PINNED - BLIND EMBOSSING EXAMPLES:- shown on Pristine white Colorplan 540gsm.

Embossed letterpress business cards for Italian Architect Terenzio. Black text font is TRAJAN.

• LEFT: Blind 'EMBOSSED' – the image is pushed up from the back and requires 2 dies, male and female. There is an extra cost for a set of embossing dies – it isn’t possible to emboss fine detail on the thick (540gsm) card – a thinner card would need to be used for embossing fine artwork content, i.e. 350gsm. A minimum line thickness of 2pts is required to achieve a good result with embossing on 540gsm card.
• MIDDLE: Blind 'DEBOSSED' – the image is pressed in from the front and should be barely visible on the reverse as the thick card (540/700gsm) will absorb the impression. Blind debossing is an extra pass and is charged as normal 1 colour.
• RIGHT: Blind ‘DE-EMBOSSED’ – 'de-embossed' is a term I use when a solid area around the image is pressed into the card giving the perception of the image being embossed and should be barely visible on the reverse as the thick card (540/700gsm) will absorb the impression. Blind ‘de-embossing’ is an extra pass and is charged as normal 1 colour.
- Printers Terms: BLIND – using no colour.   IMPRESSION – the pressure/indentation created by the letterpress process.   PASS – a single run through the machine.  

NOTES:

DESIGN TIPS - The Letterpress Foil printing process is best suited to minimalist, classy design - "less is more". Watchwords: MINIMALIST (use both sides instead of cramming a lot of text on 1 side). CONTEMPORARY - CLASSY - UNDERSTATED

Simple elegant gold foil business card for Amanda Cheung - London, Brussels, Hong Kong

Another beautiful embossed gold foil business card on Colorplan pattern blind embossed in Claret 540gsm with Trajan typeface.

Amanda contacted me from Brussels for some business cards to a style she'd seen online that I'd made for myself using the same Trajan typeface. Most customers supply their own black on white PDFs but I'm happy to do the typesetting to a customer's chosen design / type style - as in this case. For Trajan font I regard 7pt as being just about the minimum suitable size for the plate making and letterpress foil printing process.

ROSE GOLD FOIL ON EBONY 540gsm COLORPLAN

Typeface is NEUTRA

MAY 2015 - WHITE AND GREEN LETTERPRESS FOILS - COLORPLAN 700gsm REAL GREY CARD

White and green hot foil business cards on real grey Colorplan for print designer Alan Pearce.

Alan very kindly sent me the below email saying how pleased he was with his cards - a very nice compliment from a highly experienced professional graphic designer - makes it all worthwhile...

Hi David,

I received the cards yesterday, they're amazing!! Thank-you so much. the green foil and colour of the card is perfect! I've been a print designer for 13 years and it's a rarity to get that kind of quality these days! I'll certainly be recommending you.
Many thanks!  -  Alan Pearce - ape.uk.com 

STUNNING MINIMALIST BUSINESS CARD for Longimanus designed by Design Plume - Pristine White Colorplan 540gsm with black foil and blind deboss.

COLORPLAN BESPOKE EBONY BLACK BUSINESS CARD 700gsm

Bright satin red foil and white foil - design/artwork supplied by client.

The extra thick black card allowed for a nice deep deboss of the RED FOIL giving the impression of the white lion's head being embossed (raised up) without the reverse of the card being damaged - text details on the reverse were printed with white foil.

Colorplan extra thick blind debossed business cards Germany - Colorplan Pristine White 540gsm

Often called embossed business cards, these cards are 'printed' without ink or foil - only using the weight/pressure and heat of the foiling machine to create a deep crisp image of the printing plate or die. Using quite a high temperature to deboss gives an advantage over the normal letterpress process which does not have heat available. It's best to avoid very small type for this process -  when done properly there should be very little show-through on the reverse side of the card.

Dear David,
We just received the cards yesterday and I wanted to say thank you for doing such a lovely job. I really appreciated your advice and attention to detail. If it was possible to hold on to the embossing stamp for future re-orders, that would be so great. Best regards, Candice Reisser

Extra thick dark grey business cards - blind embossed logo and white letterpress foil text o Colorplan Dark Grey 540gsm

FEBRUARY 2015 - GREY TEXT AND AQUAMARINE METALLIC BLUE FOIL LUXURY BUSINESS CARDS

PINNED - for artwork/typesetting guidance

540GSM Pristine white business cards for Kona Coaching, letterpress hot foil business card with metallic aqua foil and dark grey mat foil. This stunning business card was designed by professional graphic designer Paula McGarry at Macsima Design, London SE16 - macsima.co.uk - Paula is a very capable designer with a great understanding of the letterpress/foil printing process and I can totally recommend Paula if you need help with a design project.

• This is an ideal design for the letterpress foil process - here's why :-

TYPE - size is not too small (min 8pt) and not too fine (ultra fine fonts in small sizes are difficult to 'hold' during the plate etching process and can buckle under pressure when printing) - all text has additional letter spacing - this is always a good idea for letterpress, but especially for 'tight' fonts. Also content is minimal - avoid unnecessary text as this can make the card appear cluttered (avoid addresses etc if possible).

