Project 6: Printing Problems

Week 5

In the final days before hand in I was ready to print onto the CDs on the Monday afternoon. Unfortunately due to all the black ink from the cartridge being empty, my production process had to be further delayed until Tuesday morning when the new cartridge would be delivered. The testing of the black bars on the CD design would have to be postponed to then as well.

To use the remaining time constructively, I focused on printing and cutting out the net of the package. My original plan for this was to print white ink onto the thick black paper. I thought white ink would be an importance to have for customers wanting to print using coloured paper. As it turns out, white ink is a rarity to come across and was not possible to find in the time I had left. This led me to change to using the white thick paper and just printing almost a page worth of black ink onto it. The results looked very similar to the thick black paper and was a good substitute for the package material.  

The printing of black ink onto white paper.

The cutting out of the package net was very time consuming and slightly difficult to fold into place. Once they were starting to take shape I realised that holding the CD in place as well as spinning it still had to be tested. After coming up with a few prototypes I found the strongest supporting holder was using a door noise reducer, magnet, and the center part of a CD case. Once a hole was cut in the center of the package the pieces were glued together and allowed the CD to clip from the inside while being able to spin from the outside.

The center clip piece of a CD case.