In collaboration with Winter & Company and Chaos, Foilco held its latest event – Pixel x Paper x Press.
This one-off event saw creative thinkers come together at White Rabbit Studios in Shoreditch, to learn more about the creative potential and unique opportunity that the use of digital visualisations can play in a brand’s packaging projects.
Together, the three companies hosted a series of sessions throughout the day, that included keynote talks and live tech demonstrations by CGI Artists, Where Giant’s Roam. The sessions were focused on highlighting all the commercial and creative benefits of 3D visualisations, and also once again emphasise the show-stopping effects and added value that foil can bring to print.
NEW CONCEPTS
Foilco and Winter & Company have recently digitised their entire product catalogues for use in 3D rendering design.
Working alongside software specialist Chaos Group, both companies have between them several thousand options available giving creative designers their first opportunity to showcase a true digital likeness of the physical materials they work with. The Chaos Scans technology combined with the software ecosystem enables digital artists to drag and drop decorative foils and creative coverings straight into render projects for mock-ups, CGI, animations and AR/VR applications with amazing speed and ease.
Nikolai Winter, director of Winter & Company, said: ‘Both Foilco and Winter & Company have a longstanding reputation for supplying quality, specialist finishes to the print and packaging industry. For Foilco this could be a highly reflective complex holographic foil and for Winter & Company a luxurious heavily textured paper, and so we always knew that we were both setting a real challenge for Chaos. It has taken several years, and many re-runs, but they finally made it! Each of the products produced between us has been effectively photographed over 10,000 times to capture it in true-to-life detail enhancing every aspect of the material that you can experience in its physical form. We are delighted with the results.
‘At a time where remote working has greatly increased, studios and brands will be able to share true likeness imagery across their global network. Brand integrity and continuity can be controlled with all stakeholders and importantly, you can vastly reduce the prototyping process, and both physical and environmental costs.’
CREATIVE FREEDOM
Matt Hornby, sales director at Foilco, added: ‘This technology also gives creatives the freedom to be more experimental and expressive in their foil and paper considerations, meaning more (aesthetic) risks will be tried and taken, creating more unique and standout packaging designs. It will offer more power and encouragement to the collective buy-in. It is widely recognised that adding a decorative foil to packaging creates a ‘pick me up appeal’. At a time when post-pandemic consumer buying habits have shifted even further towards online, the need to merchandise products in their true likeness digitally has never been more important.’
GAME CHANGER
Both companies, alongside representatives from Chaos Group, joined together at the White Rabbit Studios in London’s Shoreditch to showcase the software and to speak about their experiences and industry perspective. Award-winning creative design company, Where Giants Roam, which built Foilco’s ‘Thought’ themed whisky bottle render and AR animations were guest speakers. They discussed working with the technology to create the whisky bottle and provided a live demonstration of the software showcasing the simplicity of swapping foil and material choices.
Rhiannon Porter, managing director at Where Giants Roam, said: ‘Bringing the Thought project to life at the end of the scanning process allowed us to put everything through its paces – and we were delighted with the results. As a studio at the forefront of CGI/VR and AR, this technology is a game-changer for the industry. It allows designers more time to be creative now that they have 100% accurate material scans to visualise the perfect product. Being involved in the project has been inspiring and a lot of fun, which is clear to see in our work; in particular the augmented reality piece we did for the launch of Pixel x Paper x Press using the Thought theme and Chaos scans.’
