Blogs @HP

September 8, 2016

Innovation

One in a million digital prints, thanks to HP’s SmartStream Mosaic

HP teams with Wallpaper* magazine, Coca-Cola to create entirely unique, eye-catching digital designs for recent campaigns.

By Sarah Murry, HP Newsroom

Give them something they’ve never seen before -- and that they won’t ever see again.

That could be the key to creating innovative digital prints that capture consumers’ attention and engage them in a novel way.

It’s also the thinking behind two recent campaigns that tapped HP’s Indigo digital printing technology to create expressive digital designs that make lasting impact.

This week, Coca-Cola launched a new campaign in Canada, the “One of a Kind” program, which jazzes up a limited number of bottles of Diet Coke with millions of vibrant, eye-catching designs.

No two bottles are exactly the same – thanks to HP’s SmartStream Mosaic software, which enables the automatic creation of millions of unique designs based on a set of core patterns (an algorithm change up the digital image so each package gets printed with a variation on the core pattern). 

“With millions of designs to choose from, Canadians will have fun finding that one Diet Coke bottle that truly reflects what makes them unique and ‘One of a Kind’,” Michael Samoszewski, Vice President, Sparkling Business Unit, Coca-Cola Ltd., said in a press release.

Connect with us

Image | FB    Image | In   Image | TW   Image | Instagram

Diet Coke created 36 ‘base’ designs “inspired by the bubbles, fizz, taste and spirit of Diet Coke.” Then, through HP SmartStream Mosaic software, the base designs were used to automatically generate and print millions of entirely new graphics.

With HP SmartStream Mosaic, the permutations are nearly endless. The software technology, known as “variable data tool” produces unique prints by combining new iterations of text, images and colors with personalized graphics such as a company logo.   

Wallpaper*, for example, a monthly magazine and website that covers news and trends in design, art, architecture, fashion and travel, took HP’s SmartStream Mosaic technology in an entirely different direction.

The trend-setting publication teamed with HP to make a splash on its 20th anniversary by creating 220,000 unique printed posters, which were bundled with the magazine and delivered to subscribers this week.


Spin Studio’s Tony Brook, a renowned U.K.-based graphic designer who has worked with brands such as Nike, Design Museum, Christie’s, and many more, was asked by Wallpaper* to create the exclusive designs for the project. Brook and his team developed 12 original source designs of varying patterns, colors and shapes that expressed Wallpaper*’s legacy of design innovation.

The flexibility of HP’s SmartStream Mosaic software helped translate the design into more than 200,000 unique iterations, enabling Wallpaper*’s designers to create a rich “visual language” to portray a brand’s identity.


"We wanted to create a poster that communicated twenty years of design, In terms of creating unique content, this is only the start."


Sarah Douglas
Creative Director at Wallpaper*

Learn more about HP’s Indigo digital presses and its SmartStream Designer features.
Discover more blogs