By Dianna Brodine, managing editor, UV+EB Technology
Print finishing effects can raise the level of quality, added value, shelf presence, brand recognition and security for a product – whether a greeting card, presentation folder, book jacket or folding carton. These are some of the unique and eye-catching printed pieces the Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) showcases during its annual Gold Leaf Awards competition.
The 24th annual Gold Leaf Award winners were honored in May. More than 300 entries were received from around the world, including pieces from the US, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Judging was based on design, execution and level of difficulty, with two categories specifically targeted at UV coatings. The Best of Show award-winning piece (an overall winner selected from all category winners) also featured UV coating as a decorative enhancement.
| Best Selection Guide (Foil or Coatings) | ||
|---|---|---|
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Sun Chemical Innovative Solutions Book Company: Sun Chemical (Northlake, IL) Suppliers (UV coating): Sun Chemical Paper Stock: Opus Dull 130lb, Opus Dull 100lb |
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| Best Use of Specialty Coating with Foil/Embossing | ||
|---|---|---|
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Rise. Make Your Mark. Company: MCD, Inc. (Madison, WI) Suppliers (foil): Kurz Transfer Products Suppliers (foil/embossing dies): Universal Engraving, Inc. Suppliers (machinery): Sakurai USA Paper Stock: 100# Eclipse Black Cover |
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Constellation Brands Jackson-Triggs Grand Reserve Company: Hub Folding Box Company Inc. (Mansfield, MA) Suppliers (foil/embossing dies): Universal Engraving, Inc. Paper Stock: 20pt MPE SBS C1S |
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Uncork a Better Package Company: Rohrer Company (Wadsworth, OH) Suppliers (foil): ITW Foils Paper stock: .020 SBS Carton Stock from Clearwater Paper |
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| Best Use of Specialty UV Coatings | ||
|---|---|---|
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Right Behind You Jacket Company: Bertelsmann Printing Group USA/Dynamic Graphic Finishing (New York, NY) Suppliers (machinery): Sakurai USA Paper Stock: 100# CIS Sterling Ultra |
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TCU Football Season Ticket Folder Company: The Fontana Group (Southlake, TX) Suppliers (UV Coating): Rough UV-Formulated by Fontana Group Suppliers (machinery): Sakurai USA Paper Stock: 14pt C2S |
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Diamond Packaging 2017 Calendar Company: Diamond Packaging (Rochester, NY) Suppliers (foil): ITW Foils Suppliers (foil/embossing dies): Metal Magic Suppliers (machinery): Offset Press (with Compact Foilers cold foil unit), BOBST BMA Hot Foil Stamper/Embosser Paper Stock: Clearwater Candesce® .018 SBS paperboard (header/backers), Domtar Cougar Opaque Whites Smooth 80# Text (pages), Clearwater Candesce® .010 SBS laminated to E-flute (shipper) |
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UV Coatings Add to Best of Show Winner’s Appeal
(Excerpted from the article “A Symphony in Color,” PostPress magazine, May/June 2017)
J.S. McCarthy, a sheet-fed printing operation headquartered in Augusta, Maine, has taken the experience of a classic symphony and transformed it into the 2017 J.S. McCarthy Printers calendar – A Symphony in Color – showcasing a compilation of the talents of its craftspeople and highlighting its printing capabilities and most-requested finishing techniques.
Each year, J.S. McCarthy creates a marketing piece to showcase its capabilities for its customers. Michael Tardiff, director of communications at the company, partners with his mother, Patty Tardiff, special projects, and Sue Bourdon of Bourdon and Company, a designer who has worked with J.S. McCarthy for many years, to create the design for the annual promotional project.
“We are doing work with designers from a multitude of industries – health care companies and colleges, to name a couple – so we try to find something that has appeal to a large range of people while also highlighting our capabilities,” Tardiff explained. This year, they wanted to emphasize coatings and different inks, foil and diecutting, while also providing a sensory experience.
From the diecut, scored, folded and glued by hand (due to the musical insert) cover to the 12-page calendar, J.S. McCarthy endeavored to replicate the symphonic-themed experience, using not only visual representations but also sound. The entire capacity folder that holds the calendar is intended to resemble the red curtains that adorn theaters and separate the audience from the back stage. Opening the inside panel activates a sound chip that plays Beethoven’s 5th symphony.
The capacity folder that holds the calendar was printed on a 14pt Carolina White stock and coated inline. UV-curable inks were used for the cover in a 7 over 6 HUV process with a double hit of black on one side. The main attraction, a 12-page calendar with wire-O binding and a hanger, features one month per page. Each page depicts different processes in an appropriately themed musical picture for the specified month. In a sidebar on the left of each calendar grid, the design team decided to include a brief description of that page’s production, as well as a small-scale version of the previous and next months’ calendar.
“We tried to find processes that are popular with our clients and show different ways to do those, and if we have a new process – maybe a new coating – we tried to incorporate it into the calendar,” Tardiff said.
As an example, the month of May features both gloss and matte UV coatings. The first pass included seven stations on the Komori, where the piano and brick background were printed in 4-color, and then a gloss UV coating was used to highlight the piano, with the surrounding brick and flooring being coated with a dull UV. The curtains on the outside of the image were spot-coated with an aqueous soft-touch. The next pass included a peacock-blue metallic flat stamp on the wording “May,” the days of the week, and highlighted specific dates – the 14th for Mother’s Day and the 29th for Memorial Day. “The foil in a contrasting color added a subtle touch of elegance to the ‘grand’ setting,” Patty Tardiff noted. The last pass was an embossing/debossing of the background brick and windows that the design team included to add dimension to the architecture.
Tardiff shared that this has been one of J.S. McCarthy’s best received years. “We always get calls the first few weeks when people are looking at our calendar, so that’s not unusual,” he continued. “But this year it seems like every month when a calendar page turns, I’m getting emails forwarded from sales representatives saying, ‘I just changed my calendar, and this month is my favorite.'”
