Proof v7, approved, but which one?
A brand client's new serum carton has been through seven proofs. Comments arrived from their founder, their designer and your technical person, in separate emails. Version 6 fixed the ingredient list, version 7 changed the barcode position. The printer received version 6 by mistake, because it was the attachment on the email marked "approved". Five thousand cartons arrive with the barcode in the old place.
Nobody was careless. The approval happened in email, and email does not know which attachment is the approved one.
Approvals happen in threads
Artwork involves several parties, each checking different things, and each round creates a new file. Email threads fork and the approved version is whatever someone thinks it is.
- Proofs are emailed with names like "carton_final_v2_amended".
- Comments from several people arrive separately and conflict.
- Nobody checks artwork details against the product record systematically: batch code area, pack size, ingredient list, barcode.
- Sign-off is an email saying "looks good", with no clear version.
- The printer gets files from whoever sends them.
What a wrong print costs
Reprinting labels and cartons costs money and, worse, time: the printer's queue sets your filling date. Wrong artwork found after filling means relabelling. With brand clients, disputes about who approved what are uncomfortable when the evidence is a tangle of emails. What must appear on your packaging is for you, your client and your adviser to decide. We make sure the version everyone approved is the one that gets printed.
The loops themselves cost time before anything is printed. A carton that should take a couple of rounds takes six, because comments from one reviewer undo changes asked for by another, and nobody can see both at once. The brand client's launch date does not move to allow for it.
An artwork approval flow
- Each label, carton and leaflet has a record linked to the product, with every version uploaded to it in order.
- When a new version is uploaded, the system reads the text and compares it with the product record: ingredient list against the approved formula list, pack size, barcode number, and your standard wording. Differences are shown for a person to check.
- Reviewers (your technical person, the brand client, the designer) comment on the version itself, with comments pinned to the area of the artwork they refer to.
- Each required party signs off by name, on that specific version. A version with an unresolved comment cannot be approved.
- Only the approved version can be released to the printer, from the system, with a record of when it was sent.
- When the printer's proof comes back, it is compared with the approved version, and differences are highlighted.
| Step | By email | In the approval flow |
|---|---|---|
| Versions | Attachments with similar names | Numbered in order on one record |
| Checks | By eye, when remembered | Compared with the product record |
| Comments | Scattered across emails | Pinned to the version |
| Sign-off | "Looks good" | Named approval on a specific version |
| To the printer | Whoever sends it | Only the approved version |
Artwork you can trust
Everyone knows which version is current, and everyone's comments are in one place. Details that commonly go wrong are checked against the product record every time. The printer only ever receives approved files. When a brand client asks who approved something, the record shows it.
Has this happened to you?
- The wrong artwork version has gone to print.
- Artwork comments arrive in several emails.
- Approval is an email reply, not a sign-off on a version.
- Ingredient lists or barcodes have been wrong on printed packaging.
- Printer proofs are not checked against the approved file.