Proof version seven, or was it eight?
A new pack is on its way. The designer sends a PDF proof. Technical checks the ingredients declaration and the nutrition panel against the recipe. Sales wants the flash moved. The customer's own brand team has comments. Someone replies to the wrong email and a corrected proof goes out without the earlier change.
By the time the printer asks for final artwork, three people have three different files called FINAL, and the purchasing team is trying to work out which one to send.
Why artwork is so hard to control
Artwork involves people inside and outside the business, each checking different things, and email is the only tool they all share. Nobody owns the whole process, so the status lives in the inbox of whoever happens to be chasing it that week.
- Proofs are attached to emails and renamed by each person who saves them.
- Approvers check different parts of the label but sign off in free text.
- Customer approvals for own-label products arrive through their own portal or by email.
- The printer receives artwork separately from the approval record.
- Old packaging stock is not tied to the artwork version it carries.
What goes wrong when it slips
The worst outcome is printed packaging that does not match the approved artwork, which is expensive in film and in time. More often the cost is slower: launches held up waiting for a sign-off nobody knew was outstanding, printers chasing for files, and hours spent searching email to answer the question of who approved what, and when.
We do not check labels for legal content. That is your technical team's job and your customer's. What we fix is the paper trail around it.
An artwork tracker built around your approval steps
- Each artwork job is created against the product and pack format, with a brief and the recipe data your team wants the designer to use.
- Proofs are uploaded to the job, not sent as attachments. Each upload becomes a numbered version and older versions are kept but marked as superseded.
- The job moves through the approval steps you define, such as technical, commercial, customer and printer, notifying each approver in turn.
- Approvers mark up comments against the version they are looking at and sign off with their name and date recorded.
- The customer's approval is recorded against the version they approved, whether it came from their portal or by email.
- Only the fully approved version can be released to purchasing for the printer order, and the print order carries the version number.
| Stage | Who | What is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Brief | Technical and NPD | Product data for the designer |
| Proof | Designer | Numbered version |
| Technical review | Your technical team | Comments and sign-off |
| Customer approval | Customer's brand team | Approved version and date |
| Release | Purchasing | Version sent to printer |
What the day looks like after
Everyone can see where each job is and who is holding it. The printer gets one file, and it is the right one. When a recipe changes, the tracker lists every live artwork that uses it, so relabelling is planned instead of discovered.
When an auditor or a customer asks who approved a label, the answer is on screen with the date and the version. Nobody has to search their sent items.
Purchasing can also see which artwork version is on the packaging currently in stock, which helps decide when a change can go live without writing off film.
Is this how your artwork works?
- More than one file is called final.
- Approvals are given by replying to an email.
- Launches have been delayed by a sign-off nobody was chasing.
- You cannot quickly show who approved a label and when.
- Recipe changes are not linked to the artwork they affect.