Print Finishing Options: Empowering Designers to Win the Moment
“It’s just a brochure.”
True, but it’s your brochure and like all your other brand touch points it helps determine what people think of your brand.
How your employees dress. How they answer the phone. The cleanliness of your office or store. Your website. Your signage. And yes, even things as simple as your brochures and business cards. These all matter and are critical components in shaping an image for your brand. Yet many business owners focus almost exclusively on product or service quality, seeing enhancements designed to build brand image as unnecessary fluff.
Well, depending on their brand, they might be right. But not always.
So, our approach to helping customers build the right brand image with print isn’t to tell customers what is or isn’t “on brand” for them. It’s to empower their designers to create print materials that perfectly reflect the brand they want to build.
World’s Best Printing Technologies
If you haven’t noticed, we’re proud of our extensive list of capabilities. To support each of them, we’ve carefully evaluated available technologies and then brought in only the best of the best. Take our die-cutter, foil stamper and embosser. It offers unrivaled speed and flexibility – changing over in record times from job to job. Best of all, it produces extraordinary detailed effects like this embossed and foil stamped logo treatment for Quintessa Winery.
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For more information and if you need assistance with printing and print marketing
Phone: (413) 442-4166
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That Means You Need Options
So we’ve worked hard to offer designers a comprehensive suite of the world’s best finishing technologies – in addition to our already extensive collection of printing capabilities. For those of you who aren’t print experts, let’s take a moment to explain what print finishing means and how it can help shape your brand image.
What’s Print Finishing?
Loosely defined print finishing is everything that happens after a piece has gone through the printing press. Some finishing options are used to beautify the finished piece. Others can be used to protect it and make it more durable. Others add functionality. And some do all three. We’ve outlined some of the most popular options below – all of which we offer – focusing on those that can help you create a unique impression for your brand:
Special Coatings
Added after printing, these come in many shapes and forms including UV and aqueous coatings. Depending on the goal, these can be used to add a glossy, satin or matte finish to a printed piece as well as an interesting tactile sensation – like one called “Soft Touch.” They can also make it more resistant to various types of damage like fingerprints, abrasion or yellowing over time.
Flood Varnish and Spot Varnish
Varnish is basically clear ink. Flood varnish means covering the entire piece to protect it and to give it high-gloss, satin or matte finish. Spot varnish is an effect that adds varnish only to specific areas of a printed piece – for instance to make a headline or image pop off the page – or to add texture.
Film Lamination
Laminating most commonly refers to sealing a printed piece between two sheets of film – to protect it and create eye-catching effects like different gloss levels and even textures like velvet or canvas
Die-Cutting
This is where your printed piece is cut with incredible accuracy to give it an unusual overall shape – or to remove specific bits – like cutting out your logo or adding a circular cutout to tease what’s on the next page.
Foil Stamping (Hot Foil Stamping)
Here heat is used to fuse foil onto a printed piece to highlight a specific area like your logo, adding shimmer, texture and a 3D effect. It’s one of the most powerful tools in a designer’s kit, giving a unique and sophisticated look to any printed piece and perfect for building a high end, luxury image for your brand.
Embossing
This finishing option creates a 3D textured effect by pressing an image or shape into your printed piece. This adds dimension to your pieces and can be used to call attention to a specific area like your logo – or to add a new element all its own like a seal or award emblem. Shapes can be very detailed and when combined with other effects like foil stamping, embossing can create truly standout effects.
You Know What They Say About First Impressions
They’re right too, and sometimes one shot in front of a prospective customer is all a printed piece gets. We’re here to help you make the most of that moment by empowering your designers with a complete suite of the world’s best production and finishing technologies. While it depends on your brand, sometimes wowing your audience with an amazing printed piece – exciting to open, fun to read and a joy to touch, look at and even smell – can win that moment for you.
To learn more about how we can help your brand win the moment with print, just let us know.
Think Back
Can you remember ever being handed a business card that really impressed you? One that gave you a favorable impression of both the business and the person who handed it to you? If you can, that moment is what we’re talking about. And it was probably made possible by some cool finishing options. Perhaps a unique die-cut shape. Maybe a spot UV coating to make the logo pop, or embossing that created a unique look and added a tactile element.
Example: One of our own business cards. Since part of the Qualprint brand story is our full suite of finishing capabilities – we help tell that with our cards. Each is die-cut, foil stamped and UV and spot UV coatings.
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