Magazine published with 16,000 unique covers

Graphic arts trade magazine Labels & Labeling launched its first issue of 2015 with a difference – 16,000 differences, in fact, as it created that number of unique cover designs. The project was inspired by Coca-Cola Israel's astonishing marketing campaign which involved printing millions of Diet Coke labels with different variations of a kaleidoscopic design.

Both projects make use of a groundbreaking piece of software developed by HP called Mosaic – part of the company's SmartStream suite – which allows an infinite number of colour and design variations to be automatically generated from a starting design. The user can define which elements remain static and how much variation is allowed on the rest of the page.

On this Labels & Labeling front cover, 16 official Coca-Cola patterns were used as a basis for the subsequent 16,000 variations. The covers were printed 4-up on a B2 format HP Indigo 10000 digital press by London-based Precision Printing. The cover stock is a 170gsm satimat Silk with matt lamination on one side.

Andy Thomas-Emans, group managing editor, said: "This project demonstrates the true value of digital printing – the ability to produce multiple thousand unique images which are still recognisably derived from a common branding point.

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