

Printed on a Heidelberg press, the sleeve was done with four colors, black plus three spot colors, before receiving a UV matte varnish. The blue and white arch pattern was hot stamped with gold foil accents, with the foil stamping done on a Bobst BMA machine. The “ribbon” portion of the artwork, with the product name and information, was embossed to create the effect of the ribbon being on top of the background pattern. As with the foiling, all of the sleeve’s embossing was completed on a Bobst BMA. Finally, the sleeve was folded and glued using a Bobst Expert Fold machine. The foil/embossing dies were supplied by Universal Engraving, Inc.

As mentioned earlier, while the sleeve design may appear simple at first glance, the intricately detailed design presented Thoro staff with quite the production challenge. “The detailed nature of the pattern required extremely precise registration to align the foil stamped accents,” remarked Scherer. Close examination of the sleeve reveals gold foiling used throughout every facet of the sleeve’s design, from the outline of the ribbon on the front of the sleeve to the stripes and curves of the rows of arches in the background. Even the ingredients list on the back of the sleeve is boarded by a thin line of foil. Luckily, “our skilled staff was able to register the foil stamping successfully,” said Scherer, further aiding the sleeve’s goal of sophisticated elegance.

The “But First, Cocktails” packaging achieved more than just an elegant presentation for the consumer. Thoro entered the sleeve into the 2016 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards in the folding carton category. The packaging was awarded the Gold award for best creative use of foil/embossing.

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“Purple Pride” is as synonymous with Kansas State University as Willie the Wildcat. Therefore, it could be only appropriate that the 2015 loyalty book be shrouded in the school’s signature deep purple, complemented by a beautifully debossed and foil stamped cover proudly declaring “AHEARN FUND: National Leadership Circle.”

“Our goal was to produce a fine print piece to our high standards of quality in the hopes of achieving some notoriety, while meeting the requested turn time,” stated Matt Seidl, vice president of Seidl’s Bindery, Inc., Houston, Texas. Making use of semi-concealed wire-o binding, multi-color foil and debossed tabs, in addition to the deceptively simple cover, the Ahern loyalty book certainly lives up to Seidl’s production aims.

In order to create the finished book, both the cover and inside tabs were foil stamped, all on one large letterpress, before being debossed. Next, the inside text was trimmed to single sheets while the cover was press scored and trimmed. The inside text was then collated and wire-o punched along with the cover. The cover was added as a semi-concealed, wire-o bind and the whole book was wrapped in sets of five for boxing.

When it came to deciding which binding method to use for the book, Seidl’s production team quickly decided on wire-o as the most effective. “The customer required that the book lay flat when open,” explained Seidl. “There were two potential options: PlastiKoil binding or wire-o binding. However, the customer didn’t want to see the coil. Because PlastiKoil cannot be semi-concealed, wire-o was the only practical option.”

This type of binding was not without its challenges. In order to bind a semi-concealed wire-o book, the covers must be added by hand. Naturally, this means more time is required for the labor processes. “The most important dimension of the cover for a semi-concealed wire-o book is the spine,” Seidl remarked. In order to create the perfect spine, the inside text thickness must be calculated prior to converting the cover to allow for the appropriate room inside the cover for the binding wire.

Inside the book are four distinct tabs, each bearing its own foil color. The tabs were stamped separately with their requested foil colors of gold, silver or bronze. Like the front cover, the tab pages were created on Seidl’s large stamping press. According to Seidl, “Register is critical on the tabs, specifically with the deboss being uniform on every tab. We had to make sure we held position from tab to tab.” In addition to holding position, it is important to order a Film Positive, or some kind of makeready sheet, when ordering dies in order to guarantee being in registration on press.

Sheet size represented another challenge for the production team. As Seidl noted, the parent sheet for the cover and text were originally blank. “Before we were even awarded the job, we created a template layout for the cover and the tabs that could be used as a guide, not just for ourselves but for the printer,” he said. This guide would be used to help the printer to determine the proper size sheet to be ordered for the job.

Despite the few production challenges, the book itself was fairly easy to produce, Seidl affirmed. “When you do the math right up front, the book is actually very simple. As long as you can account for the proper wire size by calculating the inside text thickness,” he said.

Perhaps because of its fresh simplicity, the finished book was very well received by the customer. “They were extremely pleased with the final product, and we are now their preferred vendor,” he declared. “We are currently producing the 2016 version of the same piece!”

The customers weren’t the only ones impressed. The Ahearn Fund “National Leadership Circle” 2015 Loyalty Book, and Seidl’s Bindery were awarded the Gold award for Best Use of Foil/Embossing in the CorporateBrochure/Catalogue category during this year’s FSEA Gold Leaf Awards.

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