All the great marketing heroes throughout history from PT Barnum to Ray Kroc to Walt Disney knew success and customer action, attracting buyers, came from outshining your competition and creating memorable promotions.
Print is a time-honored way of establishing emotional connections that create strong engagement with potential consumers. Additionally, print embellishments are a method of creating even stronger connections, making something that is good even better.
Types of Embellishments
Embellishments are decorative applications added after printing to enhance the look and feel of your promotional piece or packaging. This is done in the post-press phase of production. Embellishments include:
- Specialty coatings
- Foils
- Embossing and debossing
- Multiple types of ink
- Die cutting
Embellishments improve the look and feel of a printed product and significantly elevate the consumer connection. The pronounced effect that a wrap of gold foil has on a square box of luxury chocolates or an embossed company name on a business card is undeniable. The sensory experience is elevated and this translates to “outshining your competition and creating a memorable promotion.”
There are various types of print embellishment trending today:
Die Cutting
Die Cutting is a process where certain pieces, either by machine or laser, are cut out of paper or substrate. With traditional die cutting, the jobs are mostly simple but now with digital die cutting, lasers can produce extremely sophisticated patterns.
Embossing Raised Patterns and Debossing Concave Impressions
Embossing produces a raised design in the product. It is similar to die cutting, although the embossing machine presses a pattern instead of cutting one out. Debossing is the opposite of embossing, creating a depressed, concave impression rather than a raised one.
Specialty Inks
Inks have evolved with infinite formulations. New products include:
- Scented inks
- Metallic options
- Fluorescent shades
- Thermochromic ink that reacts to different temperatures
Coatings and Varnishes
Coatings can be matte, gloss, or satin finishes. There is also an option called soft lamination and gives the printed piece a soft, silky feel. A brochure with a glossy coating can stand out over other finishes and make a good impression.
Foiling
Foiling adds a metallic finish to printed materials. Foiling offers a luxurious feel and gives the product a shiny appearance. Foiling is performed with cold or hot stamping. Hot stamping requires heat while cold stamping uses glue. Foiling adds a beautiful touch and can make products like wine bottles appear high-end. It’s a terrific packaging tool and there are many colors and textures available. Foil can also be applied in variable printing modes in which the treatment and the color can change from page to page.
Embellishments continue to evolve in the future as printers and engineers get more creative with their products and machinery. The industry is inventing new formulations, technologies and applications that are sure to lower the cost of embellishments and make the manufacturing process more efficient.
Tamarack Offers Window Patching Solutions
Tamarack is a leading manufacturer of precision finishing equipment used for creating integrated cards, labels, and forms, making it easy to add products to continuous web products such as windows, magnets, scratch-off patches or embellishments. We provide solutions for integral cards and roll-fed materials of all types.
Experience the Tamarack difference and all the benefits that come with high-quality, reliable, and efficient equipment including higher productivity and profitability. Create your custom products with consistent quality and efficiency with Tamarack’s in-depth industry expertise and commitment to excellence.
Tamarack offers more than 50 years of experience in designing, engineering, and manufacturing inline and offline web patching equipment. We offer window patching solutions customized to meet your unique specifications. Contact us to learn more about our window patching systems for both short-run and high-volume folding carton jobs.
