Foil Decoration
August 2004
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For sprucing up a product's image, foil decorating has lots to offer.
HERE'S ONE WAY to make a product stand out on a store shelf: don't make it bright and shiny. It will stand out—just like the Model T once did when Henry Ford said that cars come in one color, black.
Today's products that are vying for the consumers' purchasing dollars must be bright and shiny. It's a fact of life on the store shelf. Although there is no question that high-end products must provide this high-quality look, it is also necessary for just about any product category, at any pricing level.
"Packaging for perfume, chocolate and gum, film, CD, DVD, cigarettes, and foodstuffs exhibit the same high-quality design as labels for wines, champagne, or liquor," says Sam McElree, product/ sales manager for KURZ Transfer Products. "Competition at the point of purchase is being decided more and more by attractive packaging and the recognition value of brand perception through the use of holographic foils."
Foil decorating, including hot and cold foil approaches, can meet the needs of brand managers across a full spectrum of applications. As always, there are compromises—typically in the areas of cost versus quality—that need to be understood to apply the right approach for the application.
Hot foil stamping
Hot foil stamping is the quality standard that foil decoration is measured against. But as usual, the high quality also comes at a higher cost.
One of the key advantages of hot foil stamping is it provides the fine detail definition that high-end products such as cosmetics and wine labels demand, says Arnall Page, API dieLESS product manager for API Foils. The tradeoff in higher costs for this level of quality come from the special equipment needed for application, the need for a heating element, and the use of engraved stamping dies.
ITW Foilmark's National Sales Manager Chris Corbett points to the cost of the rotary hot stamp cylinders as the main cost factor for hot foil stamping. "However, prices of cylinders have dropped by as much as 50 percent in the past five to six years," he says.
The return for the higher costs comes from several advantages that hot foil stamping has to offer. In addition to the sharp edge definition that is critical in prime label applications, Corbett points to a brighter, smoother finish, and a much wider selection of metallic foil colors and diffraction foils that can be applied to both paper and film. One of the problems with cold foils is that the adhesive is not smooth and this can result in a distortion in the reflectance from the surface of the foil.
HERE'S ONE WAY to make a product stand out on a store shelf: don't make it bright and shiny. It will stand out—just like the Model T once did when Henry Ford said that cars come in one color, black.
Today's products that are vying for the consumers' purchasing dollars must be bright and shiny. It's a fact of life on the store shelf. Although there is no question that high-end products must provide this high-quality look, it is also necessary for just about any product category, at any pricing level.
"Packaging for perfume, chocolate and gum, film, CD, DVD, cigarettes, and foodstuffs exhibit the same high-quality design as labels for wines, champagne, or liquor," says Sam McElree, product/ sales manager for KURZ Transfer Products. "Competition at the point of purchase is being decided more and more by attractive packaging and the recognition value of brand perception through the use of holographic foils."
Foil decorating, including hot and cold foil approaches, can meet the needs of brand managers across a full spectrum of applications. As always, there are compromises—typically in the areas of cost versus quality—that need to be understood to apply the right approach for the application.
Hot foil stamping
Hot foil stamping is the quality standard that foil decoration is measured against. But as usual, the high quality also comes at a higher cost.
One of the key advantages of hot foil stamping is it provides the fine detail definition that high-end products such as cosmetics and wine labels demand, says Arnall Page, API dieLESS product manager for API Foils. The tradeoff in higher costs for this level of quality come from the special equipment needed for application, the need for a heating element, and the use of engraved stamping dies.
ITW Foilmark's National Sales Manager Chris Corbett points to the cost of the rotary hot stamp cylinders as the main cost factor for hot foil stamping. "However, prices of cylinders have dropped by as much as 50 percent in the past five to six years," he says.
The return for the higher costs comes from several advantages that hot foil stamping has to offer. In addition to the sharp edge definition that is critical in prime label applications, Corbett points to a brighter, smoother finish, and a much wider selection of metallic foil colors and diffraction foils that can be applied to both paper and film. One of the problems with cold foils is that the adhesive is not smooth and this can result in a distortion in the reflectance from the surface of the foil.
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