Ear on Chicago; Chicago Container Corp.

The sound you're hearing is that of a gluing machine at the container corporation's design laboratories. What the machine is going is a container which is called a CAN band. I'm going to tell you how this CAN band was developed and how it is finally brought to its final stage at which point the glue is administered to the car. This is the story of the container corporation's design laboratories located on Chicago Southside at 1301 West 35th Street. Our next stop, the first in the series of pickups from this container corporation design laboratories, will be in market research where we will meet Van Yoshiyaka, the business manager of the design laboratories. Ben, now that we've come up to your office for a very brief discussion where we can get away from some of the noise that we were faced with down there, I'd like for you to discuss if you'd like some of the importance of design in the packaging industry. Very good, you.

Until a few years ago, the carton was primarily used as a functional object. That is to say, to contain a customer's product. But as you know here, with the growth of this American institution called the supermarkets and its emphasis upon self -service, the carton now must try to sell itself. We no longer have the many grocery clerks who merchandise for the proprietor. Therefore, in this age of mass display and fewer employees to sell, the carton must be designed in an attractive and distinct manner so that it can compete against other world design cartons, which are almost saying, by me please. I'm certain you that you have experienced such beauty and ingenuity in some cartons that like myself, you were tempted to buy the carton without too much thought to the contents. In other words, you were being subjected to impulse buying without really knowing it. This is a key reason why design is so important in cartons today. It not only contains, but it sells itself. In container

corporation of America, Mr. Albert Kaner, the director of design laboratories, has a responsibility for the integration of color use and the various design elements, such as the brand name, to produce a visually appealing design on carton so they can help merchandise themselves. Here I thought that some background information like this might give the listener a setting for the comments which follow. Well, I am very glad that you had those few comments for us Ben because it was interesting for me to hear something that I have learned recently. The fact that the container itself is oftentimes the thing that sells the product, and it's very important that we outline that very important piece of information before we go on our tour. And right now it is time to start, so what do you suppose we ought to go first? I think that we ought to go to the auditorium itself where they conduct some of the tests you. All right, let's go there. We have come up now to the visual testing laboratory where it's a little more quiet and where we can

hear each other talk. Ben and I are standing looking at one of the Kan bands and I didn't exactly explain what a Kan band was downstairs Ben because it was a little bit too noisy to talk, but up here where you were holding one and I am holding one and I might explain that a Kan band is a container which holds cans, cans of beer. For example, you've seen them many times in the grocery store or in liquor stores, but what other uses is the Kan band made? Well here Kan band will contain dog food, soft drink beverages, or almost any Kan foods, or canned products that is. Well now we saw what was the final operation down there Ben, the gluing of this Kan band together. Now what I want to ask you is how these things come about. We have come up here into the visual testing laboratory and I'm sure that something in here is done with also with the finished product, but what I want to get to

is to the beginning of the story and find out how these are developed. Where does the idea come from? How does this thing come into being? So first of all explain a little bit to me about where all this starts. Well generally speaking here a customer will want to find out the best manner in which to house or contain his particular products. In this case we're talking about a Kan band which could contain, as you say, beer, dog food, soft drink beverages, or other such items. And what we do is to get his specifications for his particular product and then from those specifications we determine what type of paperboard should be used to contain those items. And once we have determined those specifications we have our structural design department which actually makes samples of these cartons and once these samples are made then we try to

develop the optimum design for this particular carton. As I said we are in the visual design laboratory somewhat darkened room and a very attractive one indeed. Over to my left is a visual design instrument which looks like four bongo drums with glass taps fitted together. Directly in front of me is a carton which parts in the middle and directly to the left is another carton which parts from left to right. Listen to this one part in the middle. The one over on the left is operating simultaneously. Two switches were thrown by Roy Howard who we're going to talk to now. Roy what's your position here? I'm responsible for developing a research project for various packages as submitted by customers and potential customers. As Roy opened these middle curtains they parted in the middle one going to the right and one going to the left as if you were in a theater. I said this was a very attractive room and I assume that they bring up their customers here because this was certainly a beautiful display

indeed. As the curtains opened stacked on glass trays directly in front of us are a series of boxes and cans cartons probably and I'm quite sure they were developed by container corporation. Over to our left another series of boxes containers in this case holding cereal and they are also stacked on glass trays. Roy what's the purpose of this display? I've been calling you Roy I think it's Ray Howard I'm sorry Ray. That's correct Ray Howard. The purpose of this display as you see it is to study the effectiveness of package design and mass display. Package design is all too often judged as an individual item whereas in reality it's viewed in mass in the supermarket by consumers. Now you can see that some of these packages have effective mass display impact others tend to form a wall in mass display where each package is not separated as it should be in this type of merchandising condition.

