California Apparel News

For its third Customer Design and Innovation Center, or CDIC, Glendale, Calif.–based Avery Dennison’s Retail Branding and Information Solutions unit (RBIS) looked to downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District, where the branding, packaging and technology solutions company opened a 15,000-square-foot facility on East Third Street in September.

The airy space houses a library of branding and research materials, where visitors can browse through RBIS’ custom embellishments and analysis tools to help them create innovative labeling and packaging products that help communicate and reinforce their company’s brand.

When the Los Angeles CDIC opened, it joined two existing Design Centers: the Miamisburg, Ohio, center, which opened in 2010 and focuses on information solutions, such as RFID (radio-frequency identification), and the Sprockhövel, Germany, center, which opened in 2011 and showcases all of RBIS’ capabilities. The Los Angeles center is similar to the Germany CDIC, but in Los Angeles, there’s an added focus on solutions for some of LA’s key apparel categories: denim, surf and active apparel.

The company hosted an open house on Sept. 25 to introduce designers and manufacturers to the new Los Angeles center, which the company hopes will help brands explore “the future of mass customization” and “inspire them to push the envelope,” said Shawn Neville, president of Avery Dennison RBIS.

“The CDIC is a place where our customers can integrate art, science and sustainability through our proprietary trends and creative services while leveraging our leading-edge capabilities, including brand protection, RFID and high-definition digital graphics,” Neville said. “We do this through the lens of our Greenprint sustainability tool, which helps customers reduce their environmental impact.”