Printing technique inspiration

Every company will have print requirements at one stage or another, whether a simple business card or a complex brochure or mailer. We like nothing more than to flex our creative muscles at Mzuri and the process doesn’t stop at the design. We spend a lot of time pouring over fabulous print finishes and added touches for inspiration. There are a wealth of printing techniques that can give your print the extra wow factor. So, in addition to the straightforward litho and digital printing methods, here are a few examples to whet your appetite:

EMBOSSING – with the use of a metal plate, your design is embossed (or debossed) on to the paper or other material, such as leather. Not only does it look slick, the texture adds an extra layer of interest and exudes quality.

LASER – Ok, not really ‘print’ as such, but a way of bringing a creative idea to life nevertheless. Using metal, wood or glass as a base material, your design can be burned into life! There is no colour involved in this process – the design is basically engraved, the ‘colour’ is achieved by revealing a sub-layer of the material.

SCREEN-PRINTING – With this method, the final design is placed on gauze, which has a light sensitive layer. The gauze is then exposed to UV light, the ink is pressed through the gauze and hey presto, the image is printed on to the material. This method is highly popular for printing on to fabrics (a method used by our client Nikki Szabo for instance to create their wonderful fabrics).

EMBROIDERY – If it can’t be printed on the article you had in mind, or you just wanted a different type of finish for showing off your logo on a t-shirt or towel or canvas bag, consider embroidery. No explanation required really, but the more stitches and colours generally the greater the cost.

DOMING – this is a technique that creates a 3D finish on a 2D surface. This is achieved by using a resin layer on a sticker, on top of an image not only to add height and texture, but it also has the added benefit of protecting the image both from scratches and from fading due to light exposure.

While not an exhaustive list of all the fab alternative techniques for bringing items to life, we hope this has provided a little inspiration!