Category: Branding Design

You may have experienced this for yourself.  You’ve worked diligently for weeks perfecting the content and design of a print piece.  You take it to your printer, ready to just drop off the files and move on to the long list of things you just haven’t had time to to get done.  That’s when the questions start.

Do you want this on a 100lb stock?  Are you thinking of using a nice linen for this piece?  Any coatings?  UV Spot?  Foil Stamping?  Did you want this laminated?

At this point, you are most likely either blankly staring back at them or beginning to pull your hair out.  Don’t worry.  It’s a common reaction.  There are a ton of options for printing, and it can be overwhelming.

The best approach for finding and using the right print finishes is to design with a finish in mind.  It eliminates those last-minute decisions and can inform the design choices that you make.

Here are the most common print finishes, how they are applied, and how they look.

Paper stock

Ok, so paper stock is not a print finish, but in any print conversation it must be top of mind.  The quality of the stock you choose has a lot to do with your brand style and the look and feel that you are trying to achieve.  It should work with your design to project a professional image that reinforces your brand.

Single page items like postcards and business cards are usually printed on thicker, heartier paper stocks.  A 16-point paper stock is a very common choice. For multi-sheet projects like catalogs, a combination is more appropriate.  Use a thick stock for the cover and a thinner stock for interior pages.  Using a thinner stock for interior pages also has the added benefit of saving you money.

Outside of the thickness of the paper stock that you choose, there are texture considerations.  Laid, linen, ribbed and felt are all options that can add a wonderful tactile as well as a visual element to your print pieces.

Lamination

Lamination adds a layer of protective coating to your print pieces.  Lamination comes as either a glossy or matte finish.  In addition to its visual enhancement, lamination adds strength and resistance to moisture.

High gloss lamination is often applied to prints to enhance the contrast and sharpness of the design.  Matte laminated prints may appear quieter but with an added element of luxury and elegance.

Lamination is a lot like varnishes.  However, while it can create appealing visuals, lamination is typically more expensive and used in situations where added strength is a requirement, like in the case of soft covered books.

UV / Varnishing

Varnishing is the process of applying a liquid coating to your printed pieces.  It comes in a variety of options—matte, glossy, satin or UV.

UV (ultraviolet) varnishing is very popular, relatively cost-effective, and adds a particularly high-gloss, shiny coating. It is achieved with the use of special machines that incorporate ultraviolet light to “cure” the coating and achieve the final effect.

Spot UV

A spot UV finish is the application of a UV varnish to very specific areas of the printing surface before it is cured or hardened during the printing process. The results are a glossy coating on only the specified surface areas of your print.

Spot UV can be a very effective approach for visually separating similarly colored areas, or creating a false sense of depth.

Embossing

Embossing is achieved when a three-dimensional die is used to stamp a desired design or shape into a print piece.  Don’t confuse embossing with letterpress, or “debossing.”  The two are very similar and often confused.  Embossing makes an impression on the paper, raising the desired design off of the paper and toward the viewer as they look at it.

There are two different techniques for embossing, blind and matched. Think of them as with and without color.

Blind embossing is achieved by simply pressing the stock, as is, with a stamp. A matched embossing is achieved by first printing color on the paper and then pressing the stamp directly on top of that color to achieve the desired effect.

In many ways, embossing has waned in popularity over the years.  Compared to some coating options, embossing can be pricey.  However, if used correctly, it creates a sense elegance that is unmatched and is still fairly common in many industries today, including legal, medical, and design.

Letterpress / debossing

Letterpress, also known as debossing, is the physical opposite of embossing. Instead of using a stamp to raise a pattern off of the paper, letterpress depresses or indents the pattern into the stock to achieve the desired result.  Like embossing, letterpress can be accomplished with either a blind or color printed technique.

Given a higher threshold for cost within the industry, letterpress is most commonly used for printing wedding invitations, though its use on business cards has been growing in popularity.

Foil Stamping

Similar to gold leaf, foil stamping is a thin, usually metallic, finish that is applied in a visually similar way to spot UV.  Unlike a spot UV, however, foil stamping is accomplished with machines that use heat to transfer metallic foils to a print stock.

Foils come in a large selection of colors.  Naturally, the most commonly used colors are gold, silver, and bronze, though foils with pearlescent and holographic effects are also very popular.

Die-Cut

Any print piece that is cut to an unusual size or shape is considered a die-cut. Creating a die-cut print piece requires the manufacturing of a specially designed cutting tool, or “die”, that is used to punch the shape out of the stock.

To create a die-cut design, a template or “die-line” must be created to the specifications of the die.  A designer can then design to that specific die-line.  As you can imagine, die-cutting is one of the more complicated and therefore expensive print finishings.

Some commercial printers offer a selection of pre-designed die-lines the can be used to create die-cut designs without the cost of manufacturing your own custom die.  These can be great solutions for creating unique print pieces in a cost effective manner.

The Take-Away

If there is one takeaway we would want you to walk away with, it would be this; ask questions.

When you’re working with a designer or printer, and they throw out some print jargon that you don’t understand, don’t just smile and nod to avoid some sort of embarrassment.  It’s not your responsibility to know all of this; it’s their responsibility to explain it.  So, ask questions, lots of questions.