DUPLEX CREAM AND EBONY BLACK GOLD FOIL BUSINESS CARDS for Hussains Accountants
on G F Smith 700gsm duplexed Colorplan card
I printed these cards for Hussains Accountants in 2015. These business cards tick just about all the boxes for me - professionally designed (supplied by client) and fine tuned typography, nothing too big or too small, or too bold or too fine. The cards are letterpress foiled with a total of 5 passes through the machine so this does make them more expensive - with each pass adding to the price. The cream side is printed with the company name in black and the address and details in gold foil - the addition of a small element of just 2 words printed in grey adds an extra touch of class. The black side of the card is gold foil for the company name and blind debossed with the website details. The gold edge foil matches the gold print. The cards are the thicker 700gsm option (700gsm is better than 540gsm for duplexed cards imo) and better for showing the gold edging - all things considered - the ultimate business card...http://www.hussains.co.uk/

MINIMALIST DESIGN BLACK BUSINESS CARD - Rose Gold foil on 540gsm Colorplan Ebony Black

Rose Gold Foiled Edges

DUPLEX COLORPLAN DARK GREY and PRISTINE WHITE BUSINESS CARDS (700gsm) with Copper foil and blind deboss on the front and letterpress black ink for text details on the white side.

I printed these cards for Steven White in 2010 - I normally prefer to print with hot foil rather than ink - but I do have the option to print letterpress business cards if a special Pantone colour mix is required, or if I feel artwork and card colour choice is more suited to ink rather than foil as both printing processes have their own advantages and limitations

G F SMITH EMBOSSED BUSINESS CARDS London - G F Smith Claret 540gsm embossed printed with medium gold hot foil on both sides.

These are very elegant classy business cards (design supplied by client) with perfect typography - the text details on the reverse are the same font (Trajan) in 7pt.

The card is 540gsm G F Smith Colorplan Gravure Embossed (emboss is one side only) in Claret.

540gsm Colorplan Black business card with Blue foil logo and satin silver text details

COLORPLAN EBONY BLACK BUSINESS CARD 540gsm - Opaque Burgundy letterpress foil for logo and Matt Silver foil for text

OCTOBER 2015 - COLORPLAN AMETHYST 540gsm BESPOKE SILVER FOIL BUSINESS CARDS

These business cards for Journey Hotel Marketing Agency http://www.wearejourney.co.uk/ were part of a multiple order for several staff members, with a new design/branding supplied by their designers - text font choice and size are perfect and the end result it a very special business card.

They specified a special order foil called "holographic silver cracked ice" for the front (logo) side and plain silver for the text details on the reverse. I used a satin silver foil for the text as this is more legible for small type than the other silver options.

Minimalist WHITE FOIL and BLIND EMBOSSED BUSINESS CARDS - Colorplan Ebony Black card

Classy Ebony Black business cards for London author - on Colorplan 540gsm EBONY card with MATT SILVER FOIL details and BLIND EMBOSSED LOGO. This card is unusual because I don't usually offer true EMBOSSING (image pushed up from the back), the reason being that customer supplied artwork/logos aren't usually suitable for embossing on the thick card - so we usually suggest debossed or 'de-embossed' as a better option. Another point to bear in mind is that a set of embossing dies carries an extra charge and also the actual production process also costs extra - so a flexible budget is needed for this. But this logo was a chunky font of 3 letters with no fine content and the customer was happy to pay the extra cost - it turned out a very classy and impressive minimalist card and both client and myself were very pleased with the end result.

November, 2015 - ROSE GOLD FOIL BUSINESS CARDS on Colorplan Imperial Blue (navy) 540gsm

This is the second time I've produced a batch of cards for this client - designed by professional designer Catalin http://creativepool.com/catamm artwork was tweaked this time around and rose gold was specified as opposed to bright (normal) gold when I produced them a couple of years ago.

I can highly recommend Catalin if you have a design project you'd like help with.

The text font is Calendas Plus - this is one of my personal favourite serifed fonts for hot foil printing as the strokes are not too fine in smaller sizes for the plate making process.

Colorplan duplex business cards - Pristine White/Tabriz Blue 540gsm

Company logo hot foil stamped with white foil on Blue side - Black text and blind debossed logo on the white side.

1 AUGUST 2014 - GOLD FOIL BUSINESS CARDS with black text and gilded (gold foiled) edges.

Gold hot foil printed business cards on Colorplan pristine white 540gsm.

The gold script font is SCRIPTINA (modified) and the black letterpress foil text is TRAJAN font.

Gold foil edges add the ultimate touch of luxury to a gold blocked business card - although this adds considerably to the cost due to the labour intensive process. Edge foiling is a highly skilled craft in its own right and as far as gold and silver are concerned foil gives a far superior finish to edge painting. For other colours edge painting with specialist inks is used and once again when done professionally can give stunning results. The price for foiled edges is £165 for 200 cards - this is a minimum charge and is

based on 1 clamp full of cards at the gilders - edge painting is a cheaper option.

