Wall panel with art and bar sets off the elegance of this room at the JW Marriott in SF.
Last Friday at LaVilla in Little Italy, San Diego. The finishes and decor were so beautiful to me! Texture and technique. The food, by the way was also tasty! Our waitstaff must have been laughing at us because we kept reordering the mini muffins … Mel, didn’t you take some home?!
Reminds me of the time in San Francisco when I actually got kicked out of the Godiva store. I had seen the new rigid boxes with the swirl design at a packaging competition. All I wanted was to take a closeup photo of the foil/emboss pattern on the lid. The little worker came over so fast and told me NO photographs! My intent to buy a box after I got a photo but after the shooing away, I decided not to. Saw the same boxes in my local grocery or CVS a couple of weeks later. Do you think that dilutes their “elegance” at all? Guess they don’t think so!
This link takes you to some beautiful photos of the new store. The design firm did a beautiful job with the details! Photos/link courtesy of DDI Project Gallery, d-ash Design and Daniel Aubry.
The weirdest beauty product … No offense, but this is such a weird product! But that’s how it got me - it was just so unusual that I had to try it . .. Ice Elements, 2 Minute Miracle Exfoliating Gel. Got it in a moment of weakness on HSN TV. I’m saying weird because of the process. The results were immediately noticed and they were good results!! My pores looked smaller and overall skin tone seemed better. You put this on as a gel, let it sit and then rub it in. When you rub it in, it starts to pill up as it pulls dead skin off your face. Kinda gross in a fascinating way … http://ow.ly/8k02s for the total instructions.
Holiday and End of Year Thoughts
What a crazy busy time it’s been in the plant. Usually, our folding carton and rigid box business is somewhat cyclical: busy in fall, slower in winter and early spring, busy in summer. In 2011, UPB had a record year and stayed busy throughout the year. Lead times stretched out to 6-8 weeks for customers who had been used to 4-6 weeks. We ran 24/7 in most departments and the employees got to bank a lot of overtime. Thanks for being patient!
If you are planning for 2012 holiday packaging now, you’re doing it right! Setting up look & feel now and putting together your schedule is a great start. Holiday orders for us print in early fall. Throughout the summer, we keep busy by running as much repeat/stock program items as possible. Sometimes it’s hard to even think about next holiday when you haven’t even celebrated the current year’s holiday but it pays off in less stress and worry!
UPB and the Paperboard Market
Have you noticed? The paperboard market has tightened significantly. This means paperboard packaging companies will be waiting to get board – sometimes as much as 6 weeks. You’ll see price and delivery changes in folding cartons, rigid boxes, litho lam boxes and corrugated.
Here’s a little background and information.
The recession has created an issue with the balance of supply and demand in the paper industry. Typical box plants ran down inventories as orders were off. At the same time, with fewer orders, mills took out capacity by shutting down machines, laying off employees, etc. Many box plants now need to bring their board inventory levels back to “normal”.
Starting about two months ago, paper mills’ backlogs for orders jumped as box plants bought more board and price increases were announced. Box plants trying to beat the increases ordered heavy. This exacerbated the backlog. Effective this week, all box plants are on an “unofficial allocation” and it can now take up to two months to get board.
The good news is that we at Utah Paperbox have beefed up board inventory - we saw this coming. The bad news is that if we are running a custom roll size, it will be mid July before we can get it. UPB pays their bills on time and has excellent direct relationships with all the mills that service us.
It’s time to really plan ahead for product rollouts and reruns!
Enjoyed going to this show in Vegas at Mandalay Bay … my favorite area is the Discover Beauty area. All the excitement of new products and entrepreneurs!
Up close of UV Effects showing the contrast between high gtloss and texture. You can use this technique with tight registration because we achieve it with printing plates.
