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Could hot stamping be the way to make your packaging stand out from the competition?

If you haven’t heard yet about hot stamping, which you also may hear referred to as foil stamping, then it’s time that you did.

When you include hot stamping on things like packaging, brochures and business cards, you give these items a refined, elegant and eye-catching finish that everyone notices.

When you are bringing a new product to market, upgraded packaging can be the easiest way to draw the consumer’s eyes away from your competition and toward you.

What is hot stamping? How can it be used to give your packaging an upgraded look?

Keep reading to find out.

What Is Hot Stamping?

This printing technique has been around for a while now. Many companies use it to differentiate their literature, business cards or packaging from the competition.

This is a truly versatile technique that involves pressing hot dies into a surface to leave behind a metallic print and foil. Hot stamping can be performed on virtually any surface, including those that are matte, glossy or even holographic. The material could be smooth or textured, and it works on any color in the rainbow.

What Makes Hot Stamping Effective?

Many people and organizations choose to add hot stamping to their packaging. This frequently is because hot stamping makes that packaging look:

• Elegant
• Expensive
• Luxurious
• Textured

The upshot is that including hot stamping in your packaging makes it look like your company has put a lot of thought and care not only into what’s inside the box but also how your product is presented.

People love the textured feeling of the hot stamp on the box or other packaging. They also like feeling as though they are buying a luxurious and exclusive product. When you include hot stamping in your packaging design, your box will probably become the one that your customers choose to reuse again and again.

The Importance of Great Packaging

Entrepreneurs and companies may spend years researching and developing their products. Thousands of small tweaks and major design changes go into fashioning the item that will eventually end up in a consumer’s hands.

Unfortunately, too many new companies overlook just how important packaging is. Maybe they figure that the box or other packaging isn’t really of value as long as the product that’s inside is functional and desirable.

However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Consumers are looking for quality products that offer a great value, but it’s often the packaging that actually catches their eyes. Ideally, you want to give your customers an unboxing experiencing that makes them and their purchase feel special. That begins with packaging that has been as carefully designed as the product it contains.

Remember that the packaging you choose is your best chance to make a positive first impression on your potential customers. One of the best ways that you can guarantee this is through the use of hot stamping.

For example, we could create a rainbow foil stamp on a stark black or white background. That design will pop no matter where it’s displayed. If you want to get people to notice your product on the crowded shelves of a store, then hot stamping is the way to do it.

The Connection Between Hot Stamping and Louis Vuitton

Most people have heard of fashion design house Louis Vuitton. It specializes in high-end luxury items for which people will pay big bucks.

Visit a Louis Vuitton retail store anywhere in the world, and you will quickly discover that shoppers can have any of the fashion house’s items stamped right there in the shop. Consumers have a choice of having as many as three characters stamped onto their Louis Vuitton item. They have a selection of hundreds of stamp colors, all of them in eye-catching foil.

Louis Vuitton offers this foil stamping service as an opportunity to customize their products for the shopper. Plus, the foil stamp just makes the item look even more opulent than it already was.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that many people who own pieces by Louis Vuitton opt to have their initials or other characters embossed onto a handbag, suitcase or other item. Why? Because it just makes the whole thing more elegant and customized.

When you add hot stamping to your packaging, you’re doing the same thing, but on a much larger scale. While a Louis Vuitton retail store stamps one item at a time, industrial machinery can churn out thousands of stamped boxes in very little time.

How Does Industrial Hot Stamping Work?

Whether you need a few hundred boxes with hot stamping or multiple thousands, that’s easy to achieve with industrial machinery. Here is a look at how the process works:

• The paperboard or cardboard comes between a die and a flat plate. The desired design is on the die.
• Heat is applied to the die to activate the glue that is embedded in the foil.
• All components are pressed together.
• The die with the design is pressed into the paperboard or cardboard, shaping the foil and adhering the glue to the cardboard.
• The hot die is then removed and the stamped box moves down the assembly line.

The hot stamping process is performed after any other offset or digital printing process is complete.

Designing the Perfect Packaging with Hot Stamping

When it comes to designing a box that uses hot stamping, the possibilities are limitless. Hot stamping may be used on packaging of any size and configuration. What’s more, the process works equally well on a wide variety of materials, and you can choose as many or as few colors as you like.

With so many choices available, designing your perfect packaging can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, you can have as much help as you would like from our seasoned design experts.

As you begin the design process, you may want to keep a number of things in mind. For instance, does your company have a logo or slogan that it likes to use? If so, then this could be the ideal design for a hot stamping addition to your boxes. Maybe you could stamp your company’s name or the name of your hot new product too.

Don’t forget to give color due consideration before finalizing your design. Choose elegant black, white, light pink or teal as your background. Add some gold stamping, and you have a package that will draw every consumer’s eye.

Other companies prefer to use more graphics and images on the background for their packaging. This can work especially well if your company hires an artist to create a unique background design. Your customers will definitely know that the packaging comes from your company when they see this one-of-a-kind image.

When it comes to the foil stamping itself, feel free to let your imagination run wild. Gold and silver are perennial favorites, but don’t forget to consider white, black or even multi-colored options. Don’t be shy about asking your packaging specialist about all of the available options so that the finished product looks exactly like you imagined it.

What’s Your Product?

No matter what your company is making, hot stamping is the way to go if you want to attract a large customer base. Whether you are crafting all-natural lip balms or state-of-the-art pocket knives, the survival of your business rests not only on producing a great product but also packaging it so that it gets noticed.

Create a theme around your packaging, echoing the same colors and designs on your website, bags, brochures and anywhere else that it makes sense. Your distinctive packaging is like a calling card to the world.

Get Noticed with Hot Stamping

Where are you in the packaging design process? Whether you are just getting started or have some very definite ideas about how you want your boxes and cartons to look, give us a call today. We offer varied lines of packaging solutions, all of which can be customized to meet your organization’s unique needs.

Do you need to package and ship delicate items? What about large, heavy or bulky products? We handle it all here, but we do more than just focus on the functionality of our packaging.

We also understand how critical it is that your packaging be unique, customized and eye-catching. If you want your business to succeed, then contact us today to learn about the various packaging styles we offer and the printing techniques, like hot stamping, that we use to make your products stand out from the crowd.