Color Mgmt Consultant recommendations?

sylviatx

New member
We are a soft drink company. Our logo gets printed on aluminum cans, cardboard fridge packs and other wraps, film labels for PET bottles, corrugated and Coroplast for hanging signs, vinyl for billboards and vehicle wraps, plastic for vending machines and coolers. Sometimes it is printed using spot colors, sometimes using cmyk. The ink mfgs are different for paper, corrugated, aluminum, and the numbers I am most familiar with (Pantone system) don't line up one for one with the other mfgs systems.

What I am looking for is a consultant/company that can come in and analyze the reflective color on the aluminum can, and make recommendations for achieving color consistency across varying media and ink manufacturers.

I'm hoping in the end I have a list of recommendations for each material, saying, on this particular material, use this ink mfg and number, or this cmyk.

Does anyone have any vendors they would recommend who has provided this service with consistent results?
 
Re: Color Mgmt Consultant recommendations?

SunChemical has a specific program under the "SmartColor" brand to address the issues you raise. More info here: http://www.smartcolour.com/
Alternatively, the Print Buyers OnLine, "Print Oasis 2008" which runs from February 9-12, 2008 includes a seminar on the subject of spot/custom colors that will provide practical education, guidance and best practices regarding these issues. More info here: http://www.printoasis.com/PrintOasis2008.asp

best, gordo
 
Re: Color Mgmt Consultant recommendations?

EskoArtwork is the leader in prepress solutions for the packaging industry and have colour specialist that work specifically with printing on the kind of substrates you mention. Our consultancy teams have worked for some of the largest packaging providers and CPC's in that industry. Please visit our site, ( here is a good place to start. http://www.esko.com/Web/site.aspx?p=368 ), or call one of our offices. We would be pleased to speak with you.
 
Re: Color Mgmt Consultant recommendations?

Sylvia,

How is the color spec'd? If your corporate color is specified in a device independent colorspace (like CIELab) then it becomes MUCH easier.

Next step is to establish reasonable tolerances for reproduction

Third, you must work with color managed printers. Any color managed printer should be able to determine for themselves the best way to reproduce your color.

4th, you could set up a system to monitor and track the reproduction of your corporate color. There are several systems available, or you could do something as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or database.

rich
 
Re: Color Mgmt Consultant recommendations?

Hello Sylvia, I live in the region fairly close to you, Austin-San Antonio area, and have a good friend who consults and does training in color management, his name and site are located below, he's helped me in the past and is not too far from you.



http://www.on-sight.com/

Owner: Scott Martin

Good luck
John Barr
 
Re: Color Mgmt Consultant recommendations?

Hi Sylvia, Dan Gillespie from ColorGeek, Inc. I have read all of the other posts and I know Eric Magnussen from LeftDakota, Steve Upton from Chromix, and Rich Apollo who also posted, all of which are great people to talk with. Rich really offers you the solution in a nutshell. You must define the corporate brand in LAB (not RGB, CMYK, or PMS) and then mandate vendors prove tolerance, generally in terms of DeltaE, to that device independent value. My company could certainly help you with something like this, as could Eric's (and Rich is super sharp as well but he's not an independent consultant - he's got a "real" job). And you might be able to monitor and administer all of your vendor tolerancing through a new online software/service from Chromix called Maxwell. So you are on the right track. The solution in theory is pretty straight forward but you would benefit from the help of a color consultant to help implement it.

Also, Gordon mentions the ColorSmart program from SunChemical. It is fairly new but it aims to solve the exact problems you are facing. You may want to speak with Ian Pike at SunChemical for more information directly. I can give you his information if you want to contact me offline.
 

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