Sometimes choosing the material for your label can seem overwhelming. You want a material that will be sturdy enough to resist peeling or tearing while your product is in use. You also want the amazing design you’ve chosen to represent your brand and products to be vibrant and appealing. And because you are, after all, a business, the cost of the material matters to you. So how do you reconcile the different goals you want to accomplish with your label, and how do you know which material will work for you? The experts at Dion are here to break down your different material options and some of the key benefits of each.

1.  Film (aka BOPP) – Rugged, Versatile, Design Options

Films are probably the most versatile label material option. In the labeling industry, films are often referred to as BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene, in case you’re a label nerd like us!). BOPP is the top material choice for brands across many industries including food, beverage, supplements, OTC pharmaceuticals, and breweries, and for good reason. BOPP has a unique set of characteristics that make it optimal for a huge variety of applications. It is a sturdy, fatigue and moisture resistant material, so if your product will be handled frequently or exposed to moisture or temperature changes, BOPP provides the ruggedness you need.

There are nearly unlimited design and print options with BOPP, making it one of our favorite labeling material options. We offer a variety of different BOPP materials that allow you to achieve the precise look you want. As metallic labels become increasingly popular for supplement, personal care, industrial labels, and beyond, metallic BOPP offers an incredible opportunity to incorporate metallic features in the exact way you desire. Instead of using metallic inks, a silver metallic BOPP base can be used to create a wide range of metallic colors from classic golds and silvers to just about any color on the spectrum. And with metallic BOPP, you’re not limited to just a few metallic color choices; we can create variegated metallic looks with many different colors on one label.

With Metallic BOPP you can create subtle metallic effects, as Rattlesnake Soap Co. does with their Tea Tree Body Wash label, or go for bold with just about any metallic color you can imagine

The “no label look” is usually achieved with clear BOPP . Using clear BOPP allows you the unique opportunity to show off your product itself, a trend that is expanding as customers look more and more for transparency (with a clear label, literally!) from the companies they do business with. An amazing facet of using a clear film for your label material is the ability it gives you to play with opacity. While the look you are going for may call for completely opaque text or design, when using a clear material, different levels of opacity and transparency can be achieved with ink that can create a label with more depth and more impact on a potential customer.

Homsolv does an amazing job at using a gradient with varying opacity to get high-impact from their clear label

We also offer a classic white BOPP. At Dion we pride ourselves on our color consistency and matching capabilities, and white BOPP provides an exemplary base if you want vibrant colors to help that label grab attention when it’s on a crowded shelf. This is our most popular BOPP option, especially among breweries and supplement companies where competition is fierce and vivid design is key. Fort Hill Brewery's G-Fresh label (pictured below) exemplifies taking advantage of Dion's color capabilities on a white BOPP material.

Vibrant color and ruggedness are the name of the game with white BOPP

2. Paper – Cost-effective, Straightforward, Options

Typically the most cost-effective and simple labeling material, a paper label has plenty of uses. If your product is not going to be subjected to environmental stresses such as moisture and your primary concern is straightforwardness and cost, a paper label may be just what you’re looking for. And while it doesn’t provide quite the same level of sturdiness as BOPP, when you combine a paper label from Dion with a lamination rather than a varnish and the proper adhesion, you will still get a great label for many purposes.

As with BOPP, we offer several different paper material options other than just white. One of the most popular is our metallic paper. As with metallic BOPP, we don’t have to print with metallic ink and can instead use the base material to achieve metallic design elements. Again, color options are relatively vast when printing on metallic paper compared to using metallic ink.

Check out the warm metallic reds and yellows of Igazu Nutrition's apple cider vinegar supplements

3. Textured Options – High-Impact, Tactile, Decorative

In competitive markets, discovering new ways to connect with a customer is vitally important. And what better way to connect with someone than through the sensation of touch? While the vast majority of labels are physically smooth to the touch, regardless of the dimension added through amazing design, a textured material option actually gives your label a tangible element. If your label beckons a potential customer to reach out and touch it, what better way to improve the chances of them taking it home with them?

When you want a high-end look for your product, one of the best ways to achieve it is to opt for a textured base material for your label. While linen and estate papers have long been popular among wine brands, they are gaining traction in other industries. The textured look and feel add an element of sophistication to any product. According to Packaging Gateway, “labels with a ‘fashion textile’ appeal” are gaining popularity across a wide variety of industries. We offer many linen/estate options for labels here at Dion, but our range of textured materials doesn’t stop there. If your goal is to create a high-end look for your product, black vellum is a fantastic way to go. This thick material gives you a luxe look unlike any other. If none of this sounds unique enough to suit your brand, we offer wood grain material! This material is actually made of wood and comes in different finishes like birch and cherry.

A textured base, phenomenal art, and hot stamping? Ozymandias Wines have unique and truly show-stopping labels

4. Sustainable Options – Environmentally Friendly, Certified sustainable, Post-Consumer Waste

With so much consumer-driven focus on sustainability throughout a product’s supply chain, it’s not surprising that companies are more and more often looking for label material options that align with their sustainability goals. At Dion, we have worked over the last several years to provide more sustainable options for the brands we partner with. Many of our materials are sustainably sourced as certified. And it’s not just our basic paper materials that have met this certification: some of our textured linen and estate options are certified sustainable too! We also offer labels made from different amounts of post-consumer waste, including 100% post-consumer waste material. While some sustainable label material options do have a high cost associated with them, having less of a negative impact on the environment and having more of a positive impact on potential customers may make these labels worth it for your brand.

As consumers come to demand more sustainable practices from companies, being able to have  "this label is printed on 100% recycled material" as the Isha Foundation does on their NEEM labels can have a huge impact

Material selection is only one of several aspects to take into consideration when you are looking to start your next labeling project. What coating is used, adhesive qualities, and color considerations all will play a technical role in making your label work for your product. And while this list includes our most popular labeling materials, it is not nearly exhaustive. The best way to figure out which label material is right for you product is to talk with a label specialist. Our team of experts will listen to your concerns and guide you to exactly what you need. Contact us today!