Well I'm not sure that I could see it but I suppose that a trained I could. But anyway what about the one in front of us over here? In this front area before we begin a study and evaluation project we line up the products of a particular customer in comparison with the products of his competitors. In this way we can establish certain directions as to which forms our design studies should take. Well now the four bongo drums over here what do you call that machine? This machine is called the Polaroid meter often our sales force refers to it as a spaceship but it's a newly designed instrument patented by container corporation the purpose is to test the visibility and legibility of design elements under altering but controlled conditions of lighting. You mean how well you can see that package is that right and read what's on the letters on the package I suppose. In addition to that you can compare the visibility of competitive trademarks the legibility and visibility of different colors and forms symbols. All right let's assume that I'm a customer of your company and I want to come in here and see a display. Could you go through it for us?

Certainly. Now Ray has put me down here in a chair directly in front of this spaceship as they call it and I'm looking into the four glass coverings of these objects which is I say and I'll say again look like bongo drums and directly in front of me Ray has an instrument panel with switches on it and lights lit up. I have a button here in my hand what am I supposed to do with this on and off switch Ray? The instrument is now set at zero the packages are ready for viewing to test competitive legibility factors with the button the switch you have you control the entire instrument when you press it to the on position the instrument will be set in motion the packages will begin to emerge from total darkness and when you can recognize one package versus the competitive carton then you would press the button switching off the entire instrument and recording readings can be taken. All right now as I as Ray said I'm looking into total blackness there is no light in there at all now I'm going to switch switch on here and see what happens.

Now down at the lower part of the of the machine I'm going to switch it off because I can recognize I can recognize the carton at the bottom and see nothing there at the top Ray the one at the bottom is a serial and I can certainly recognize everything on it practically except the very small print it's not completely light in there and the upper part is completely dark now what happened? In this case it's apparent that the lower serial package displays greater visibility and from merchandising shelf in a supermarket it would more likely be seen first from this consideration that it reflects more light it appears to be larger and closer to the consumer it has this one favorable factor acting for it in the retail store. Is this one of your packages? Yes this is one of our packages. All right Ray thank you very very much for the demonstration a very interesting one indeed and we're going to have to move on now thank you for talking to us and telling us about your department. You're certainly

welcome. We have come now to the structural design department where we're going to talk to Tom Foster the head of the department. Now Tom we have been telling the story of how can bands are manufactured actually we began at the end and now we are really back at the beginning for after all the way these can bands coming into existence is through somebody's idea well I don't know how old they are but can bands haven't been in existence for too many years used to buy your beer and whatever you bought in cans sometimes loose sometimes in a big carton not too many years ago as everybody will recall these can bands what we call six packs or 12 packs came out of the market now how did this idea come into being how did it all get going well actually the can band as we know it originally was designed at our Philadelphia plant for three or four cans in line and then the as we know the six pack can that was designed here at

35th Street originally and to incorporate a carrying handle which was very important as far as the brewery industry was concerned and there's several ideas it worked into this six pack for instance the type tab that we have that was an idea that came from our Fort Worth plant now let's describe this tab that he's talking about there are four of them on the top of the carton actually there are indentations in the cardboard the purpose of which is to hold the can in place once it's inside the carton is that right yes that's right and the reason that they're inside rather than on the outside of the of the paperboard is to eliminate weaknesses at the wide diameter of your can also it saves a good deal of paperboard we're now to do describe this a little bit more clearly I said there were four tabs on top there are also four tabs on the bottom therefore holding the can in

place both at the top and the bottom now to describe this we have a can here an empty can it's a beer can and Tom why don't you insert it there and tell us just what's going on as you do it yes well actually what happens as you insert the can it the tab drops down in the recess of the chime on on the top and the bottom of the can which locked the the can securely and do that again we can hear the snap as that tab goes into place on that chime the chime is actually just the top of the can the edge of it just start raising it up and snap it in yeah I think you could I think we could hear that all right well now there's a lot more to this can ban than meets the eye Tom I suppose that you have to take into consideration how strong it has to be for shipping and of course naturally the design of it itself what it looks like and so on does that come into your area yes that's right we have to pretty much determine the weight of the box board and and as I said before the type tab to

