By Ashley Lenz
What happens when we bring our print providers into the creative process early on? Can they help us take a good idea even further? Here is how Georgia Printer worked in concert with the printer and finisher for an unforgettable Winter 2009 cover.
Concept and Design
When we started planning our cover, we had already chosen golden eggs from a feature article for our image. We knew that when treated correctly they could be really beautiful, but we were having a hard time pairing them with the perfect effect or finish on our own.
The eggs had to have depth to show their roundness, as well as highlights and shadows; and we really wanted them to “glow.” Simple foil stamping would visually flatten them while metallic ink wasn’t as dramatic as we were shooting for, and so on …
It turned out to be as simple as looking back to a memorable insert produced by Superior Graphic Finishing in Doraville, Georgia. Its advertisement was an image of Rome’s famous Colosseum, which appeared to be lit from the inside. The structure was “lit” by the process of overprinting onto silver foil, using a semi-transparent ink to create a luminescent effect. We’d heard many industry people comment that this was the best example they had seen of the technique, so we reached out to owner Guy Dupree to see if he would team up with us for the cover.
Luckily, Guy was excited to do the foil stamping for the job and lead everyone through the process. He met with our printer, Kent Tucker of Tucker-Castleberry Printing in Atlanta, Georgia, to explain the production details and see if he would be up for trying it out.
Since it calls for printing on a sheet that has already been stamped with foil, we knew it probably wasn’t something Tucker-Castleberry had done before. However, Kent was on board for producing something unique, and he agreed to try this technique on his 40-inch 6-color manroland press.
Printing and Production
To build the perfect die for this project, Guy and Kent looked at printouts of the color separations for the cover, which would later be used to make the CMYK plates. They selected the cyan file for its detail and shape of the foil area, and Tucker-Castleberry printed press sheets using just the cyan plate.
Superior Graphic Finishing then used the sheets to order a die that would place the foil precisely where it needed to be, tailored to that exact press, for perfect overprinting. Ted Geisler of Metal Magic (located in Phoenix and Chicago) produced the die for us with flawless results.
After the sheets were foil stamped and ready for printing, we did a press check to look for any variances in registration and color. Registration was dead on, but the eggs had taken on a very green tone after reacting with the foil. The image was also showing up dark in the nest area and around the edges of the eggs.
Tucker-Castleberry pulled back on the cyan and black ink to arrive back at the warm gold we wanted. Pulling back on the black doubly improved the detail of the image and decreased ink coverage over the foil, which meant less risk of the color smearing or rubbing off easily.
We still had enough ink on the foil to dramatically increase drying times. Usually, once satin aqueous coating is applied to a print job, all sheets are dry by the time they exit the press. With this process, it was necessary to pull the covers off in short stacks and dry them for 24 hours after coating. We attribute most of this extra time to the large amount of ink covering the foil area. Smaller areas of foil and less saturation would have solved this issue, so that’s something to consider if you are going to try this out.
The Response
Our readers are primarily long-time professionals in the print and imaging industry, or designers who have a passion for print in their work. They were particularly excited about this issue because they were a part of something that encourages customers to branch out and explore all the things that print can do.
The fact is that while print has been around for what seems like forever, it has constantly adapted to become anything but stale, boring or “dead.” These covers are our way of showing real-life examples of what print is capable of and why we love print.
What would you like to see on our next cover? Post a comment, and we just might try your idea out in 2010.
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Ashley Lenz is editor-in-chief of Georgia Printer magazine and marketing and communications manager for The Printing & Imaging Association of Georgia (PIAG).
Contact her at alenz@piag.org to request your copy of the Winter 2009 golden egg issue of Georgia Printer magazine. The magazine is free of charge (Copies available while supplies last).
