Western States Envelope & Label already has an 8-year streak of PEAK Award recognition, but this year was particularly special. For the first time in PEAK history, Western States’ entries were judged against all others and determined to be some of the best overall.

Efforts to help Mer-Sea & Co. create product labels earned Western States a 2016 Gold PEAK Award, as well as a 2016 Silver PEAK Award for product labels on “Warheads Brand” Super Sour Spray Candy. The Print Services & Distribution Association (PSDA) PEAK Awards program recognizes excellence in the print industry promoting projects that display innovation, notable quality or produce high return on investment.

Mer-Sea & Co. delivers an island retreat in a bottle with their line of sea salt inspired body wash and lotion. They needed a product label that was alluring like the beach itself, yet durable enough to withstand the demands of a bathroom/shower environment. “Since it was critical to keep branding elements, we used a synthetic material and matte overlaminate. This gave the label a stylish and serene look like the product itself, yet protected it from the demands of prolonged use in a bath or shower,” added Greg Retzer, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Western States Envelope & Label.

Despite an extremely tight deadline, Western States convinced the client to allow extra time for testing to deliver a product label that exceeded rather than just met expectations. Exceed it did—the client was very pleased with the ongoing communication and collaboration, and received many compliments.

Western States’ challenge for the “Warheads Brand” Super Sour Candy was to create a label that was an exact match of the current substrate, adhesive and production colors with specific orders for continued color printing consistency. The candy also had to have a twist-off, tamper-resistant seal feature.

The solution involved researching and testing to develop a specialty die to create a CMYK flexo printed label with two enhanced spot colors. An overlaminate gloss varnish on bright silver poly material made this candy stand out on store shelves, while an ultra-thin substrate was developed to save money and withstand the sticky candy contents inside.

Western States received positive kudos for the label’s color, wrapping and ease of peeling off the substrate around the plastic product to open it. Subsequent orders broadened to multiple colors with continued orders this year.

The Mer-Sea & Co. product label also won a 2016 Best of Division Graphic Excellence Award from the Great Lakes Graphics Association in the Flex Narrow Web Labels and Wraps, Rolled Products/Pressure Sensitive Category.

“We’re honored to contribute to these award-winning labels and proud of the teamwork and satisfaction we delivered to our customer for their product label results,” noted Retzer.