get the maximum strength out of it and also you'll note the handle construction this tab on the top here is a reinforcing member which eliminates stitching we used to stitch on the edges of the blank well now when you finish these containers they are set out to the beer companies and they then place the beer in the containers I suppose that's how it's worked that's right they have automatic machines that will load up to 1200 cans a minute well Tom besides the can ban of course your department works on every conceivable kind of container and as we look around the room we can see many packages that have been developed by your office why don't you go down the list name just a few of them for us well yes what for instance one day we might be working on a bakery package the next day a candy package hardware kitchen tools all types of carry -outs soft drink carry -outs oh you could just go on and on name as many cigarette carton up there for example yes that's right we do make

cigarette cartons for the 20 pack displays well Tom you have a lot of good interesting work here to tell us about and I certainly appreciate you're telling it this is where this is where the idea is brought I suppose in the first place and you fell as carried out from there so we finally reached the very beginning of our process of getting the can ban finished even though we started at the end we still have our can ban with us and now we're going to have to move on to another department thanks again for talking to it thank you very glad we have now come to the design lab where we're going to talk to Bob Moore who is the assistant director of design laboratories now we've been talking Bob about the manufacture of a can ban we have with us two of them one from two different products now Bob we were primarily interested in is to find out how these things are brought into being we started at the very end of the product where it was finally glued together then just a moment ago we talked to Bob Foster as to how

the can ban was designed now we want to find out how you decide on what to put on the outside of the of the container in other words how it's going to be displayed what they see when they see this container filled with beer or whatever it's filled with in the in the liquor store or in the grocery store so let's take the can ban and start from the beginning you have an order from a customer and he wants to display this in the best way that you possibly can so how do you go about it one of our concerns is a appetite appealing pictorial in this particular case the glasses of foamy beer done in a realistic fashion another concern is the other words it has to look like you i'd like to drink it that's right that's right another concern is what the customer has carried through previously in other words we just do not throw out everything he has done and start right over from scratch his name style and so forth and so on has to be considered his past advertising and so forth

you mean for example this particular brand of beer here you have to remember that he has been in this packaging business himself perhaps for many years and has designed some sort of a carton that has become familiar to the public and therefore you have to retain at least part of it that's right we usually call the style of his name this is called the logo type it's done in a certain type style or certain lettering style we try and retain a certain amount of this for his so his customer he will have customer recognition and what about the coloring do you also retain some of the color that he has been used to this is extremely important if they were identified very strongly with a certain color combination this is still this can still be a good combination to use we have no reason for changing it would not attempt to change it there is a tremendous amount of recognition in color now this particular brand of beer there is an emblem an eagle and a star at the top and a large a I suppose that that is the trademark of the manufacturer that's correct this would be retained this is the trademark this is the second feature

the logo type being first the name style second the trademark and in many cases thirdly form or a shape what do you mean by name style is that what the name of the name of this is the lettering style that the name is done in it's it's much like a personal signature your own signature written in a certain way what do you call this particular style well this is actually a is is a typeface but what usually happens is they take a typeface and then it will be altered to some extent to make some of the letters more personalized Bob a little while ago earlier in the program we went into talk to Ray Howard and he showed us how you put these cartons or containers into those bongo drum machines in there he you turn on a switch and all of a sudden one of them comes to light sometimes we think we have the clue right at the start we will design the carton and then it can be tested after and we can find out if we have second guess the machines sometimes it's the other way around more often it's the other way around what we design visually is a solution to the testing

results found by the machines well don't you don't you always make a sample first and then go in and look at the machines or do you no no this the the visual testing on the in the visual testing lab this is only a portion of the total design many many designs that come through here are never put through the testing and analysis portion of this it's a separate well don't you know Bob a lot of times which is going to be seen more easily by the customers is right in fact the truth of the matter is that many of the results found on the the testing machines the visual testing machines we know from past experience this would be the end result the truth of the matter is that when we attempt to solve a visual design we feel that the end result is as close as we can get to a solution for their merchandising problem now we've been talking strictly of course about these can bands but do the same problems that you and I have discussed hold for other containers as well absolutely they're all about the same that's right there's there's naturally exceptions you can't make any general statement but basically merchandising of

