Package Design - April 2014 - 14

defer to the designer's aesthetic choices.
The new carrier design uses the
crown's upper triangle eye, whereas
Hoptical's initial package copied the
dollar's levitated space between the
upper triangle and rest of the pyramid.

HolograpHic carrier
What really differentiates the packaging
this time around is the carrier's holographic effect. McCune found his way
to the printer Keystone Paper & Box Co.
Inc., which had worked on Blue Point
packaging early in the brewery's history.
"The first words out of [McCune's]
mouth were," Keystone president Jim
Rutt remembers, "'What do you have
that's special?'"
Keystone had just installed a Cast
and Cure machine that produces holographic images, which McCune
embraced as a means to pique Hoptical
Illusion's beer drinkers' curiosity while perusing craft brew
shelves. Breit Technologies
of Overland Park, KS, originally had a craft beer in
mind when it developed the
Cast and Cure coating process. Although that brewer
tested the package, it
never rolled out commercially, and Cast and
Cure soon landed on a
much larger stage, as it
was used by other consumer products the
likes of Crest toothpaste, the heartburn
reliever Prilosec, and
Valvoline motor oil.
Cast and Cure integrates casting and curing techniques to form
a consistent surface
The eye-adorned
that can include ultraupper triangle from
high gloss, matte and
the levitated pyramid,
pictured in the original holographic finishes
packaging shown
on a variety of subabove, remains in the
strates. In addition, it
new design.
eliminates the lami14

APRIL 2014

Designer James McCune
works on brightening the
palette of the new design.

The new carrier for Hoptical Illusion features a holographic Cast and Cure coating, accentuating its
psychedelic allure.

nated metalized films used in traditional
holographic processes. Breit offers 25
stock holographic patterns, and has created another 10 custom patterns for
customers.
It takes seven days for a beer carrier
to go from graphic design to printing to
cutting to gluing to out the door for distribution. The six-pack carriers are
being shipped to Blue Point's current
contract brewer, and are filled with bottles crowned with caps supplied by
Crown Holdings Inc., and adorned with
labels supplied by DWS Printing.
The brewer hopes that the 10th
anniversary design is the beginning of a

new era of creativity, and the business is
set to get a cash infusion from an acquisition by Anheuser-Busch expected to
close in late April. PD
For articles on similar topics, visit the Beverage
channel on PackageDesignMag.com.

For more inFormation, visit
Breit Technologies LLC, breit-tech.com
Crown Holdings Inc., www.crowncork.com
Keystone Paper & Box Co. Inc., www.keystonepaperbox.com
The EGC Group, egcgroup.com

Package Design - April 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Package Design - April 2014