Iconic British brands feature on digitally printed tins from William Say

William Say, the last independent canmaker in central London, manufactures bespoke tins for iconic brand partnership between Farrow & Ball and Liberty

On Friday 1 October, Farrow & Ball, the paint specialists, released a range of limited-edition tin designs to celebrate its partnership with Liberty. Each sample pot, which will be available from farrow-ball.com, Farrow & Ball showrooms, selected stockists, and Liberty, features one of Liberty’s iconic heritage interior prints.

“This is a particularly special project,” comments Stuart Wilkinson, Sales and Marketing Director at William Say & Co Ltd. “It blends the heritage of two great British brands, Liberty and Farrow & Ball, but also required state-of-the-art technology to create these outstanding tins.”

William Say’s miniature lever lid tins, which are 57mm in diameter (100ml) and made at its Bermondsey factory using solar energy, were digitally printed using Fujifilm Acuity B1 by Tinmasters at its plant in Swansea.

“It was only by harnessing the power of digital printing that this collaboration was possible as it meant we were accurately able to replicate the precise colours of Liberty interior fabric prints. Traditional offset printing would not have been able to pin-point the exact match, been too complex to set up and ultimately, too costly.”

William Say has pioneered digital printing technology, firstly on a project for another legendary London brand, Fortnum and Mason, when the store was looking to produce a short run of giant hot chocolate tins across four designs.

Last Christmas, the company also made and commissioned 100 unique tins as gifts for Fortnum and Mason customers, each one carrying a unique series number and printed in full colour.

The new Farrow & Ball curated by Liberty tins showcase a distinct pattern which is fully randomised, so any colour from the edit of 15 paint colours will highlight a different Liberty interior fabric print.  This is another feature only made possible by using digital printing.

“On each tinplate sheet were able to line up alternate patterns to be printed, ensuring the final tins were truly randomised when finished.  In total, there are six Liberty interior fabric patterns to collect.”

The Farrow & Ball curated by Liberty tins are available to purchase from 1 October 2021.