packaging can fall under you can make many general statements that would apply to all of them now once you've decided on the color and the the way that the thing is going to be laid out what happens then you go into the dying department or the plating department or what happens we make what we call a comprehensive sketch this is a hand -rawn carton almost exactly like the printed package will be this is shown to the customer for approval once he has made his approval or the corrections he wishes it goes to what we call the black and white or finished out words redone for plate making and plate making is really the next step that we should go plate black and whites the next step and then plate making all right why don't we go down there I'm going to go back over here to Ben now and and go back down into those departments and find out just how it's done down there want to thank you very much for talking to us about okay thank you that's the sound of a printing machine that you're hearing in the background and Ben and I have come down here to pick up our story

I've been as you know you've been following us on the tour here we have our canned bands designed and ready to be printed we assume that the engraver has already made the engraving for you and they've been placed in position here in the printing machine the raw stock of cardboard is fed into the machine at the other end what is this a two -color operation here yes this is a two -color press you know incidentally if I may correct you the engraver makes the engravings from which these printing plates are made and these printing plates in turn then are fasted on to the cylinders and as the cylinders turn the raw stock is fed over them and then of course the printing is placed on the cardboard that is correct and we're standing at the business into this machine where the cardboard is coming out as a finished product so far as this machine is concerned in other words the printing is on the cardboard and from here Ben what happens the sheets are stacked up to a certain height and then they are taken by a truck

forward to the cutting department to be cut let's go take a look at that all right here is a somewhat different sound the sound of a cutting machine the individual pieces of cardboard strips were brought in here and as you'll recall when we were up in one of the design departments they talked about the tabs that had to be punched into it and also some holes have to be punched into it this is all done here first of all Ben a die has to be made so that the cartons are made as they are by a precision where is that die made well a die is made in our die making department here and the die is is placed onto the cutting press and as a printed sheet comes through the sheets the

the cartons are cut out from the die but they come out as a cut sheet which sheets then are stripped layer by what we call an error hammer so that anybody that wouldn't know won't be too confused by what we mean by a die we don't mean the die that you use for coloring we're talking about a die which is used for cutting which is placed into this cutting machine all right we're just about the end of the road here the cartons are all cut the tabs are made the holes are punched but it's still in this one long sheet and after all we have to get those cartons stripped down so that there'll be an individual sizes so that they can be used by these companies that are going to put the beer in those cart now where's that stripping that the stripping is done on the floor below here but you I noticed that there are some girls right next to this press here on our hand stripping some cartons let's go take a look it's a very interesting operation over here it's not too far away just a few feet away from the cutting machine they

cut cartons the ones that have been cut by this cutting machine are fed down here to the girls who actually take a hammer and pound away at these large strips they break away all of a sudden and then become individual cartons a machine would do it much quicker but this is certainly efficient then yes it is we in strip or error hammer strip depending upon the height of the load now where those holes were punched leaves a lot of scrap a cardboard around here yes it does and the scraps of paperboard that you see at your feet are pushed into these big holes and there are conveyor belts underneath that that take them out through the bailing machine which scrapped in our substance when they bailed in all the way all right man now we'll have to move on our next stop is down where we started where these cartons are finally put together and glued together

so let's move on down there okay you and I have now come back to the glowing machine as you'll recall that's where we started our program actually this is the finished product now the can band is traveling through the glow machine and blue is being placed on it as it goes through a series of bends and the scored areas of the container are folded over this is a continuously running band and probably runs all day long at a speed of what bend at about 20 ,000 per hour in other words 20 ,000 can bands are being glued each hour that is correct that is if the machine does not have a stoppage of any kind but we've been standing here for a while and then when we opened the program we were washing it and there was no stoppage and the machine is running as smoothly as you can imagine the young woman down here at the end is feeding in the can bands before they have

glow on them as we told you earlier they were scored in certain areas then they are fitted to this long machine goes through this series of rollers finally weighed down at the end approximately 50 feet away some women are packaging them away in large cartons and from here they will be shipped down to their final destination I think I've given it properly Ben I think you have I think that covers it pretty well you then we want to thank you very much for allowing us to take a tour of the container corporations design laboratories it's been very interesting and educational for me to see how many of the containers which we see in our everyday life are manufactured and how the idea is kilowatt we want to thank you and the container corporation for allowing us to take this trip you're entirely welcome here and that's the story of the container corporations design laboratory this is Hugh Hill speaking