Print product development at bigDAWGS
Print products I took from brief to production at bigDAWGS, 2022 to 2024: a video card whose printed cover wraps the whole screen module, sold by bigDAWGS today; our own smart socket box, sold on Amazon; a box line for a client, still in production; and the foil tests behind them. I designed the structures and made the dielines and production files.
Print that works as a product
At bigDAWGS I took print products from a brief to a finished piece: the structure, the dieline, the test cuts and the press files. The work here runs from a video card whose printed cover wraps the whole screen module, to our own smart socket box, sold on Amazon, and a client’s crystal and candle line, still in production in boxes I designed. Foil tests behind them showed what our presses could do.
- 01Brief and product size
- 02Structure and dieline
- 03White board test cuts
- 04Press files, one plate per finish
- 05Print, finish and die cut
A cover for the part you can’t print on
A video card is a folding card with a screen, buttons and a speaker built in. I redesigned its cover so the print wraps the whole screen module, and the card can be any colour, white included.
The problem
A video card’s screen module is black, and on a standard card it shows along every edge and around the switch and ports. It can’t be printed on, so every card carries black, whatever the brand’s colours.
What I designed
One flat sheet, die cut with a screen window and openings for the switch and USB ports, creased and folded around the module, so the print covers the front, the back and every edge.
How I tested it
Plain white builds first, to get the folds and openings right, then printed samples with foil and raised varnish.
Result
A product bigDAWGS sells today, in clean white or printed edge to edge in the client’s own colours.
One sheet, one click: the box and its tray
I designed the retail box for globe, bigDAWGS’ own smart sockets, sold on Amazon. The brief: a box that holds the socket without a separate insert, at the lowest print cost per box.
The problem
A box with a separate insert means two print jobs, more sheets, and cutting and gluing. Each sheet of Invercote board costs about 50 cents, and production presses bill by the click, about 30 cents each: a sheet up to 19 inches long is one click, anything longer, up to 30 inches, is two. A box that doesn’t fit 13 by 19 costs twice as much to print.
What I designed
A tuck end carton with a hang tab, with the tray built into the same sheet. The tray folds down inside and holds the socket in a small cutout, so there’s no insert to print, cut or glue.
How I tested it
Three test cuts in about two weeks. The first box was a little too big for the socket, so I took 3 mm off for a snug fit, then set up the final sheet with two boxes on one 13 by 19 inch sheet.
The files
Die cut, crease, glue guide, QR code and feed direction layers, plus cutter files for our AOL and Skycut die cutters.
Result
Two boxes on every 13 by 19 inch sheet of Invercote board, no inserts: half the board and half the toner per box. The globe socket sold on Amazon in this box.
One die for a whole product line
For a client, a crystal and candle brand, I designed a box line that runs on one die, with foil and raised varnish on every box.
The problem
A growing product line, each product needing its own box, without paying for a new die or rebuilding the files every time.
What I designed
One folding carton, about 3.4 inches on each side, one up on a 13 by 19 inch sheet, with a fixed layout. Only the colour, the crystal icon and the name change from product to product.
The finishes
Foil on the crystal icon and monogram, raised varnish on the script logo and product name. Some boxes also print on the inside.
The files
Each finish is its own spot colour (IFOIL, Varnish, CutContour, Crease), so the press and the die cutter each read only their own plate.
Result
In production. From the shop’s customer reviews: “Beautifully packaged and perfect for gift giving” and “packaged so elegantly.”
Testing what foil and varnish can do
Alongside client work, I built test pieces to learn exactly what our foil and varnish setup could do before we offered it to clients. A cheaper way to make any colour holographic, a swatch book of thirteen foils, and a card that stacks four foil passes in register.
The foil hack: any colour, holographic
The problem
Metallic effects in any colour usually need white toner or a licensed system like Color-Logic, and foil only comes in the colours suppliers sell. Our Konica Minolta press has no white station.
What I found
Soft touch lamination over holographic foil turns it almost white, and printing on top of the lamination makes it go clear again, so the foil shows through only where the second pass lands.
How it runs
Pass 1 prints the art on holographic foil stock. Soft touch lamination mutes the foil. Pass 2 prints on top in register, in toner or in raised varnish on the MGI, which made the holographic pop the most.
Result
Any colour our presses can print can come out raised, metallic and holographic, without white toner or supplier foils. I built it into our hot lamination workflow to keep it cheap to produce.
The swatch book: thirteen foils, one test pattern
What it is
Thirteen raised foils, from copper and holo rainbow to matte silver, each on the same 4.5 by 3.5 inch test card.
The test card
I designed the pattern to show how fine a detail our raised foil can hold: thin wave lines, dot gradients, small stars, hairlines, a solid block and type at five sizes. The same design runs on every card, so the foils compare like for like.
The four pass card: foil held in register
What it shows
Four colours of raised foil on one card, each run as its own pass. Every pass has to land in register with the ones before it, and the card shows the press holding that registration across all four.
Every piece here starts from a limit: a black module no one can print on, a press that bills by the sheet length, a product line that shouldn’t need a new die for every product, a press with no white station. I design to those limits, so what looks right on screen also runs on the press, at the price the job allows.