Driving value and increasing margins with digital embellishment.
Digital embellishment is often seen as a luxury – an optional flourish for clients with the budget and vision. Increasingly, however, it is becoming something more: a new creative language that helps print stand apart in a crowded landscape. But, like any language, it can be difficult to learn.
“Designers struggle to visualise how metallics, neons, and specialty embellishments will actually look when printed,” explains Richard Ainge, co founder of embellishment software rm, Color-Logic. “Guesswork leads to wasted press time, disappointing proofs, and excessive costs.”
Color-Logic’s solution is a digital ecosystem that makes embellishment simple. “Integrated plugins and automated palettes eliminate manual steps, cutting le-prep time, and reducing human error,” says Mr Ainge. But it is not all about software. “The fastest way to grow embellishment and specialty colour use is to educate designers, give them accurate samples, and show them what’s possible without taking away the creative process.”
Tactility and lustre make print stand out (image: Flexpress)
Kevin Abergel, president of embellishment evangelists Taktiful, believes it is too often sold as a bolt-on rather than a nuanced design element. “The key to success in embellishment lies in subtlety,” he says. “Overusing it can overwhelm the viewer and diminish its impact. The real power is in using it sparingly to draw attention to specific elements of the design.” Correct pricing, he adds, is also crucial: “Printers are not comfortable being the more expensive person in the room. But embellishment is about perceived value. Less really can be more, aesthetically, and commercially.”
Andy Gregory, sales director at Hybrid Services, Mimaki’s UK distributor, defines embellishment as “the opportunity to elevate print – adding tactility, functionality, and visual depth that transform the finished product.” Mimaki’s UV technology enables spot gloss, raised textures, and Braille in a single pass, or white ink to make designs stand out. “Designing for both touch and sight encourages experimentation and allows short-run work to carry finishes that were once only viable at scale. It provides a way to differentiate. Rather than relying on price, PSPs can deliver applications with higher perceived value.”
The race to differentiate
PSPs are showing how this creates advantage. Steve Wenlock, digital print and embellishment specialist at Flexpress, says: “As a trade printer we’ve embraced embellishment to differentiate ourselves from the pile-it-high, sell-it cheap brigade. We’ve integrated it seamlessly meaning we can offer a cost-effective service that really does add value for our clients.”
Customers agree. “Invariably the first time someone sees it they love it,” Mr Wenlock adds. “Ironically, they perceive it as more expensive than it is, as they value it against traditional embellishment – which can be expensive; especially on shorter runs.” Nearly half of the business cards printed by Flexpress now carry embellishment, with demand growing by more than 30% a year.
For Mark Geeves, co-founder of Color Logic, the next hurdle is audience. “Our motto is ‘brands drive demand’ and if you want to sell embellishment, you need to have a strategy of calling on your agencies, designers, brands, and chief marketing officers,” he says. “You need to get past just calling on procurement where price is the only thing they are thinking about. It is about return-on-response when it comes to print embellishment.”
Embellishment, it would seem, is less about decoration and more about distinction. With tools that make metallics, textures, whites, and neons easy to apply, and strategies that show tangible value, digital embellishment is emerging as a language of opportunity for the industry.
