Meet the Maker: Aiste Bercaite

Next up in our meet the maker series, we will be visiting our glass decoration team to speak to Aiste Bercaite, one of our Screen Technicians here at Verallia to hear all about how the decoration team works to make our customer’s glass bottles stand out from the crowd. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your history in the industry.

Hi, my name is Aiste, and I am from Lithuania. I have been working in the glass industry since 2012, joining Verallia UK, formerly known as Allied Glass Containers, in 2016. I have held multiple different positions within the company over the course of several years. Such as Line Operator, Printer, Chargehand, but I am now in the position of Screen Technician.  I think that the glass industry offers endless opportunities and challenges for a career for those looking for an exciting and creative role!  

What does your role at Verallia entail? What does a typical day look like?

There is no such thing as a typical day at work for me! Every day brings new challenges and opportunities, from working on new projects, to ensuring everything is done at our end for the decoration team when it comes to getting the screens prepared for decoration.  

For those who aren’t up to speed on the different roles in a glass decoration team, this involves choosing different mesh for the screens, the frame size, considering the ink that we will be using for the decoration process, as well as the positioning of the artwork to make sure we’re creating the perfect glass bottle for our customers. It’s definitely a busy and varied role and I love having the opportunity to work with customers on their brand storytelling! 

What are Verallia’s decoration capabilities?

At Verallia, decoration is typically the last work carried out in the bottle creation process, before decoration a bottle will have gone through design, tooling, trialling and manufacture stages, then we come in to add the finishing touches!  

There are many different techniques and materials that we use to decorate glass at Verallia, such as screen printing with UV inks, precious metals, thermoplastic ink, organic ink, applying transfers, and spraying or coating. As a decoration team, we are always looking at how we can improve our techniques and increase the services we offer our customers and are always open to testing new elements of decoration to meet the needs of our customers.   

What do you love about decoration in glass packaging design for the spirits industry?

I personally love the different designs that can be created from simply adding decoration. It’s an art form and each brand have their own way of telling their story. I love how our decoration facility is able to take a plain glass bottle and make it incredibly beautiful.  

Decoration can elevate even the simplest of glass bottle designs, and it also offers some great opportunities for brands to differentiate throughout their range. Take Warner’s for example, they have a wide variety of flavoured gins and often come out with limited edition flavours, but they never have to change the base design of their bottle. Decoration and colour are added through printing to the bottles so that the different flavours stand out on the shelves without the brand needing to invest in a whole new bottle design. 

We are here to work closely with our customers in order to bring their ideas to life through the art of decoration. 

What challenges do you sometimes face working in decoration?

Trying to meet customers’ needs with complex designs. For example, full wraparounds using UV inks and combining several decorating techniques to achieve a desirable result are just a few of the complicated requests we receive from our customers in the design stages.  

But I personally look at the challenges as a learning opportunity and love seeking out new ways to meet what our customers are looking for. I think our customers get a real personal touch when working with Verallia, we are always willing to experiment with new techniques to bring an idea to reality, no challenge is too big! 

What is the most exciting project you have worked on?

There are so many decoration projects worthy of mention. I loved the Bruichladdich – Black Art. The design is just simply gorgeous, mysterious with a touch of darkness and luxury.  Chase Vodka is a stunning example of the use of print and emboss. The White Stag bottle uses spray and print beautifully to craft the black bottle and a stand-out white stag design. And finally, the Warners 0% botanical spirit bottle, simply for its fantastic use of colour.  

If you could give a piece of advice to brands looking to elevate their bottle through the use of decoration, what would it be?

Be creative, the mysterious and magical nature of creativity is part of what makes it so valuable to your brand. Also consider the advantages decoration can give to you as a business, having the ability to differentiate large product ranges without the need to go through the bottle design and development process is a great way for brands to grow. 

As a decoration team we are here to advise and bring those ideas to reality. 

 

What trends do you see happening within the industry?

I can definitely see an emergent market in low and alcohol-free spirits and I’m excited to see what brands grow from it. I think there is a fun, young element to the NOLO market so the bottle design and decoration for the brands are often exciting projects to work on. 

Also the continued premiuimisation of spirits. I love how decoration allows brands to communicate premium credentials in glass packaging design, such as being able to print in multiple colours in sustainable inks and precious metals. 

Last but not least, what’s your drink of choice?

My favourite has to be a Bloody Mary. 

Our decoration team is here to add those finishing touches that will give your bottle that stand out look. Our cutting-edge in-house facilities offer a range of printing techniques through automatic and semi-automatic processes as well as spray painting finishes in every colour of the rainbow.  

Find out more about our extensive decoration techniques on our decoration page, or contact a member of the team if you have any questions!