The Elements of Graceful, Stunning Design? A frosted bottle. Clear Sake. Beautiful etched graphics on the front. And the finishing touch: a back label with a rich color printed on the inside creating a soft glow of three-dimensional color behind the etched front graphics.

GM Nameplate is proud to have produced the finishing touch for Takara, a Japanese producer and distributor of Sake. Takara knew the critical and most difficult element of the back label would be the color match, particularly the three colors required for the front side of the back label. Our first meeting was seasoned with skepticism, as Takara did not believe GM Nameplate could match the color produced by their established supplier in Japan.

After matching the teal perfectly on the first try, the skepticism was gone. We worked through several iterations of both colors and materials in order to exactly match the look and feel. GM Nameplate tested a variety of adhesives to ensure the label would adhere to the cold sake beverage bottles without interfering with the bottle’s aesthetics. The front and back printing also had to be in perfect register. All of these requirements combined to make this part both difficult and rewarding to manufacture. In fact, GM Nameplate was awarded the Benny Award in the 2005 Premier Print Awards, one of the most coveted trophies within the graphic arts industry, for its work on the Takara Sake labels.