COLORPLAN DUPLEX BUSINESS CARD 700gsm - Pristine White and Sapphire blue card with matching blue letterpress foil plus black text on the white side and a nice deep blind deboss on the blue side - when done properly a blind deboss will barely show through on the reverse of the card.

25.08.14 - LETTERPRESS  SATIN GOLD FOIL AND BLIND EMBOSSED (DEBOSSED) BUSINESS CARDS

Bespoke extra thick business card for Natasha Hawtrey-Woore, London E17. Gold foil printed and blind debossed on Colorplan 700gsm Turqoise. The 700gsm card allows a nice deep impression for the deboss without showing on the reverse of the card - although 540gsm is generally regarded as 'thick enough' the 700gsm is a bit more special - and as this card colour is a special order colour there's no reason not to go fot the 700gsm option.

• Artwork supplied by client. 

NOTES. With gold foil on medium shades of card colour care needs to be taken to ensure legibility of small text details such as phone numbers - suggested minimum type size approx 8/9pt depending on font. Sans serifed fonts and caps may be suitable slightly smaller. In fact sans serif would be a better option for small type as their are no fine strokes.

G F Smith Colorplan business cards in Vermillion 540gsm

This is a new colour option of my own business card - with gold foil "Scriptina" font and black letterpress "Trajan" text + blind embossed (de-embossed) "dwp" logo...

 23 JUNE 2014 - LETTERPRESS GOLD FOIL BLACK BUSINESS CARDS

Luxury Gilt edged business cards for Peter K., London - these cards have be gold foil edged, more expensive but much better than gold painted edges. Card is Colorplan DUPLEXED ebony/pristine white 700gsm printed with gold foil on ebony and black text on pristine white. Black text on white was a wise choice as small gold lettering in fine type does not show up well on white card - although ok on darker shades of card. The 700gsm duplexed card is top of the range for a bespoke business card.

for scaleable photo please see 'GALLERY' page

MAY 2014 - LETTERPRESS COPPER GOLD FOIL AND BLIND EMBOSSED (DEBOSSED) BUSINESS CARDS for London Rentals Collection

CARD: COLORPLAN DARK GREY BUSINESS CARDS - 700gsm

Comments: this card ticks all the boxes for me - the 700gsm card allows a nice blind deboss barely visible on the reverse, elegant design/typography and stunning copper foil...this card as the wow factor - sure to make a great first impression on anyone who receives one - the ultimate in professionalism...

for scaleable photo please see 'GALLERY' page

MAY 2014 -  COPPER GOLD FOIL LETTERING BUSINESS CARDS

CARD: COLORPLAN AMETHYST 540gsm for bespoke jewellery designer Ellie Stickland.

Ellie recently returned for a repeat order of her beautiful business cards - she said that after all the favourable comments she'd received when she handed out a card she'd decided to keep to the original design...amethyst is a really stunning card colour and the copper foil is also one of my favourites...

http://www.elliestickland.co.uk/

for scaleable photo please see 'GALLERY' page

LETTERPRESS BUSINESS CARDS LONDON - black letterpress and gold hot foil business card on Colorplan Pristine white 540gsm

COPPER EDGE FOILED BUSINESS CARDS on Colorplan Smoke Grey 700gsm

I was contacted by Portuguese graphic design agency Boutik http://www.boutik.pt/ to produce these business cards, it's always interesting to deal with clients from other countries and I've worked with some lovely people  - copper seems to be very suited to the Colorplan grey card and as for the gilded edges done

by the UKs experts (or maybe world experts) with over 100 years experience - well the photo speaks for itself I think...

Hi David,

NOVEMBER 2014 - LUXURY GOLD FOIL BLACK BUSINESS CARD - WITH GOLD FOIL EDGES

GOLD EDGE FOIL

London Shisha supplied artwork for these stunning business cards gold foiled onto Colorplan Ebony 540gsm.

A professionally designed logo really helps any business card stand out from the rest.

EDGE FOILED - GILDED EDGES

DECEMBER 2014 - GREY LETTERPRESS FOIL TEXT AND AQUAMARINE FOIL EDGES

EXTRA THICK EDGE PAINTED BUSINESS CARDS - Colorplan 540gsm Pristine White

Simple grey letterpress text on Pristine White 540gsm natural grained uncoated card makes these business cards very special - the metallic aquamarine edge foiling is simply stunning.

I recently put a photo of these edge foiled cards onto the design forum - i just think it's such a fabulous colour it deserves to be seen http://www.designforums.co.uk

EDGE FOILED - GILDED EDGES - COPPER ON COLORPLAN PRISTINE WHITE 540gsm

STUNNING COPPER FOIL EDGED BUSINESS CARDS - COLORPLAN PRISTINE WHITE 540gsm card

EDGE FOILED - ROSE GOLD FOIL ON COLORPLAN EBONY BLACK 540gsm

The rose gold foil edges really add the wow factor to these business cards...

EDGE PAINTED - GOLD ON COLORPLAN DARK GREY 700gsm

Edge painted business cards are a less costly option to EDGE FOILED business cards. As can be seen from the photos edge paint gives a more subtle (or less striking) result with a matt finish.

EDGE PAINTED - GOLD ON EBONY 540gsm