The design of your product’s label is the primary determinant of its effect on your clients. It is best to take time and hire experts to help you select the best label design to match your brand and appeal to your target market. Once the design is complete, your next step is investing in optimal finishes for the printed label. The finish you choose impacts its ability to withstand the elements to which it is exposed in storage, transportation, and on store shelves.
Finishes for personalized labels in NZ solely serve a protective role. You can also use them to create the desired style for your labels. Some of the specialty finishes meant for enhancing a label’s appearance include foil printing, matte and gloss lamination, varnish and embossing. Embossing is often applied to the product name or logo of a label to make it stand out from other design elements. Specific printing dyes are used to make different types of embossing. The following are among the most popular embossing techniques in the label printing industry.
Blind Embossing
This uses neither the foil nor ink in other emboss types for the highlighting of a design. The change in a section’s 3D appearance is the only mark of blind embossing. It thus generates a distinctive and clean look perfect for an elegant minimalist design. Blind embossing is often used to draw some low-level attention to a part of your label by slightly differentiating it from other elements.
Pastelling
This is also called tint leaf embossing. The process employs a combination of embossing dyes to generate a subtle antique look to a previously foil stamped and embossed label. The embossed finish is completed with clear gloss or pearl finishes to soften its antique look. Pastelling works best for light-coloured labels since these generate a soft contrasting effect with the antique look.
Glazing
This creates an embossed area with a polished or shiny look. The process uses heat applied under pressure to the label to create a shiny impression on it. The most commonly glazed labels are dark-coloured ones since the polished effects will be more noticeable on them compared to the light or soft-coloured ones. The glazing process also eliminates any burnt look that might result from the application of heat on your label. A few printers use foil with this technique to slightly brighten the created emboss.
Scorching
While this method works much like glazing, it will not create a polished look in the final product. In scorching, the temperature of a printing dye is increased beyond the normal range to produce a shaded or antique look. Scorching is generally used on light-coloured labels to generate a unique two-toned emboss.
Most people assume that embossing for labels is used for expensive luxury products and related brands. Nowadays, however, the method can be used on all products aiming to catch a customer’s attention. Thankfully, technology has made the above embossing techniques cheaper than they were in the past. To this end, choosing an embossed finish to better promote your label will not necessarily mean exceeding your budget.