A novel thin film encapsulated OLED panel architecture and a method for making the panels with improved shelf life is disclosed. The OLED panel consists of a plurality of OLED pixels; each OLED pixel is individually hermetically sealed and isolated from its neighboring pixels. The organic stack of the OLED pixel is contained within its own hermetically sealed structure, achieved by making the structure on a barrier coated substrate and using a first barrier material as the grid and a second barrier for encapsulating the entire OLED pixel. The first barrier material provides the edge seal while the second barrier disposed over the pixel provides protection from top down moisture diffusion. By isolating and hermetically sealing individual pixels; any damage such as moisture and oxygen ingress due to defects or particles, delamination, cracking etc. can be effectively contained within the pixel thereby protecting other pixels in the panel.