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Design
Artwork that survives
the draw.
Metal is lithographed flat and formed afterwards. Someone has to compensate for what that does to the artwork. If that someone is not on your team, it is on ours.
Why metal needs it
Artwork is printed onto flat sheet and the tin is formed after. Wherever the metal draws, the printed surface stretches with it, predictably, but not by an amount anyone can judge on screen.
An uncompensated dieline produces a pack where the mark goes oval on the shoulder and type thins over the corner radius. It gets discovered at proof, which is the expensive place to discover it.
What we need from you
A logo, your Pantone references if you hold them, and anything already running in market. Vector artwork if it exists, a photograph of an existing pack if it does not.
If there is nothing yet, that is a normal place to start. The format and the size get decided first either way, because the print area is not known until they are.
What comes back
A dieline per size with the drawn areas mapped, so artwork is placed against real distortion rather than a flat rectangle.
Pantone selection over the white base coat, print area confirmed against a physical sample, and a proof printed on tinplate, not on paper, which is a different surface and a different colour space.
Who owns it
Your artwork is yours. Files are released on request, in the format you ask for, whether or not you order again.
The dieline is yours too. If you take it to another supplier it will still be a correct dieline, which is the point of publishing tooling status rather than holding it over you.
Deliverables
What you actually receive.
- Dieline
- Per size, as AI and PDF
- Distortion
- Drawn areas mapped before artwork starts
- Colour
- Pantone selected over the white base coat
- Print area
- Confirmed against a physical sample, not a drawing
- Proof
- Printed on tinplate and approved by you before volume
- Files
- Released on request, in your format, with no lock-in
Registration and colour are confirmed per format at proofing. A Pantone on metal and the same Pantone on a carton will never be an exact visual match. We proof both together when a pack has to sit inside a printed box.