Innovations in high-end packaging aimed for commercial as well as visual impact at Luxe Pack Monaco on 23-25 October 2013.
Could anywhere provide a better backdrop? If you’re after true luxury… nope.
Indeed, Monaco’s Grimaldi Convention Centre, which hosted Luxe Pack on 23-25 October, is a stone’s throw from a marina crammed with superyachts the size of islands.
Their owners, drawn to the principality by its warm climate and agreeable tax regime, clearly live the luxury packaging motto: It’s what’s on the outside that matters.
That said, the latest, bustling edition of Luxe Pack showed how to make an impact without adopting the spendthrift ways of Monaco’s oligarchs. While Luxe Pack’s 400 exhibitors unveiled stacks of innovations, they were intended to deliver commercial and environmental benefits as well as gasps of admiration.
Name your price
One sign of the times was the advice given by automotive experts invited to speak at the event’s forum. “What can you offer us for this price?” is how brands should approach suppliers, according to the carmakers.
Meanwhile, Luxe Pack’s roundtable on trends identified three hot tips for designers. ‘Deal with the Devil’ was how the cool-hunters dubbed the invasion of packaging by a horde of vampires and “sexy heroes”.
But packaging should also embrace the mantra ‘Let’s celebrate’, which also covers meeting “a deeper need for rituals”.
In addition, brands need to tell consumers, especially the younger ones, about their roots, legacy, history and expertise, according to the experts.
Masters of metal
But the event’s 7,439 visitors – up 6% rise on 2012 – were also treated to a flurry of technical launches. Seidel debuted a breakthrough in die-cutting aluminium artwork. With a huge new servo-driven press exerting 125 tonnes of pressure, the German company is now die-cutting during the formation of the metal.
Luxe Pack also provided a launchpad for Wickels’ aluminium foils for digital print, opening up short-run applications. “Brands say they are looking for a metallic material they can get very soon in a small quantity,” said a representative at the firm’s stand.
“It happens all the time, people say, ‘Christmas is coming’ or ‘The opening is in three days… We have a present but we don’t have a bag’.”
Jung Design premiered a new option for such situations with its ultra high-gloss silver to give an embossed effect.
Seeing the light
Scottish paper supplier Tullis Russell showcased its multiple award-winning Bombay Sapphire Hi-Light box, the world’s first packaging with actively illuminated surfaces that can be bought off the shelf.
But the German company Kurz is planning to make its own splash in packaging through printed circuits.
Klaus Ludwig, a product manager for PolyIC, a member of the Kurz group, told Packaging MEA that “action surfaces” are set to be an important packaging trend.
A prototype box on the company’s stand at Luxe Pack flashed a changing geometric pattern in black and white.
“This new type of display is only a few microns deep and it can be integrated on a box,” he said.
“At the moment it can be done in small runs but we will develop printed electronics… In a later stage we will print everything – not just the display but also the battery and blinker.”
Security!
U-nica was among several firms with novel ways to outsmart without aesthetic compromises. The German company’s scryptoTRACE works through subtle manipulations of logos and graphics.
Security was also a selling point for Delta Composants, a French company whose micro-drilling, developed for circuit boards, had an early packaging success in boxes for Issey Mikyake’s L’eau D’issey.
But production director Stephane Guillochon sees a host of further application. Unlike lasers, the firm’s drills can decorate paper or leather with holes as small as 0.2mm without leaving burn marks or unpleasant whiffs. “Since the last Luxe Pack, we have increased speed and can now produce smaller holes,” he said.
Packing up
Overall, the show’s organisers claimed the event showed a clear uptrend from the 2012 edition. As well as attracting more visitors, Luxe Pack Monaco also hosted 40 first-time exhibitors.
While 46% of professionals at the tradeshow came from France, the rest were drawn from 77 countries. Top executives arrived in larger numbers and more companies were represented, according to the organisers.
Next year’s event will be held again at the Grimaldi Forum on 27–29 October, 2014.