On a busy load-in nobody looks at a case for longer than two seconds. In those two seconds a label has to answer three questions: whose case is this, what is in it, and where does it go. Anything that does not contribute to one of those three only makes the label busier.
The standard fields
Over the years the AV industry has settled on a layout that turns up on almost every professional case label:
- Client / Production - who this case is out for. Usually the first thing a stagehand looks at when sorting on the floor.
- Venue - the destination. A room, a stage or a warehouse bay, depending on where the case is in its cycle.
- Contents - what is inside. The most important field, and also the one most often filled in too vaguely.
- Weight - not just useful, but a health and safety matter as soon as a case goes over 25 kilos.
- Checked by / Packed by - who packed the case and who checked it. That is not bureaucracy: if something is missing, you know who to ask.
- Date - when the case was last packed.
These headings are in English on virtually every label, including at companies that otherwise work entirely in their own language. That is a deliberate choice rather than sloppiness: crews are international, and a case standing on a floor in Berlin or London needs to be just as readable there.
Contents: be specific
The difference between a label that works and a label nobody reads is almost always this one field. "Lighting" says nothing. "2x moving head, 1x hazer, cabling" says everything. A good rule of thumb: write down what you would want to see if you had just opened the wrong case at three in the morning.
At the same time, keep it short enough to stay readable. Three to five lines is enough for most cases. If you need more depth, that is exactly what a QR code on your label is for.
What to leave off
The serial number of a specific device changes the moment something gets swapped, and then the label is wrong. The same goes for the phone number of a crew member who will be working somewhere else next season. Put what is stable on the label and keep the rest in your system.
Consistency beats creativity
The biggest gain is not the perfect label, but the fact that all your labels look the same. A crew that knows "Contents" is always bottom left does not have to search. That is what a fixed label layout is for: decide once what your label looks like, then label every case the same way.