As varied as they are exciting, print finishes encompass a wide range of processes for designers to investigate and use. A finish may be applied once a substrate has been printed, to provide the finishing touch to a graphic object. They can be used to add a decorative aspect to a piece, or a textural quality. In some cases a finish might aid graphical function, or even represent an integral component of a piece’s form. Seven print finishes have been chosen for this article based on their powers to captivate, dazzle and add weight to ideas. Read on, take notes, and choose one for your next project to turn a mere good response into a graphical tour-de-force…
Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.
Substrates & Finish, Article 2 of 3: Gorgeous Print Finishes
Debossing & Embossing
Debossing and embossing are the processes whereby an element of a design is stamped into the substrate with ink or foil, giving printed medium a 3-dimensional, textural quality. Debossing occurs when the design has been pressed into the surface of the substrate, producing a recessed effect on the page. Embossing yields the opposite result; a raised design component on the printed object. Great impact can be achieved through an emboss or deboss, especially when combined with a striking foil or special colour. In aiming to communicate a more subtle effect, designers might also want to consider blind debossing and embossing. The processes are identical, save the fact that no ink or foil is used (see below right).
(L>R): A subtle deboss combined with what appears to be a white spot varnish. Image courtesy of © SeptemberIndustry; Debossed gold card. The emboss was achieved by operating a “curious industrial machine with a ’single button”, explains © Kariann Burleson.
Foil Blocking
Few finishes can rival foil blocking for sheer razzle-dazzle. The process (also interchangeably known as foil stamp, heat stamp, hot stamp, block print and foil emboss) is achieved by pressing coloured foil onto a substrate with a heated die, which causes the foil to separate from its backing. Foil blocking can be used to great decorative and memorable effect. It is also versatile, and may be used to signify an array of signs and meanings, such as luxury, futuristic-ness, modernism and metallic-ness.
London-based graphic design studio North are famous for not having a website. They instead show a single page of logotypes they have designed, which segue randomly from grey to colour in a delicate array of cadences. Shown above is a striking foil-blocked rendering of the same concept. Image courtesy of © SeptemberIndustry.
Die Cutting
With die cutting, a steel die is used to cut out a defined area of a design. This finish is often used with decorative intentions, and can create pleasing results on printed pieces, which resonate with recipients. Many printers stock a range of popular dies like circles and radiussed-cornered ingots, but you can also have them designed to your own specifications. Die cutting may also be used creatively as a functional element of the overall design; apertures in the covers of printed material allowing show-through to the content within being a good example.
From the simple to the complex. (i). Many printers stock a range of circular dies due to high demand for them. Their popularity does nothing to diminish the impact a well-designed circular die cut business card can make. (ii). This coaster was letterpress-printed and die cut in the shape of the state of Ohio. Images courtesy of (from L>R) © Malota and © Cranky Pressman. “Don’t Lose Heart” coaster designed by © Mikey Burton.
Varnishes
In addition to the practical uses varnishes offer, such as protecting substrates from smudging and wear (their primary purpose), the different types available can also be used decoratively by graphic designers to embellish printed material. As with foil blocking, different messages can be communicated through different uses of this finish, though having stated this, it should be added that this is perhaps natural, given the wide selection of varnishes available. Gloss, matt and satin are all commonly used and explain themselves. Two lustrous varnishes which merit a line or two of their own are
- PEARLESCENT
Pearlescent varnish, when used, delicately reflects a whole gamut of colours, giving a subtle, luxurious effect
- SPOT UV
Perhaps the most “designery” of the varnishes available, spot UV can be applied discretely to areas of a printed page so that when turned toward the light, these areas become highlighted
Devilishly versatile, and there to lend weight to the meanings you wish to communicate, from muted and delicate to glossy and whorish. (from L>R) images supplied by © Kariann Burleson and © SeptemberIndustry.
