Insights into market trends and export opportunities, as well as detailed techniques for preparing and printing of flexible packaging.
All these beautiful and eye-catching biscuit, cake, chocolate, and other food and cosmetic wrappers that we see on store shelves, with new designs and colors that come to the market every year and month, have gone through a path of artistic and technical design and preparation before passing through the rollers and coming into contact with the printing plate or cylinder; a challenging path that begins with the creative mind of the designer and market research and comes to life at the hands of the skilled graphic experts and specialists of proprietary software.
Join us on this sweet journey to the Iran-Zamin printing unit, one of the largest, most experienced, and advanced flexo and gravure printing houses whose printing works beautifully cover food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and hygiene products, including sweets and chocolates.
Katayoun Golestani, Manager of the Design Studio and Quality Control at Iran-Zamin Printing Company, hosts us. With a measured and clear expression, she informs us of the intricacies of designing and printing wrappers. From the moment we enter the design unit and see the walls and arrangements until we start discussing the work style of the Iran-Zamin printing house’s design studio, we realize we are not facing an ordinary design studio. Although you fully feel the artistic and aesthetic view, the discussion is not only about design, line, pattern, color, and feeling; beyond that, understanding the market, the placement of packages on store shelves, customer preferences, design trends and colors, competition among packages, and genre-specific packaging suitable for the product and audience, as well as the estimation of the total cost and such are also part of the considerations of the design unit.
Katayoun Golestani, the youngest child from this rooted printing family in Iran, introduces the design studio, starting with the structure; she talks about the workflow and refers to the execution and documentation manuals and the process of completing a design from idea to cylinder making and printing and lamination, and recognizing consumable materials. We are facing thorough engineering. The coherence of her words and all this delicacy and precision show that here, the artistic and aesthetic aspects are formed and developed within the framework of engineering knowledge and thoughtful organization with an understanding of the details of prepress and postpress stages. She starts her speech with ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 10002:2018 certificates at Iran-Zamin and adherence to its guidelines.
Three Pillars of the Design Unit The manager of the Iran-Zamin design studio says: “The design department is based on three pillars: hardware, software, and expert consultants. All three pillars are continuously updated to be fully efficient. Our design consultants are equipped with the latest monitors and color management and calibration tools, and also equipped with Esko software and several other up-to-date specialized software for preparing flexo and gravure printing.
She points to an interesting feature of Iran-Zamin Printing Company that strengthens the training of design unit consultants, and says: The execution of various orders and interaction with the customer and company specialists is a live school that has a new lesson for us every day.
- Aspects such as image quality, color, text, logos, and symbols are reviewed and, if necessary, re-executed.
- We send the final file along with its three-dimensional image, which gives a realistic visualization of the finished and packaged work, to our clients to receive their last revisions and comments and reach final approval.
Color Management Before sending the output file, Proofing based on the printing system and type of ink is performed. The proof is controlled with related equipment like i1 x-Rite, and after the color shade is approved, permission to continue the work is given. An important feature applied in Iran-Zamin in terms of color management is the use of specific profiles for each printing machine and types of film and paper. The main objective of color management is to preserve the original color characteristics when transferring between multiple devices.
Quality Control to the Printing Machine Quality control (QC) is applied in two stages. One is the control of incoming consumable materials and the other is quality control during the production process which covers from the beginning of printing to during printing and also includes finishing and converting operations, and in other stages like solvent and non-solvent lamination, extrusion, cutting until the final product.
Cylinder Making and Engraving Katayoun Golestani talks about the connection with the prepress department and says: “The design unit at Iran-Zamin Printing Company has the advantage of having in-house engraving and cylinder-making facilities. It’s interesting to know that Engraving, equipped with an advanced Proofing system, prepares a print sample with the cylinder made and the same ink used in the factory with a proofing device.
Thermocolor Ink Making Now that the talk has shifted to Iran-Zamin group companies, Katayoun Golestani also mentions the presence of the Thermocolor ink-making factory managed by Engineer Mehran Golestani in this holding, which has the capacity to produce and supply standard and specialized inks for heliogravure and flexo machines, with color stability in different production batches and also manufactures some special colors (like Orange, Violet, Red, etc.) and various primers and varnishes.
Novin Plastic and Specialized films When talking about member companies of the Iran-Zamin holding, it’s appropriate to also mention Novin Plastic managed by Engineer Mehrdad Golestani, which produces printed wrappers and specialized coatings for various applications (food industries, liquids, dairy, hygiene and pharmaceutical, pets, chemical and agricultural products, meat and fish, and industrial uses), allowing us to offer the most suitable packaging solutions for our customers’ products.
Market Preferences and Trends Customers focus on the luxury of packaging and spend to make their product appear more elegant. Special and eye-catching colors and matte materials have recently become more popular. The combination of black and gold also has many fans.
