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Congratulations 2023 FSEA Gold Leaf Award Winners

Innovative card and label designs showcase Cast & Cure

Breit Technologies is excited to congratulate three of our clients on their 2023 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards in the Best Use of Film Casting category.  Visions, Inc. of Brooklyn Park, MN took the Gold, Rose City Label of Portland, OR earned Silver and Cursive in Mason, OH came home with the Bronze.  Each of their applications showcased the unique capabilities and design attributes of Cast & Cure.

“We’re proud that each of these clients were honored for their creative, elegant, and innovative use of Cast & Cure in their submissions, noted Tim Cain, Breit Technologies President.  Their unique applications took great advantage of Cast & Cure’s visual impact.”

Gold

“Indian Life” greeting card by David White

Printer:  Visions, Inc., Brooklyn Park, MN

Process:  Digitally printed on HP Indigo 12000 with Scodix offline Cast and Cure embellishment

Silver

Great Nations Freaky Friday – Vapor Ringz

Printer:  Rose City Label, Portland, OR

Process:  Printed on Mark Andy Evolution E5 press with inline Cast and Cure embellishment.

Bronze

Perennial Artisan Ales – Double Entendre

Printer:  Cursive, Mason, OH

Process:  Digitally printed on HP 6000 with offline Cast and Cure embellishment on ABG Series 3.

Making a statement easily and cost-effectively

The 2023 Gold award winner from Visions, Inc. delivered dramatic impact with Cast and Cure on these Native American-designed greeting cards.  “We love the visual impact and texture we achieved with Cast and Cure on this project.  We proved again that it doesn’t take much Cast and Cure to make a major statement, said Visions, Inc. CEO, Jon Otto.  “We love the way Cast and Cure imparts a premium impression to greeting cards like these, playing cards or high-end packaging.”

A season of firsts

Cast and Cure lends itself to a wide variety of applications and is extremely easy to work with, even with little prior experience with the technology.  Two of these award winners, Rose City Label and Cursive, submitted labels from their very first Cast and Cure runs.  With a few phone calls, we were able to guide both talented teams to their award-winning results.  Not only was this project a first for Rose City Label, it was run on a newly-installed Mark Andy Evolution series press.  “With a little guidance from Breit Technologies both companies produced award winning labels on their first attempt at running Cast and Cure.  This speaks volumes to the ease of operation and the talent at these companies,” noted Dan Plash, Breit Technologies Sales Manager.

About the FSEA Gold Leaf Awards

The annual FSEA Gold Leaf Awards showcase the decorative sparkle and design in 47 specialty print effects and binding categories.  The 2023 awards mark the 30th Anniversary of the Gold Leaf Awards.  A record number of entries were received from countries around the world, including the US, Canada, India, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Japan, South Africa and Taiwan. Gold, Silver and Bronze winners were honored during a reception held on Tuesday, June 6, at The Print Embellishment Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“Our FSEA Gold Leaf Awards Competition showcases how embellishments have become a catalyst in the printing industry,” stated FSEA Executive Director Jeff Peterson. “The creativity and technology used in the pieces we receive continue to amaze us every year, from greeting cards and book covers to folding cartons and wine labels.”

Learn more about the Gold Leaf Awards

Lucky Charms Carton Earns Gold Award

Artistic Carton Company was recently recognized with a Gold Award by the Paperboard Packaging Council for is glittering new Lucky Charms with Marshmallow Unicorns cereal carton.

The introduction of the Lucky Charms with Marshmallow Unicorns cereal has drawn attention from both consumers and resellers, for several reasons. It’s been many years since General Mills added a new marshmallow shape to its iconic breakfast cereal so the new addition is stirring up renewed interest and sales.

General Mills recognized that the new paperboard carton needed to retain the Lucky Charms brand graphics while adding the new unicorn shapes. Artistic Carton and General Mills worked together to identify an enhancement that would give the packaging some glam for its auspicious launch. The solution was to apply a food-safe version of Cast and Cure™. When the holographic finish was added to the printed package, the carton had a shimmering effect that heightened shelf appeal and delighted consumers.

The carton soon became known as the “glowing” Lucky Charms carton.

“We’ve had great success over the years using cast and cure films from Breit Technologies to create unique and intriguing finishes on a wide variety of consumer product packaging, says Artistic Carton’s CEO Pete Traeger. “It really helped push the visual appeal of the carton over the top and helped earn us PPC’s Gold Award.”

The judging of the 2018 North American Paperboard Packaging Competition took place over three days at PPC’s headquarters in Springfield, MA. This year’s entries were adjudicated by an eight-member judging panel, which included university professors, brand owners, retired industry executives, and packaging engineers.

The Lucky Charms package was one of 130 entries in the 75th annual North American Paperboard Packaging Competition.

Exhibitors Running Cast and Cure at LabelExpo 2018

During LabelExpo 2018, attendees can view award-winning film casting applications as three exhibitors will be running Breit Technologies’ Cast and Cure™ films on their printing equipment to create highly unique, decorative finishes. Cast and Cure films are used today on labels, cartons and flexible product packaging to create a variety of dynamic visual effects, including holographic patterns, matte, ultra-high gloss, and even textured surfaces.

The exhibitors running Cast and Cure applications include; Grafisk Maskinfabrik (booth 6111), Xeikon/Flint Group (in booth 728 and the Automation Arena booth 6680), and Mark Andy (booth 319).  Breit Technologies will also be exhibiting at LabelExpo (booth 6160).

Cast and Cure finishes are highly effective in driving consumer product sales with unique labeling and packaging that creates strong shelf appeal. Breit Technologies has helped make film casting applications grow significantly in popularity within the printing industry with its extensive variety of Cast and Cure film patterns as well as custom film and equipment solutions.

Designers and brand owners are drawn to Cast and Cure decorative finishes for economic and environmental reasons. Unlike foils, Cast and Cure films are not depleted with every application, but can be reused upwards of twenty times. There are no VOC emissions during the process. There are no metal foils to restrict package recycling. In fact, Cast and Cure films are 100% recyclable.

New Textured Finishes

The new textured finishes from Breit Technologies provide a unique look and feel to brand packaging using the company’s innovative Cast & Cure™ (C2) technology and proprietary casting films. The new textured pattern presently includes linen and brushed stroke and can be applied as high resolution spot as well as flood finishes. A wide variety of Cast & Cure decorative finishes can be applied to film, paper and other substrates using the company’s unique patterned films. Film patterns are impressed onto varnished surfaces and cured with LED, UV or EB sources.

The films can be reused multiple times, providing excellent cost economies on volume runs. Over 30 films patterns are presently available for matte, ultra-high gloss, textured and holographic finishes.  C2 can be applied using existing cold foil stations or with Breit Technologies’ custom machine lines available for narrow web, wide web and sheet-fed applications.