Writing, side projects and design work, all in one place.
Arun Mohan’s notebook of packaging, branding and web tools. Move your cursor over the numbers.Branding, packaging and label projects. Hover to tilt, select to view larger.
Web tools and sites I’ve built.
A label costing calculator for flexographic, digital and offset jobs, with GST, a printable quote and CSV export.
Live ↗A web app for making packaging dies.
Link coming soonNotes on making things. Select a post to read it on its own page.
I’m Arun Mohan, a designer and maker working in packaging, branding and label design, and I build web tools around packaging. Project 017 is where I keep my writing, tools and work.
Full portfolio ↗Sample post. Replace this with your own writing. Most of what I make never gets documented, so this log is a small habit to change that: one note per finished thing, however rough.
The rule is simple. If it took more than a weekend, it gets a post.
Over time the log becomes a map of what I tried, what worked and what I would do differently.
Sample post. A heavy grotesque for headlines and a calm serif for reading is the pairing I come back to most. It gives a page a voice and still keeps long text easy on the eyes.
The second pairing swaps the serif for a clean sans, and the third goes fully geometric for packaging work.
Sample post. Sharing unfinished work is uncomfortable, and it is also the fastest way to get useful feedback.
I shared rough packaging layouts early and the comments saved me from two expensive mistakes.
PrintCost Pro is a web app that estimates the cost of label jobs. You enter the job, the material and your own rates, and it works out the quotation total, the cost breakdown and the price per label while you type. It is a Project 017 build, it is live today, and it is version 0.1.
It handles flexographic, digital and offset printing, in roll-to-roll or sheet-fed form. For a roll job you give the label size, roll width, margins, gaps and waste, and the app works out how many lanes fit across the web. For a sheet job it works out how many labels fit on each sheet, and it can pick the best orientation for you.
On the cost side it adds up substrate, machine running and setup, plates, digital clicks, ink, lamination, die cutting, slitting, packing and any fixed job cost. You then set overhead, a target gross margin and GST, and the quote updates straight away. Prices are in rupees.
Start with the printing method and the number of finished labels. Next enter the label and material layout, then your machine and finishing rates. The totals appear as you go. When you are happy with the result, print the estimate as a quote or export the cost breakdown as a CSV file for a spreadsheet.
The interface is available in English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil.
The rates are your own inputs, so the result is only as good as the numbers you enter. It is a configurable estimating model and not a certified costing standard. It assumes one label per repeat along the roll and a simple rectangular grid on sheets, so things like ink coverage, roll changes, splice losses and minimum charges may need extra rules later.
It also runs entirely in your browser. What you type is not sent to a server and is not saved after you close the page.