The laminating machine above has a few tricks up it’s sleeve – sleeking is one of them.   

Sleeking is the process in which we can add a gold foil, silver foil (and some colored foils), pops of gloss or dull, and even holographic effects to your print project. This process allows you to add a pop of this reflective material pretty much anywhere. Of course there are some limitations but do not be afraid to ask if we can use this application on your next project!

The Process of Sleeking

The process basically has two key steps. The first is to print a rich black on the paper where we want the foil or effect to stick. This could be as much as the whole sheet or as little as the machine will register. Once the black areas are printed, we load the paper into the sleeker and the foil only applies to that rich black ink area. The best part – no expensive foil stamping dies, so it is possible to do very short runs or even variable print cost effectively. Pretty cool huh? It gets better. If we use our printable soft touch laminate (we will cover laminating in another post) we are able to print your artwork first, then the soft touch laminate, then the rich black and finally the foil sleeking. The tactile soft touch feels almost like suede and adds a great presence to your piece.  This is exactly what we did for this vinyl beer label for Blackstar Co-op in Austin, Tx.

The artwork in the beginning stage. We decided it needed a pop and gold brought that vintage feel the brewery was going for.

The final product. Gold foil border and spot on some of the text. The label came out great and the beer was even better!

This idea of sleeking is just one of many things The Voom Group can help you think through when designing your next project or campaign. Come visit us soon and have a sit down with our marketing and design team to look through samples and brainstorm ideas to make your next project remarkable. Happy marketing!