When it comes to building intimate, personal relationships, you want to approach the ideal customer in a unique way. Not only should it fit in with your brand, but it also should leave a lasting impression on the client. It should excite them. And printing can play a defining role in it.
WHY? BECAUSE PRINTED MATERIALS ARE TANGIBLE AND VISIBLE. THE CLIENT CAN TOUCH IT. AND AS A LUXURY BRAND YOU CAN USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE WITH VARIOUS LUXURY PRINT FINISHES.
Unlike digital materials, you can use different luxury finishes for your printed materials that will make an experience more special. You can play with textures, colors and weight. Everything to make a lasting impression and to give the ideal customer a certain sentiment.
Below we’ll highlight the best printing techniques for an elegant and luxurious look:
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Elegant & exclusive
The best luxury print finishes & techniques to make a lasting impression
01 | Foil stamping
Foil printing is one of the most commonly used printing techniques to give a luxurious touch to printed materials. Despite that fact, it doesn’t become less impressive. Certainly not if it is used in a beautiful, chic way. In other words, use it to accentuate details in the design.
A good way to show off foil stamping and give it a more luxurious look is to combine it with a thicker, sturdier, textured paper. Or to combine it with another printing technique such as embossing or letterpress. In addition, printers often have a selection of different types of foil stamping. So you don’t always have to go for gold foil or silver foil.
The foil colors may also look different per printing house. For example, gold foil can appear slightly more yellow gold at one printing company or champagne gold with the other. Or the printing technique is slightly different. One foil can have texture and the other can feel flat to the touch.
For each project, we always look at which type of foil stamping fits best with the branding of the brand. For example, we have used a copper foil because it matched better with the terracotta brand colors or rose gold to make the pink stand out. It is all about selecting the best luxury print finishes for each project.
Example of gold foil stamping for NTWRKPLK to give the luxury business cards a chic look.
02 | Embossing, letterpress or debossing
Embossing and debossing, also called letterpress, are printing techniques in which dimension is applied to the printed materials. With embossing, the design gets a three dimensional look. And with letterpress, as the name suggests, the design is printed into the paper. You often see this technique at large fashion houses and premium luxury brands.
What’s great about both printing technique is that you let the printed materials come to life in a playful way. The printed goods become perceptible and therefore also an experience. You can also highlight the parts where the embossing or debossing has been applied with a (gold) foil for an extra dimension. Or you go for simplicity and only use debossing or embossing in the design.
Debossing or letterpress is often used for letters or texts. But a logo or icon can also be accentuated with this printing technique. Embossing is great for showing illustrations or shapes. Or if you want a certain part of text or a logo stand out. For both printing techniques you often have to go to a specialized printing company.
03 | Use Spot UV for luxury print finishes
Spot UV is a printing technique where they apply layer of varnish to specific spots, hence the name spot UV. This gives the printed materials a smooth, shiny texture on the spots where spot UV is applied. It’s a subtle way to add a little shine to your print.
An elegant way to apply it, is to use it as ‘hidden text’. Instead of including text in a different color in the design, the text is included in the spot UV layer.
Example of the embossing print technique for Honey, Be!
04 | Unique shapes
One of the great things about print designs is that you can play with shapes. You are not bound to fixed formats. This allows you to use a striking shape to give printed materials an outstanding and luxurious look. For example, think of curves, waves or multiple angles like an octagon.
You can also opt for folding lines to give flexibility to printed materials. You can use the standard folding fold where the paper is folded in half. But also the gate fold where two panels are created at the front of the print design. When someone unfolds the panels, the design underneath is shown.
There are several types of folds you can apply to your printed materials.
05 | Paper type, weight and laminate
Even if you don’t go for one of the luxury print finishes or techniques mentioned above, you can give your printed materials a more luxurious look by choosing the right paper. Matte or textured paper types often have a more luxurious appearance than coated paper. The weight of the paper also gives the customer a different kind of experience with your designs. Thicker or heavier paper feels more luxurious than a thinner, glossy paper. It affects how the customer feels when they have the print design in their hands.
You can also choose to have printed materials laminated. Lamination is a layer that gets applied over the design. This can make the printed materials thicker or less likely to get damaged. Often there is a choice between glossy, matte or soft touch laminate. The latter in particular is a favorite of ours for business cards. This gives the design that little bit of extra texture. Some types of paper are not suitable to laminate. A good printing house will indicate if this is the case.
The choice for which type of paper, weight and whether or not to use laminate mainly has to do with:
• the functionality of the print designs — for business cards you want a thicker type of paper that lasts longer, but for a magazine the consumer needs to be able to flip through it easily;
• the customer experience — for luxury brands it is important to take this opportunity to take the customer more into the brand experience;
• the goal of the design — we’ve dedicated a blog article that goes more into detail on this matter.
For ietsmethaar we added the arc shape to the designs that are also used in the interior of the salon.
Make an impression
Luxury print finishes for printed materials
Whichever printing technique you choose for your brand, it is always a balance between enriching the brand experience and not using too many printing techniques together. In addition, it completely depends on the brand which printing technique is the right one. When making these choices, it is also good to keep the brand strategy in mind. This way you know that you are making the right choices that are in line with the long-term vision and the bond you want to build with the ideal customer.
Strategic branding expert
Ciao, I’m Fiona Gobbo
I’m the brand strategist & designer behind the luxury branding agency Fiona Gobbo Creative (the name might have tipped you off). I love helping brands with shaping their unique identities through strategy and design. When I’m not working I’m spending time with my cat Vinny, drinking flat whites with friends (or on my own — introvert ~*~vibes~*~) or working on other creative projects like my style blog.
With the blog I will inspire you with my next level branding tips to help you (re)build your high-end or luxury brand.
Strategic branding expert
Ciao, I’m Fiona Gobbo
I’m the brand strategist & designer behind the luxury branding agency Fiona Gobbo Creative (the name might have tipped you off). I love helping brands with shaping their unique identities through strategy and design. When I’m not working I’m spending time with my cat Vinny, drinking flat whites with friends (or on my own — introvert ~*~vibes~*~) or working on other creative projects like my style blog.
With the blog I will inspire you with my next level branding tips to help you (re)build your high-end or luxury brand.