"We have some last minute changes we need to make to our labels." It's a very particular kind of sinking feeling, isn't it? A feeling built by hours spent reformatting label designs for production after making the smallest changes. It's a necessary evil…or is it?
Our Checkpoint experts are (unsurprisingly) super quick at reformatting artwork files. So quick, they've cottoned onto an even better way of doing it. One that takes the process down to a matter of seconds, virtually error-free, and easy to do. Let's talk about it…
Manual production-ready artwork files are slowing you down
The journey to a production-ready artwork file is long and winding (well…if you do it the non-Checkpoint way). Your beautiful artwork file needs some serious nip/tuck action before it can go to production and find its forever home on your garments — it'll need dielines, hole punch dimensions, and more.
Making your labels production-ready can take a huge amount of time and can get very repetitive very quickly. If you need to tweak your logo, branding, or dimensions across a range of different label types produced in different factories around the world, you could set back the time it takes to go to market by days…maybe even weeks (or worse!). Given the pace of e-commerce today, you can't afford to fall behind over something like updating a label design!
If all this sounds achingly familiar, you'll be pleased to know that there's a solution—automation.
Cue…artwork automation
As you'd expect, the crew at Checkpoint are experts in artwork prep. We teamed our decades of art development knowledge with our cloud-based platforms to create an internal automated flow that our clients can take full advantage of. Here's why artwork automation is the way forward…
From receipt to production in minutes
People are an integral part of the creative process. And that's exactly why they shouldn't be tied up in painstaking, manual processes like tweaking and reformatting hundreds of artwork files for production.
Automated processes like the ones we use at Checkpoint across our many global sites dramatically shorten the time from receipt to production-ready artwork — we're talking 2,000 artwork files completed in 3 hours rather than the 6 full weeks it would take to do it manually.
Your artboards are automatically identified based on the art file supplied, with us free to copy and paste the front and back designs. In fact, we don’t need any further input from you at all here, meaning no changes at all are made to how you currently work internally. And that's it—consistent, accurate artboards instantly. It even automatically defines, adds, and places technical lines and punch holes!
Error-free production art using data
When a task is repetitive enough, the odd mistake is bound to creep through. So, thank goodness for data-led automation. Automated art production systems like ours allow you to standardize inputs to turbocharge your efficiency.
It automatically adds accurate dyelines, folds and perforations, names every layer with standardized conventions, and even uses standardized file names for easy organization. Automated artwork production flows also give you digital renders for an immediate review of the artwork so you can stamp out version errors. It becomes the ultimate benchmark of truth!
Easy last-minute changes
Branding updates, legal requirements, market needs…there are tons of reasons you might need to make last-minute updates across numerous groups of artworks. Luckily, automation has your back when it comes to workflow resilience!
Artwork is also easy to automate on a global scale. Your teams can access your entire catalogue of artwork from your bespoke landing page, make changes in a fraction of the time, and then check and review before heading right into production. That’s right. Whenever and wherever you need to access them. Gotta move at speed if you wanna catch the edge!
Automating your artwork production (it’s easier than you think!)
Unfortunately, the journey to automated artwork production doesn't involve negotiating with robots. It's actually far quicker and easier than you might think! For example, the automated processes we use at Checkpoint need minimal set-up and minimal manual intervention—you'll be up and running before you know it! Our systems are also built to evolve, so you won't be tied to outdated tech in a year or two.
Our artwork pros work with you to establish standardized color-correct values for each label format you use (because brand consistency is everything) all ready to go when you need them. They'll be on hand to guide you through designing for print labels, so you're starting with a solid foundation before you let loose on the automation.
Our team has decades of experience working with artwork production technology and manipulating flat art files. With millions of labels passing through our systems every day, your workflow is in good hands!
So, what about it? Are you ready to save time, money, and labor by automating your artwork formatting process? Won't it be sweet to kiss goodbye to minor slip-ups and delays caused by manual editing? Not to mention offloading the editing of large libraries of artworks!
Contact our experts and ask any questions you have. We're pros at making production-ready artwork files, and we've built the cloud-based platforms that underpin the automation process. We can answer anything you can ask (and we love it). Fire away!
