2018:
The colors are vibrant, but unfortunately, the number of colored stars per shot isn't always consistently even, as it's not easy to fill the thick colored stars evenly in 25mm bombettes during production. The rapid firing sequence largely masks this, however. The silver crackers, in terms of duration and spark intensity, are still significantly below what I expect for this effect. We had the same problem with the Snowblind Z-1 last year; we worked with a new factory on the effect and were able to improve it considerably. We will therefore need to continue working on this effect with our 25mm cakes for next year as well.
The video shows our new design for 2018. For this, we commissioned a Chinese artist, who had previously designed firework labels by hand before computerization became standard practice, to create a landscape painting of the region. The night sky slowly unfolds above this landscape, against which the battery's effects are depicted in a simplified style.
The top cover still features the Funke logo, but now against a night sky backdrop with stars, galaxies, etc. The basic design was assembled by our German designers, while the effects were subsequently added in China.
Unfortunately, due to less-than-perfect work in China and time constraints, some prints and even some images in the new series are still suboptimal, often too dark, etc. We have already addressed this step by step in the later printed copies, but please don't be surprised if some labels still appear too dark or some effect images lack sufficient detail. I must admit that I somewhat underestimated the workload involved in converting our entire battery line to the new design, and so improvements will certainly be made next year to various batteries regarding print brightness and the artwork and arrangement of the effect images on the label. Additionally, the background behind the text has been enhanced with more color in the most recently printed copies. While everything is perfectly legible on the first few labels, it sometimes looks a bit different in the video, so we increased the contrast for the text on the last printed labels.
Nevertheless, I'm very pleased with the result, as we've managed to create a design for our batteries that is unique and also illustrates the battery's function without revealing everything exactly. Instead, it still sparks the imagination through its symbolic, rather than completely realistic, depiction of the effects.
