In late July, 2015, Taryn Pyle and I (Ralph Young ) attended the independently presented Paperboard Packaging Seminar at Clemson University. While this seminar moves around the country, and can be delivered at any facility where there are 15 or more participants, attending at the Clemson location offered additional value and convenience. Andrew Hurley from the Sonoco Institute at Clemson delivered an overview on the psychology of print and color perception. Beyond graphic design is the entire brain’s comprehension of size, shape, design, color, and location of packaging design. This one hour segment was well worth the entire fee for the two day course.
The seminar provided another aspect of fibre based packaging. It was rewarding to discover how closely it aligned and complemented the resources that AICC also provides through The Science of Paper Schools, the DVD on Understanding the Elements of Containerboard Manufacturing, How to Get the Best Box, The Key Characteristics of Linerboard and Medium and Their Impact on Combined Corrugated Board articles from BoxScore, and the AskRalph blog. The aforementioned does not even include the benefits of National Meetings, Regional Meetings, and webinars.
Similarities, which complement and build upon the Science of Paper School and other AICC products, include paper manufacturing, forestry, recycling, sustainability, surface and physical properties of packaging grades and prepress. While the printing process discussions focused more on offset and gravure. They provided an enlightened view of processes beyond the flexo and digital processes more familiar to converters. The instructors shared that flexo and digital were the fastest growing segments of the market especially in the area that they labeled high-resolution flexo at 175 line screen. The segments on sheeting, cutting, creasing and finishing were rather targeted just to the paperboard sector.
In the allotted time the session did not venture into overlapping markets where fine flute corrugated is replacing solid fibre paperboard. Overall a very good course with relevant information that applies to corrugated and folding carton/rigid box.
askralph 