With a secret recipe dating back to 1885, known to only three family members, Henderson’s is a ‘strong and Northern’ brand with a passionate fanbase, in fact singer-songwriter KT Tunstall once described it as “the best non-alcoholic liquid on the face of the planet”. Proving a hit with their fans, Henderson’s have long produced limited edition prints, including commemorative bottles for Sheffield United and Wednesday football clubs in team colours. Owing to this dedicated following, a completely unique label solution was sought as part of their latest project to raise money for charity.

Working with Oli Frape, a renowned artist specialising in hand-drawn lettering, Amberley developed a bespoke data solution to create unique combinations of Oli’s hand-drawn letters, whilst retaining his distinctive style and Henderson’s signature orange and black design. Produced at Amberley’s labels facility in Boston, Lincolnshire, they combine creative use of data with hybrid print technology to deliver a ‘one of a kind’ label solution.

The limited edition bottles, which will also be hand signed by Oli, will be sold online to raise money for the children's hospital charity, Bears of Sheffield.

Commenting on the project, artist Oli Frape said “my aim when I originally started this project with Henderson’s was to create a truly limited run of just 3,000 bottles and I wanted to explore ways to really capture how unique and limited these could be. Initially we looked at screen printed labels due to the nature of this process producing a slightly different print each time - that uniqueness is part of what makes screen printed artist editions valuable.

It soon became clear that screen printing was not viable for this kind of label so I was excited to hear that Coveris were exploring and utilising a data-led approach to personalisation which meant each label could still be different from the next in small ways - just like a screen print. The result is a truly limited batch of label/bottle artworks which become more covetable in their scarcity and ultimately drive sales to benefit the charity.”

Andy Wilson, Colour Director for Coveris’ Graphics, Labels & Board division who led the project also commented “We are so proud to have worked on this project with both Henderson’s and Oli and hope that our hard work to deliver a completely one-of-a-kind solution really pays off for the charity. Having spent the last 18 months investing and trialling new print technology, we have found a new sweet spot for the use of dynamic, data driven personalisation - made possible through the opportunity to be involved in the full creative process. This has enabled us to really push the technical boundaries of our own print technology through a more inclusive design process.

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