Deckled Edge
Perhaps not strictly a print finish, as a deckled edge on a paper stock will either be present when selecting a substrate or not, a deckled edge is nevertheless a visually arresting design component when used cleverly and appropriately. The name refers to paper that has a soft, raggedy edge to it. There are two types of deckles; natural and tear. Natural deckles occur (obviously enough) naturally at the point the paper is made. During paper manufacture, the slurry of wood pulp fibres which make up the paper are drained of water, and what is left sits atop a screen in a frame called a deckle, and it’s this frame that causes the uneven edge of paper made in this way. Tear deckles are achieved on purpose, by tearing, after the paper has been made.
Deckled edge paper seems to connote integrity and hand-craftedness. More often than not natural, they betray the very old and esteemed origins of the process used to create them. It’s perhaps no surprise that deckled edge papers are popular with letterpress printers and bookbinders all over the world.
(L>R): Charming letterpress-printed book by © Webb & Webb; Intriguing business card by Koichi Sato using a blind impression on the printing press. Both pieces are printed on deckle-edged paper. Koichi Sato image courtesy of © Kariann Burleson.
Perforation
Perforation is a process that generates rows of small holes through a substrate which weaken it along their axis and make tearing easy. Often used for practical purposes like tearing sections off forms, in recent years graphic designers have awoken to the tactile potential of perforation and began to introduce them into their designs. The process is there to serve a single, obvious function; for the paper to be torn apart or open, and this seductive proposition means the human compulsion to interact with perforations is always in attendance.
Shown below are pictures from “Drentse Bodemweek 2008″, a book designed for a Dutch environmental convention by Jelmar Geertsma of Netherlands-based design studio Typehigh and illustrator Lieslot Moed at Art Academy Minerva. The book is bound French-folded with illustrations to the insides of the pages and perforations running down their edges, inviting readers to tear them open and reveal the imagery within.
Few print finishes get recipients interacting with printed medium more than perforation does. It’s the curiosity-barren person who doesn’t experience the desire to tear. Images supplied by © Typehigh, designed in collaboration with Lieselot Moed.
Special Colours
Most full-colour printing is achieved through the four-colour CMYK process, and while myriad colours can be reproduced using this method, CMYK cannot cover everything, and sometimes more striking results can be achieved through the use of a spot (or special) colour. A spot colour is a specially made ink all of its own, and usually requires its own plate when passing on press. During printing, the special colour is not mixed with any of the other inks, hence its dense, flat quality. Fluorescent colours are special, as are metallics, both unachievable through the four-colour process. The vibrancy attainable through the use of special colours need not be stated.
Additional special “spot” colours can be added to the four-colour CMYK process at any pass on press. Eye-catching effects can be achieved through the use of carefully chosen special colours. Image supplied by © SeptemberIndustry.
In Sum
The print finishes outlined above, and more besides, are all at the creative’s disposal for adding a special final touch to a project; the graphic designer’s icing on the cake, if you will. As with substrates, finishes can be used to enhance messages and communicate meanings to audiences. Whilst typically carried out at the end of the production process, for best success print finishes should not be applied to a project merely as an afterthought, but built in to the design from the start.
Practical factors such as costs, budgets and print runs are ever-present in the designer’s life, and it can take some hefty persuasion to convince a client of the benefits of spending funds on a brilliant finish, a task compounded by global recession. However, with such a dazzling array of finishes there to be used, it has to be worth a try now and again, surely? Many of the projects photographed included in this article were printed in the past two years, so we can infer that some clients are budgeting for lavish print finishes. Given this, would it be overly optimistic of me to cry: “Profligacy is dead. Long live profligacy!”?
The words above may be a strapline for UK-based graphic design studio Golden, but they might equally apply to us creatives who tirelessly strive to explore the bounds of print finishes! Image supplied by © SeptemberIndustry.
Giveaways tomorrow!
PR: 
L: 
I: 
Dir: 
Age: 
I: 
I: 
C: 
Links: 
