Bespoke development
Bespoke Tamper Evident Labels, Tape & Packaging Solutions
Standard product not quite right? We can specify the tamper evidence around the pack, the process and the problem.
You do not need to arrive with a material name or a product code. Most bespoke work starts with a pack, a photograph and a description of what keeps going wrong — a seal that will not stick, evidence nobody notices, a surface that must stay unmarked, or a closure that has to survive a machine.
From there we choose the construction, prove it on your substrate, and only then talk about artwork, sizes and volumes.
Start here
The problem comes first, not the product
Bespoke tamper evidence is a specification exercise. These are the six things that decide it, and they are the six things we will ask you about.
01
What is being secured
An opening, a document, a compartment, a returned item, a whole consignment. The seal protects a route in, not an object in general.
02
The substrate and pack
Paper, board, film, polypropylene, painted metal, textured moulding, low-energy plastic. Adhesive choice follows the surface, not the label.
03
What must become visible
A void or security message left behind, a clean surface with a broken numbered seal, a part-transfer, or a destructible response.
04
Environment
Cold chain, wet, oily, dusty, outdoors, long shelf life, or warm storage. Adhesives and films behave differently in each.
05
Workflow
Hand applied at a bench, dispenser, hand applicator or in-line machine. Format and liner follow the application method.
06
Who checks it
A driver, a customer, a warehouse operative, an auditor. If the evidence is not obvious to that person in a few seconds, the specification is wrong.
Evidence
Specified, disturbed, evidenced
Every bespoke development ends in the same place: a closure that behaves predictably when someone interferes with it, on your surface rather than on a test panel.
Capability
What can be made bespoke
Construction and behaviour
- Paper or film construction, depending on substrate, environment and plastic-reduction goals.
- Permanent, hybrid/partial-transfer or non-residue behaviour.
- Custom security message revealed on removal, instead of a generic stock VOID.
- Adhesive and construction matched to the surface and the service life.
- Size and shape cut to the closure rather than the pack.
- Finger lifts, tabs and perforations for controlled opening or dual-part seals.
Print, identification and application
- Pantone / spot colour UV flexographic print, including brand colours.
- Surface and sub-surface print, where the printed layer needs protecting.
- Sequential numbering, including dual number tabs for a retained record.
- Barcode and QR code for scanning into your own system.
- Hologram, UV and covert features where a verification step is genuinely used.
- Machine-application requirements: roll direction, core, liner, splice and dispenser fit.
We only quote what we can manufacture and prove. If something on your wish list is not the right answer, we will say so before you spend money on it.
Process
How a bespoke development works
| 1. Tell us the application | What is being secured, where it opens, who checks it and in what conditions. |
|---|---|
| 2. Send the pack or substrate | The real pack, an off-cut or a moulding. Adhesion and evidence behaviour cannot be judged from a description. |
| 3. Select the construction | Paper or film, permanent, partial or non-residue, adhesive and format — chosen against your surface and workflow. |
| 4. Prototype and test | Samples on your material. Applied, aged where relevant, then removed deliberately to see what the evidence actually looks like. |
| 5. Artwork and Design Reference | Print, colour, message, numbering and codes signed off, and the specification recorded against a Design Reference for repeat orders. |
| 6. Manufacture | UK manufacture to the agreed specification, in the format your process needs. |
| 7. Application support | Help getting it working on the bench or on the line — placement, dispensing and machine integration. |
Differentiation
Why a unique security message is worth specifying
A generic stock VOID is widely used and widely recognised, which is its strength and its weakness. A message specific to your business or application — your name, a site code, a product line, wording your own staff and customers are trained to expect — gives a clearer signal about whether the seal you are looking at is the one that should be there.
The visible surface print can carry your branding or Pantone colour while the tamper evident layer reveals the specified message when the seal is disturbed. Branding and evidence are two separate layers of the same product.
A custom message raises the effort and cost of imitation and makes substitution easier to spot. It does not make a seal impossible to copy, and we will not tell you it does.
Honest advice
When bespoke is not necessary
If a standard construction already gives you the evidence you need, reliably, on your surface and in your process, buy the standard construction. Bespoke development is worth doing when something specific is failing or missing:
Bespoke earns its place when
- The adhesive fails, or works too well, on your actual surface.
- The surface must be left completely unmarked after removal.
- Nobody notices the evidence in real handling conditions.
- You need a message, number or code your systems can act on.
- The seal has to run through a machine or an existing pack format.
Standard is usually enough when
- A stock size fits the closure and the evidence is already obvious.
- Volumes are low and a standard roll does the job.
- The only reason for change is appearance rather than performance.
- The real gap is procedure — checking and recording — not the seal.
The right level of security, not security for its own sake. A seal shows that a pack has been opened; it does not authenticate a product, guarantee compliance or replace a locked container.
Where this goes next
- Tamper evident label rangePermanent, non-residue, paper and film constructions.
- Tamper evident tape rangeBox and bag tape formats for outer packaging.
- Paper tamper evidenceHow paper constructions behave, and where they fit.
- What are you trying to secure?Choose by application rather than product name.
The application is uncertain
Send us the pack
Send the pack and tell us what needs to become visible. The Security Lab tests it and tells you what actually works \u2014 including when a standard product is the answer.
You know the specification
Discuss your requirement
Construction, size, print, numbering, volumes and lead times \u2014 talk it through with the technical team and get samples or a quotation.
Where to look next
Bespoke work usually starts from an existing construction. Compare tape constructions in the tamper evident tape range, or see how tamper evidence is built into a pack in tamper evident packaging for packaging and contract packing.