More on Foil Stamping

With one complicated foil stamping project behind us, we moved on to something simpler—a folder using the following processes:

• Printing PMS 194 and aqueous gloss on white coated 80lb Utopia silk cover
• Printing PMS 877 and spot gloss varnish on black Plike
• Mounting of two papers to eachother
• Foil stamp dull silver
• Register foil stamp red over the silver foil
• Register reverse emboss behind the foil stamp
• Custom die cutting, folding and finishing of pockets

OK, maybe it's not simpler. But compared to the notebooks where we stamped on the Pellaq for the covers, this stamped much much better. I was so pleased with how well the Plike stamped, the experience was night and day compared to the Pellaq. To say that the Pellaq doesn't accept foil well could be an understatement. As of the posting date, we still have not found the right combination of heat, adhesive and foil type to consistently make the stamp stick to the Pellaq nearly as well as anything else I've ever stamped. If we ever do, I will be very happy, since the stamping looks so awesome on the Pellaq when it works well.

A Whole New World
The result of the double foil on the black Plike, combined with the reverse register emboss is amazing. The red foil already gets a lot of color depth since it sits on top of the silver, and has a glossy shine, but the addition of depth really kicks it up. It makes the design so much more touchable.

We also printed a pattern on the Plike using a gloss varnish, and it darkened the Plike in the areas of printing. This was also an awesome way to create depth over the entire piece since there were alternating areas of plain Plike and coated Plike. The paper also has a beautiful, velvety, matte finish. The paper hides fingerprints very well, especially compared to just about any other black, coated paper solution.

We looked at the possibility of printing the folder in black ink on white paper with an aqueous or a film lamination, but these other solutions were too fingerprinty. It can't be avoided on black. We looked at black papers, and there are many to choose from, of course.

The goal of the design was to juxtapose the touch and feel qualities with visual qualities of the paper. We wanted the outside of the folder to feel executive and expensive. The Plike feels almost like some kind of leather, or some other soft material. We considered using the black Senzo—an amazing, beautiful, velvety piece of paper—but its cost was just through the roof. The Plike ain't cheap, but the Senzo was really astronomical, especially considering how much we would need for a folder. So the Plike is what we went with. The Utopia to which we mounted it, is smooth. The gloss aqueous flood on the Utopia helped to give it an extra bit of shine and even tone. So by mounting them together, we made a 200# piece of cover stock that was black and leathery/soft on one side, and silky coated white on the other. In reality, we printed them both first, then mounted.

By using a gloss foil stamp on the Plike, we get a very strong distinction between the feel and look of the matte, soft Plike, and the shiny red foil. The addition of the reverse register emboss helps to separate the foil design more, and make it feel like it's not even made of paper. People have asked if it's plastic or metal attached to the paper. They're surprised that it's just film on paper.

From the other side (the Utopia side), the emboss is blind. We registered some knocked-out type with the blind emboss so it's a nice surprise when the folder opens and you see that the impression from the other side has meaning and was considered from this side as well. It always bugs me with embossed/debossed stuff that you almost never have a purpose for the impression on the other side of the paper. Designers ignore the fact that it's there and just kind of deal with it like the paper simply can't be used there. I'm not griping, it's hard to find a functional reason in the design for the impression on the other side. If you can, I'm saying you should consider it and build it into the piece's function.

The way the folder finishes, rather simple actually, is with pockets from the sides that fold in. So the interior of the folder has our Plike pockets over the Utopia backing. The juxtaposition is great, and the varnish on the Plike adds a little extra depth. We added business card cuts and a little text in silver (PMS 877) on the front, back and inside pockets, and the folder was complete.