The L9 World Label Association (WLA) has announced the winners of the L9 World Label Competition Best of the Best 2025. The label evaluation took place just before Labelexpo Europe 2025 in The Hague, and the winners were selected by an international jury. After the main round of judging in the WLA competition was completed, the winning entries were reassessed in five main printing process classes: flexography, letterpress, offset lithography, combination printing and digital printing. Commemorative plaques will be presented during local award ceremonies, and in each category both the winning label and the printing company as well as the industry association that submitted the work were indicated.
Flexography: fruit drink label with scratch and sniff effect
In the flexographic category, submitted by the TLMI association from the USA, Fortis Solutions Group was awarded for the Prime Strawberry Banana SS label. This is a distinctive sleeve label developed through close cooperation between the customer, prepress department and printing team. The background of the design features a smooth screen transition from 100 percent to 1 percent dot coverage. The product name in solid black has been finished with a gloss varnish, while the remaining part of the label received a soft touch matte coating. An additional functional and decorative element is the use of a scratch and sniff field with a fragrance effect.
Letterpress: precise detail reproduction on synthetic PP
In the letterpress category, submitted by the Japanese association JFLP, Kyushu Craft Industries won for the Handmade Horse Meat Croquette label. The label was printed on synthetic PP paper. In the process colour set, the yellow was slightly warmed to obtain a visually attractive representation of the breaded delicatessen product. The reversed-out texts in Japanese and in Latin script have very fine counters in some places, but they were printed with high accuracy, achieving exceptionally sharp and legible details in certain areas.
Offset lithography: complex wine label with special effects
In the offset lithography category, submitted by the European association Finat, Multi-colour Corporation Americas was distinguished for the Freakshow Petite Petit label. The design was described as visually impressive and very rich in graphic elements. The label was printed in offset in eight colours, using four CMYK process colours and four additional matched colours. A stochastic screen with a 175 lpi equivalent was used, which made it possible to achieve an appearance close to continuous tone. Additional embellishment processes were applied, including rotary hot foil stamping, screen-applied varnish and embossing.
Combination printing: gold imitation on a silver substrate
In the combination printing category, also submitted by Finat, the winner was Sancak Etiket from Turkey for the Nicea Extra Virgin Olive Oil label. The label was printed on a silver substrate, with the background mostly covered with an even, opaque white. The gold-like effect was achieved by printing process colours directly onto the metallised silver substrate. Individual spot colours in the design were generated using process colours, and the overall appearance was finally enhanced by precise screen printing of a tactile, raised varnish.
Digital printing: premium label with floating foil technique
In the digital printing category, submitted by the SALMA association from New Zealand, MCC Albany was the winner for the True Honey Rare Harvest 2050+ Manuka Honey label. This label is designed for a very high-end product in the manuka honey segment. The base is a digital print, onto which additional enhancement was applied using a technique referred to as floating foil. It consists in applying foil on top of a screen-printed, high-build varnish, which makes it possible to obtain a distinctly raised, metallic visual and tactile effect.
