Places
The Printing Process
Roll your mouse over each circle to learn about that part of the label production process.
Credit: These drawings are taken from Ralph Rambo’s original illustration titled “Muirson’s Mystic Maze.”
In the early years of the Muirson Label Company’s operation, the creation and production of full-color labels required time-consuming handwork. Improved technology gradually replaced this work in many areas, though the hand of the artist was ever-present.
The design of a label began with a discussion between the artist and the client. Once artwork was agreed upon, the artist developed a mechanical – a composite of the separate units of which the printed label would consist. The mechanical had to be executed in half-tones - created by hand-stippling or other means - and in the separate layers for printing. Full color labels require four layers of printing, one each of red, yellow, blue and black. To create a full range of colors, each layer applies a precise amount of ink in precise locations. The colors are not mixed but overlaid on one another. Each design required four printing plates, each one expressing the exact locations for one color in the design.
The engraver used the mechanical as the guide for assembling the various units in the plates. In later years, the plates would be engraved using a photo negative of the mechanical. Printing of the label proceeded from the “make-up”, the final version of the label executed by the engraver in overlays. From these overlays, the foundry produced one plate for each color. The printer then printed a proof of the label to check for typographical errors, correct colors, proper spacing or other problems. Print runs were done in a minimum of 30,000 labels, but often ran as high as 5 million. In such a high volume enterprise, mistakes were bound to happen and some even got past the proofreader. Ralph Rambo recalled one such instance, “a wartime mistake on an entire sheet of gallon labels. In large type, they all read CALIFORNIA FRIUTS! But during heat of battle, our customer accepted them.”
