Hello,

I just wanted to let you know that the vouchers and wallets arrived today and they look amazing. Thank you so much for your fantastic printing, foil blocking and service.

Thanks again.

Anna Burke
Graphic Designer and Marketing Assistant
Clogau Gold of Wales Ltd

Recently, Infographics produced some very upmarket vouchers for Clogau Gold. The finished artwork was supplied and Infographics printed, gold foil blocked and cut and creased the voucher and voucher holders. Each voucher had its own unique reference number which Infographics over printed with its personalisation software. A very well presented quality gift for buyers of fine gold designs from a quality goldsmith.

We have produced many thousands of vouchers both in digital print and traditional ink from artwork supplied and from our own design studio. If you are a graphic designer please take advantage of our facilities to produce your vouchers.

Vouchers can represent money in a different form and their security is very important. To increase the security aspect Infographics uses a variety of foils and techniques that make couterfeit extremely difficult. See this website.

Please have a look at this short video to see how hotfoil stamping and embossing work and the information we need in order to supply an accurate quote

Click on the logo below

Congratulations to Westdale Printing becoming consumer magazine printer of the year 2011. Three titles submitted were hot foil stamped by Infographics and we are very proud to be associated with the winning titles. Westdale are very demanding and do not compromise on print and finishing quality. Thank you for your faith in our production quality and advice. This is reward for the very high standards we are constantly striving for. Infographics is building a strong reputation as experts in the field of Foil Stamping and Embossing and has produced a short guide to successful paper and card embossing.

Please enter your details and company name on the contacts page asking for our sample pack.

We all know of the benefits of hot foil blocking and foil stamping when trying to attract customers but Jewellers can really make this work for them.

A new customer VanLeles Diamonds based in the heart of London, found our website and liked what they saw. We used some very upmarket conqueror paper and silver foil stamped their logo onto letterheads compliment slips and DL envelope flaps.

The result is a very upmarket presentation for a quality diamond company and the stationery more than justifies the cost in terms of prestige and reputation that is helping to attract more business

Well done Vania and thank you for your business.

Steve Jobs on this magazine has been silver foil stamped. Can you celebrate a life and apple with anything less?      Thanks

The other day an unmarked van arrived at Infographics and dropped off a pallet of printing. On it was a purchase order and a cd of the artwork. This was quickly processed ready for foil blocking. However, the quantity was missing and also the foil colour so we had to call the customer. The foil was a non standard foil which had to be ordered in, taking a further two days.

A day later the same customer called to ask when the job would be ready and we said three days. The customer was not happy even when I explained that other customers had already booked their work in, sent the artwork and purchase order in advance, showing the full information and the dies were waiting for their work to arrive.

Please download on our trade page time management and production guidelines for a smoother turnaround.

Sometimes things don’t run to plan or go smoothly.

We had an important deadline for an extremely prestigious international customer. Programme covers were being hot foil stamped and under normal circumstances it should have run smoothly. Our print customers had delivered the 2500 covers late Friday and we planned for Seamus to come in on the Sunday to get the job finished for later assembling on the Monday then off to the airport and in New York for the Wednesday. Failure to do so could have literally cost the customer millions in lost revenue as the cover was for an auction list of valuable artifacts and paintings.

The job was set up on Sunday morning and ready to run when Seamus managed to damage the die, a very large expensive copper die. Seamus dutifully informed the printing company’s production manager who wanted to be kept up to date. This guy was fantastic and remained calm and the two slowly drew up a plan to get a new die made for late on the Monday. The die makers were also fantastic and made a copy and had it couriered by motorbike to us for 5 pm Monday.

Once again Seamus set up the job and started to run the job when the foiling machine suddenly stopped and no amount of knob turning and button pushing could get it going again. It was now 9pm and Seamus looked up to the heavens and shouted you “m….r f….r.  Seamus got on the phone to the Infographics hotfoil production manager who was more familiar with the machine. He offered to come down and help to get it going which was absolutely fantastic, however, he suggested a solution which worked.

The job began to run steadily but Seamus wanted to run the press slowly to check the quality and keep control. The clock kept on ticking all the way through to 7.30 am when the covers were picked up. The gathering, fold stitch and trim didn’t run as smoothly as you would expect but somehow the job was placed on a plane and arrived in New York in time to sell those paintings and artifacts. This was the first time Seamus had worked a 24 hour solid day and hoped he wouldn’t have to do it again. He was very impressed with the team around him from colleagues to suppliers and production managers who didn’t flap but worked out a way to get the job delivered on time.

End customers often do not realise the hard work and sacrifices that are often made in this industry and it is so important that we all try and work together. We don’t always win but we can succeed most of the time with communication and trying to understand each others roles. Download the hot foil production guidelines and time management from the trade page to make sure that Seamus always gets a good night sleep

Foil Stamping in the graphic arts for paper and card occasionally uses pigment foils. Here I will refer to white

Normally white is achieved when images are reversed out of a solid colour printed onto a white base stock. If the stock is a dark colour then white images may be achieved  using a white foil

White foil comes in a few different qualities based on different release factors and gloss or matt finishes.

For strong whites, heavy coatings are needed to make the white appear dense. Some whites have a lighter coating to give a sharper image but may be influenced by the underlying base stock making the white appear less white.

With a heavy coating it is difficult to control the fine and thick images with small letters for example filling in because more pressure and temperature is needed for the wider coverage.

Some whites have a gloss finish leaving a very attractive reflective surface when it catches the light. This is difficult to lay down over a large solid coverage but is ideal for small images and text.

Pigment foils on uncoated stock do not always achieve images as sharp as litho but with the right foil and image combination the results are striking.

Accurate purchase orders in any business are crucial and so it is in hot foil stamping and embossing. By the time the litho printed work is ready for finishing and foil blocking any mis understanding or ambiguity can cancel out all the good work before hand. It is even worse if further finishing is carried out as this too is wasted. (Please note that Infographics is not responsible for subsequent work carried out once the foiled work has been delivered, it is the customers responsibility to check and inform Infographics of non-conformance within 24 hours)

Please go to the foil stamping trade page on this website and download the production guidelines that out line the information needed to provide accurate foil stamping. If possible also supply a mock up of the finished item or a visual, whether a hard copy or pdf.

Even better

When supplying artwork as the guidelines outlined on our free pdf, also supply a low resolution composite pdf so we can see how the foiled image relates to the printed page.

Occasionally pallets of printing arrive and there is no accompanying purchase order either in advance or with the pallets.

Infographics will not proceed without a clear purchase order giving all the information on our guideline pdf.

On the computer monitor everything balances and colours and images “sit well” with each other. The designer can make sure by entering the correct numbers for “step and repeats”

However a note of caution needs to be made when dealing with uncoated stock, large ink coverages and large foil coverage.

Uncoated stock can expand and contract with the environment, warm and dry or cold and wet and differing humidity. The heavier or thicker the stock this tendancy is more likely and even more likely with heavy ink coverage. So as the artwork is sent for the die and a die made, in the intervening period the stock may have expanded slightly. Any misregister resulting will be highlighted especially if the foiled image covers a large spread. It may register close to the gripper but as the image moves away from the gripper the misregistration becomes more pronounced.

The hot foil stamping die is made of metal and under heat will expand slightly. When the foil blocking die is made an allowance for this expansion has to be considered. Thus the bigger the piece of metal the more difficult it will be to achieve a perfect registration.

To overcome this it may be better not to design with a tight registration on uncoated stock or large foil spread, or make sure that there is a significant trapping allowed.

For further design guidelines please go to the hot foil trade page on this website and download the free pdf guidelines.