When you make the investment to buy a luxury product, you will likely notice the elegance of the packaging as well as the quality of the presentation of the product. Embellishment packaging is one of the most popular ways of making a package appear luxurious and draw attention to the product. Before we take a closer look at how brands build luxury packaging that makes shoppers want to purchase an item, let’s first explore what packaging embellishments are and why they are so important.
Print embellishments are decorative applications that are part of the print finishing process, performed after the actual printing is completed (in the post-press portion of the production process). In general, embellishments can include using multiple inks (from metallics to invisible formulations), specialty coatings, foils, embossing and debossing, and die cutting.
While packaging embellishments are used in multiple industries, they are quite popular in the premium brand space. These brands use packaging embellishments because of the premium experience these details create for their customers.
The Luxury Packaging Experience & How Embellishment Packaging Provides Value
Packaging embellishments elevate the reputation of your brand by differentiating it from all others, making a lasting impact on a customer and creating a better overall consumer experience.
Differentiation
Featuring print embellishments on your product packaging makes your brand and product stand out from the competition. The act of giving your brand a different feel by using embellishment packaging makes it feel more luxurious and adds to the image of your product. By including embellishments on your packaging, you are making a statement that your product is the best choice on the market.
Impact on the Customer Experience
You might not think including an embellishment on your packaging has much of an impact on the customer experience with your brand. However, it makes your product seem like the most important package you have ever sent to a customer. It also makes the customer feel like an important person to your company and that you keep them in mind when creating the perfect package.
Types of Packaging Embellishments
There are multiple ways to include embellishments, and each one results in a different look and feel. Here are several options to help you decide which packaging embellishment is best for your project.
Coatings and Varnish
Coatings are normally applied to protect printed pieces like a magazine or brochure as a glossy coating makes the images pop and protects them against fingerprints, scratches, or smudges. Coatings also protect the pieces as they work their way through the mail stream.
These days, most coatings are aqueous/water-based for maximum environmental friendliness. Coatings are available in satin, gloss, or matte finishes as well as soft lamination which makes a printed piece feel like velvet. Coatings can be applied to selected areas of a page, in a process known as spot applications, or to the entire page (flood applications). A gloss varnish on your company name or magazine title provides a nice texture against a matte background.
UV curable coating fluids dry instantly under UV lamps to create stunning raised UV applications when fluids are applied in thicknesses that stand in high relief on a page. The technique creates touchable textures such as raindrops against a window or sandpaper grit.
Die Cutting
Die cutting is when certain areas are cut out of a piece of paper or other light substrate. It can be as simple as cutting out a star or the shape of a box or an intricate design like a filigree pattern.
Traditional die cutting is performed by creating dies, in specific shapes, that will be cut or die plates that are pressed into the substrate to cut out the design.
Digital die cutting is when a laser beam cuts out the desired shape thanks to a special layer that is added to the design file. Digital die cutting provides a greater pattern intricacy and eliminates the cost and time of producing dies and plates (which makes it an economical choice).
Embossing and Debossing
Embossing creates a raised pattern or design in the substrate that is pressed onto a page instead of cutting it out. Debossing depresses the image into the substrate for a concave impression.
Embossing and debossing provide an improved tactile experience. In addition, recent embossing advances include digital presses that handle embossing inline as part of the printing process. This allows for a reduction in the project time by not having to send the work to a third-party supplier.
Foiling
Foiling adds metallic finishes for an element of luxury and sophistication that catches the eye. For example, many wine labels use foiling techniques to add a touch of glamour and bling to the packaging. Traditional foiling is done with hot stamping that uses heat to apply the foil to selected areas or cold stamping that uses glue to apply the foil.
Foiling offers a wide array of metallic ink colors for a glittery, foil-like finish along with specialty elements for product decoration or security purposes. Foil can even be used in variable data printing so the treatment and color change from page to page.
Specialty Inks
Inks have expanded beyond traditional CMYK and Pantone PMS formulations. There are new options such as fluorescent shades, scented inks, and metallic options. Security inks include biometric inks with DNA tags that verify if products are real, thermochromic inks that are visible or invisible at different temperatures, magnetic inks containing small iron oxide magnetic flakes so a number can be read by a machine, and infrared inks that can be viewed under an infrared light.
Now that you see how important packaging embellishments can be to your branding and customer experience, call today to determine the print embellishments you want to include in your product packaging.
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