As much as possible, try to decide on the desired print finish before you begin to design a piece.  In many cases, the finish will inform the design.

Reach out to us with any questions that you may have, we have over 30 years of experience with Houston graphic design and brochure design and printing in Houston, and can walk you through just about an obstacle you are facing.

Image sources:  Paper stock | Foil Stamping | Spot UV | Lamination | Letterpress | Die-Cut | Embossed

 

Let’s look at the top trends we anticipate seeing in print designs for the year.

“Authentic” is the word of the year

Last year was a turbulent year, filled with uncertainty and anxiety for many. On the political stage, we witnessed a rise of populism characterized by an overwhelming distrust of large corporations. Marketers across the country sat up and took notice and “authenticity” will reign supreme this year as companies large and small try to shed the slick corporate veneer of which so many have struggled to let go. Approachable, familiar, and personal designs will replace glossy, aspirational, high dollar designs. National brands will actively work to appear “local, ” and high-end brands will try to maintain the luxury status while projecting less elitism. Here are some examples of print design trends that we think will play a role in this shift away from the traditional in 2017.

1. Vintage-Modern

Vintage-modern isn’t a new trend, but it’s far from losing steam. We will see an even stronger push towards vintage-modern in print this year as the power of localization continues to gain marketing momentum. Characterized by retro typefaces and color pallets on a modern face, vintage-modern designs are the antithesis of the sleek corporate designs of the early 2000s. Vintage-modern has become a very popular trend in the world of branding design as well, giving it a high likelihood of being around for a long while. This retro style is best suited for, and most often used by companies that want to drive home the “local” or “family owned and operated” feel for their brand.

 2. Minimalism

Another well-established style, minimalism is characterized by a strong use of white, or empty space surrounding key elements of a design. “Don’t be afraid of the white space” is a common encouragement you’ll hear just about any designer passing on to his clients. White space is a necessary, though often misunderstood, element in design. It allows the most important aspects of a design to stand out. Minimalism takes this to the next level, using empty space to create a distinct, often elegant, style in and of itself. You’ll continue to see higher-end companies moving toward minimalism in their print designs and particularly in their catalogs. It fits well into the “uncluttered” trend that you see across the country as people explore minimizing their lives.

3. Custom Illustrations / Handmade

These illustrations by New Zealand’s Marx Design are a great introduction to our third trend.  It’s no surprise that, in a year where distrust of large corporations is rampant, “handmade” designs would trend. Custom illustrations lend a personality to a design that is hard to fake. People tend to see these “handmade” designs as sincere, trustworthy and honest. Be prepared to see this trend flow up to the very top as even large corporations try to take advantage of the humbling power of custom illustrations.

4. Unique Typography

We may be in the middle of the typography renaissance, but just like the vintage-modern trend (and possibly married to it), unique typography will continue to play a significant role in designs this year. With sites like You Work For Them churning out absolutely stunning typefaces, designers have vast resources available at the click of a mouse. These resources enable designers to easily pair brands with fonts that are so on-brand they might as well be custom. Companies will use these unique fonts to express their personality, better convey their marketing messages and connect on an emotional level with their target audience. The real beauty of typography is that it can be used to reinforce brand personalities stretching across the gamut. Among other things, like SEO for law firms in Houston, a small to mid-sized law firm could use a distinctive serif to reinforce the professional nature of their business. A national skateboard clothing company could use a chunky sans-serif to strengthen the hip nature of their brand. Or, just to tie it all together, a local jam company could combine a retro font, minimalist design and custom illustration to reinforce the “handmade” nature of their products and give a local feel to their brand.

5. Flat Design

By this point, everyone should be familiar with flat design. It made a big splash in 2016. Wikipedia describes it as “a style of interface design emphasizing minimum use of stylistic elements that give the illusion of three dimensions (such as the use of drop shadows, gradients or textures) and is focused on a minimalist use of simple elements, typography, and flat colors.” We even witnessed one of the largest, most recognizable brands in the world, Google, redesign their logo as a flat design. It’s not breaking news that we would continue to see flat designs play a prominent role online, but we think this year will see a jump from screen to paper for flat designs. Flat design has come to represent the modern look in the post-glossy online world, and it will continue to be popular, especially with companies in the tech sector, in 2017.

6. Candid Photography

Welcome to the social media age. This year will see companies large and small abandoning traditional photo shoots for shots that mimic the candid, authentic nature of the photography that people regularly see on social media. Faithful to the word of the year, authentic imagery is the name of the game moving forward as people are increasingly turned off by images that are obviously stock photography and images that feel disconnected from real life. Marketing Experiments performed a test comparing the use of stock photography versus real imagery on a website and each of their effects on lead generation. What they found was that photos of real people out-performed the stock photos by 95%. Stock images tend to feel irrelevant or unauthentic. Any company that uses photography at any level of their marketing should take this shift in society’s aesthetic tastes seriously. This doesn’t mean that stock photography can’t be used, only that more care should be taken to find stock images that are appropriate and feel genuine.

Beyond Print Design

Without question, one of the over-arching trends that will define print design in 2017 orbits around the desire for companies to come across to potential customers as more authentic. Most of these trends, however, won’t be confined to use print designs only. You will see these and similar trends creeping into TV and Radio advertising, social media strategies, content marketing, and overall branding strategies.