StrainPack

Guides

Labels, branding and packaging

Written for people printing a dozen jars on a home printer, and for small flower and seed operations building a line on a real budget. Where something only applies at scale, it says so, and says what it costs as well as what it buys.

Nothing here is a listicle. Every one of these came out of making labels and getting them wrong: the printer setting that quietly shrinks a whole sheet off its die-line, the reason a design made square loses its name when it wraps a jar, why telling an image model not to draw a bag is how you get a bag.

Where to start

If you are labeling your own jars, read the printing guide first — it is the one that saves a pack of blanks. If you are selling, the branding guide is the one that matters, because the most expensive mistake at small scale is redesigning every drop. If you are already using the builder and want the artwork to match what is in your head, start with the art direction guide.

The labels on each one say who it was written for. They are a hint, not a gate: a home grower selling a few jars at a market needs the branding guide too, and a brand owner still has to get a sheet through a printer.

All guides

Measurements, not advice

The guides are about decisions. When you need a number instead — every sheet and die-line has its trim size, bleed, labels per page and the Avery blanks it fits, measured from the manufacturer’s own artwork rather than estimated. That measurement is what decides whether a sheet lines up or wastes itself, so it is written down rather than described.